This weekend was without a doubt the best birthday (observed) I’ve ever had. Heck, this weekend was the better than any actual birthday that I’ve ever had.Friends, board games, scotch tasting...what's not to like. And that was just the main event! Friday and Sunday were also a lot of fun (big angry creepy guy at the bar excluded).
I’m sure I’ll never know the complete extent of all the cogs involved in pulling this weekend off, but I want to thank any and everyone who involved or associated with it.
In honor of long board games that test your attention span mettle. Here is a list of equations that govern long format board games. The equations are a work in progress.
The first four are pretty solid. I think the last one might still need some work.
11 comments:
In the second equation I see the exponent of rules obfuscation. Would you argue that Arkham Horror has a high value for this, due to the lack of index and the way in which they've chosen to explain things such as the monster cup, or should their lengthy explanations lessen the degree of rules obfuscation?
Arkham Horror is exactly what I had in mind for Rules Obfuscation. The rules are long, they spend paragraphs explaining how to put pieces in an opaque container to randomize them. It also explains why that fact that the container is opaque is important. (Hint….it’s so you can’t see the pieces in it.)
But the lack of index and trivial treatment of actual important game mechanics is infuriating. The manual is so bad I’m tempted to think it’s done intentionally since the game is about driving people insane.
I'll challenge the setup time equation as well. Consider the first Ticket to Ride without the 1910 expansion. Rules aren't terribly complex, and there's tons of small pieces (each little train). Admittedly if you yearn to have your unused trains in some kind of formation setup can take a while, but otherwise it's pretty quick.
Well, obviously people will want time to arrange their wooden blocks into intricate patterns. Don’t be silly.
But your point is well taken. These rules aren’t accepted laws yet, some tweaking is still necessary. What if we add in something to account for the variety of pieces? Ticket to Ride has a ton of pieces…but they’re all similar to each other. How about:
setup time = ((number of pieces * piece variety) / piece size) + rule complexity
I think that makes the physical act of setting up lots of pieces less dependant on how confusing the rules are.
Which of the other equations should be updated to use variety of pieces instead of number of pieces? As a test I'm trying to go through these calculations with Battlelore using information from the Days of Wonder web site and my scale. For the game expectations calculation I think it should be number of pieces (because more pieces equals a better game, right?) but not sure about the others.
I think rule complexity should probably be updated too. Piece variety probably contributes more to complexity than sheer quantity, for the same reason you gave in Ticket to Ride.
rule complexity = ((rule book length + piece variety)*expansion)^rule book obfuscation
There is probably room for debate about what "piece variety" means though. Are we talking different types of pieces or are we talking how different pieces are? One would measure the number of discrete pieces available, the other would measure if there is a dark grey piece and a dark brown piece which are different but hard to distinguish.
Perhaps there should be both types of measures?
Here's the info for Battlelore:
210 pieces (just the figures)
20 types (conversative estimate if you consider the flags as the distinct piece types and then a few of the terrains)
80 pages
8 lbs
2 players
60 minutes
I plugged the numbers in…and not surprisingly it’s useless “information!”
Game expectation = 8 * 210 * 2 = 3360
Rule complexity = (80 *20 * 1)^1 = 1600
Setup time = (210 * 20)/4 +1600 = 2650
Actual game time = 2650 + (2)= 2652
Game Enjoyment = (2650 * 2652 * 210)/2 = 737919000
I changed rule complexity so that expansions was (1 + expansions) otherwise I would have multiplied by zero.
I have to assume setup time is expressed in seconds…which would mean it predicts 44.1 minutes…which might be feasible.
Actual game formula is way useless. It turns out to be practically the same as setup time.
I don’t know what to make of game enjoyment…but Battlelore sure is fun!
At this point, I question anything you guys think is fun.
Have no doubt that Bill and I question the fun in a few of your new-found joys in life, so we're even.
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