I was talking with a friend a while back and offered the opinion that Settlers of Catan deserves to have far greater success than Monopoly. In fact, said I, if as many families were exposed to Settlers as have been exposed to Monopoly, it would far surpass Monopoly in popularity.
He wasn't buying it. Monopoly, he claimed, is wildly popular because of its solid gameplay and easy rules. I countered that Monopoly is wildly popular only because it's wildly popular. It is the best selling game in the world today only because it's the best selling game in the world today. Its success is self-fulfilling and has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual rules of the game.
Of course, this isn't the kind of statement I can prove. But it raises an interesting question-- what makes a game a classic? Why are some games (Monopoly, Scrabble) perennial best-sellers, while much better games pass into obscurity? Certainly marketing has a lot to do with it, and there are modern games (Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary) which we can expect to be with us for decades to come. But it goes beyond that.
Go back in time and shoot Charles Darrow, eradicating Monopoly from history, and try reintroducing it today. My bet is that it would fail miserably. Monopoly's initial success was a product of its time. There was something thrilling about being a property baron in the age of the depression. It struck the right nerve at the right moment, and the game went on to become a phenomenon.
For most adults, Monopoly and "board game" are synonymous. With the possible exceptions of Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit, there s nothing else to them. The vast majority of the American public remains ignorant of the wider world of board games. For many, playing games is an activity from their youth, a childish pasttime with no place in the adult world. They wouldn't think of sitting down for an evening of games. And when they give a game to their child, nephew, or cousin, it's likely to be Monopoly.
There are dozens— hundreds— of games which are vastly superior to Monopoly, but they don't have Monopoly's mindshare. The gameplay in Monopoly made it successful in the thirties when it was introduced, but is completely incidental to its continued success today. Today it survives almost entirely on mindshare.
Back in college, I got into an argument/discussion with a friend of mine about the nature of randomness. The flashpoint for the debate was West End Games' release of their version of Cosmic Encounter, in which the destiny pile was replaced by the destiny cup. For those unfamiliar with the game, this meant that instead of flipping over the top disc from a shuffled pile to determine who you attacked, you drew a disc at random from a cup.
I maintained that this changed the essence of the game. Not in a huge way, but in a vague, perhaps infinitessimal one. My friend disagreed. And the crux of the problem was the nature of randomness and predestination.
When a deck is shuffled, an order is determined. The order may be random, but it is fixed. Nothing short of reshuffling will change that order. If the 6 of spades is on top, then no matter who flips the top card, no matter how long they wait before flipping, the six of spades will be flipped next.
If that same deck was thrown into a hat, there is no predetermination of the next card. It's random at the time it is drawn. Some people might draw one from one side of the hat. Some might dig to the bottom, others might take one off the top. The same person might take a different card depending on how rushed he is. Someone might peek at the next card in a shuffled deck and know that the six of spades is coming up, but nobody can know what card will be drawn from the hat.
My argument was that although both yielded random card sequences, a shuffled deck was less random. If you're playing Blackjack with a total of 14 and the next card is an 8, the right move is to stand. The universe has predetermined that if you draw another card, you lose. Drawing is the wrong move. When you see the 8, you might think, "I should have stood." If you drew a card from a hat instead, there is no right or wrong move. You could draw any card. Even if you draw an 8, thinking "I should have stood" is wrong. What you should have done is drawn a different random card. There was no right or wrong move at the moment of your decision— anything could have happened.
That difference between inevitability and open possibility is a subtle one. Whether it's flipping a card from the top of the deck or rolling dice, nobody knows the outcome until after the fact. The outcome is still random in either case. So does it really matter? To the decision-making process, probably not. But it makes a world of difference in the analysis after the fact.
Once again, Alan Moon's Gathering of Friends brought together about 100 gamers from across the country for a delightful week. I didn't attend the new Opening Days pre-Gathering, but fully intend to next year. Although I enjoy the high level of competitive play in the tournaments, I'm finding that I relish the casual open gaming even more. Since Opening Days have no scheduled events, I think I'll enjoy them a great deal.
The big news from the Gathering is that the European Game Source has shut its doors, selling off all its remaining stock. This leaves American gamers with no good source for European games unless you're willing to pay the high prices from Games People Play or a transcontinental Just Games order. There's a rumor about a possible EGS resurgence in the fall in conjunction with Oregon's Funagain Games (which bought out EGS's inventory), but that's still up in the air at this point.
On the tournament front, it seems the fourth time's the charm. I kicked some butt this year, picking up wins at Acquire, Santa Fe, and Wildlife Adventure. The latter win gives me second or third pick from the prize table next year, which means I can be more relaxed about my tournament activity next year since the pressure's off, prize-wise. The Wildlife Adventure games, by the way, were some of the best I've ever participated in. The key to my victories was holding onto my travel vouchers early in the game, leaving me as the only player with vouchers later on. This gave me a huge advantage in the end game, as I was able to control the routes far more effectively than my opponents. In fact, I won the championship by positioning the obstacles such that no route could be extended without spending vouchers, ending the game since the other players couldn't pay.
It surprised nobody that a shrinkwrapped English copy of Wildlife Adventure was the first prize yanked from that table. There was a lot of great stuff up there this year, but oddly nothing that really grabbed me. I suppose that's to be expected, since the I've already managed to get my hands on most of the eagerly-sought games like Schoko & Co and Extra Blatt. Which was good news for folks father down the list, since more of the good stuff was left for them. I came away with all but three of the items I wanted (I lost out on Bohnanza (see below), Marrakesh (Prince Joli Kansil's backgammon/card hybrid, not the recent German game of similar name), and a bound English rulebook for New Games in Old Rome). I did pick up the El Grande expansion, König & Intrigant (King & Villain), which replaces all the cards in the game, combining the functionality of the old action cards and power cards into a single card set for each player. Also included were a special set of additional promotional cards available only from Hans im Gluck. Possibly reviewed next time.
Doris and Frank (of Banana Republic, Igel Argern, and Mu fame) and their friends Matthias and Dagmar were delightful people and I hope they return next year. Frank ran a Mu tournament and distributed special cards to the participants— a 3-point 1 with custom Gathering of Friends artwork. Dave Sidore and Kurt Adam, the stinkers, walked away with beautiful original Mu artwork on a pressed paper background, suitable for framing
Someone (Alex?) brought a video game setup, giving me the opportunity at last to try a game I'd heard much about but never before seen— Bomberman. Definitely the kind of game that benefits from multiplayer action, and with 5 controllers the setup was virtually always fully occupied. A fun twitch game with room for strategic thinking, it's about to make its debut on the PC.
On the new game front, a bare handful of titles were generating any interest. Easily the hit of the event was Bohnanza, a little card game from Amigo. Apparently bohn is German for bean, as the game involves planting sets of beans to earn points. What makes the game different is that you're not allowed to rearrange your hand— you must play your cards in the order in which you draw them. Probably not a classic, but well worth your time. Watch for a full review once I finally get a copy.
Also getting virtually continuous play somewhere in the hall was the single copy of Klaus Teuber's latest, Lowenherz (Lionheart) from Gold Sieber. A gorgeous game with great plastic towers and walls and an isomorphic board, the game involves expanding abstract kingdoms to encompass more territory.
Reactions to the game were mixed. The bits and mechanisms held out promise, but something about it didn't seem to gel. There was a major kingmaker problem in the endgame when we played, which isn't uncommon in territorial games. Essentially, if player A targets player B, player C wins while if he targets player C, player B wins. Yuck. Someone suggested the sequential choice of actions at the start of the turn created too much political negotiation, so we tried playing with simultaneous selection instead. This seemed to work OK, but I'm not sure if it was an improvement. One possible problem is that we were operating without a definitive rules translation, so perhaps things will shape up better when one arrives. I wasn't set on fire as I was by Siedler, but I do plan to pick this one up when it becomes available if for no other reason than it's got great pieces and I'm optomistic about the rules.
I think my favorite new game of the lot, though, was a card game called Zum Kuckuck from FX Schmidt. This game plays somewhat like duplicate 6 Nimmt. Everyone's dealt a hand of cards, and then two ranking cards are flipped face up. Everyone plays a card simultaneously, with the high card getting first choice of rank cards and the second highest taking the remaining rank card. Rank cards are kept in front of you, replacing any such card won earlier in the hand. After each trick, whoever has the highest rank card loses a point. When the hand is over the ranks are reshuffled and everyone passes their hand to the left. When everyone's played with every hand, the high score wins.
The Gathering is a blast, and it's a shame it only comes once a year. Many folks on the east coast host minicons at their homes throughout the year to tide them over, but there's been no such solace on the west coast. I'm trying to change that this year by hosting a "PeterCon" at my house in Seattle on Labor Day weekend. TGR readers are invited to come up for a 3 day weekend of casual gaming. Crash space is available on a limited basis (2 beds, 2 couches, lots of floor space) for the budget conscious, or I can give you the phone number of local hotels. Seattle's a beautiful city in the summer, so why not make a vacation of it? Gaming and billiards will go on all weekend at my place, and you can take time to hike Mt. Rainier, browse the Pike Place Market, visit Twin Peaks, etc. Drop me a note if you're interested, especially if you want to stay at my place. The beds go on a first come, first served basis.
For the past few years, Games Magazine has published a buyer's guide at the start of the holiday shopping season. One of features of that guide is the Games Hall of Fame, a roster of classic games which merit special attention.
Games editor Burt Hochberg has invited TGR readers to provide input for this year's inductees. The criteria for a game to be considered for the Hall of Fame are:
Burt notes that Twister was a borderline case, since it's supposedly a kid's game but is probably played more in college dorms than anywhere else, and Sorry! is a family game. And don't go nominating any German games. Games serves the American market, and the Hall of Fame reflects that.
To make things easy, you can send your suggestions directly to me via snail mail or email (see masthead), and I will collate them and forward them all to Burt.
For reference, the current Hall of Fame includes Acquire, Axis & Allies, Blockhead, Bridgette, Civilization, Clue, Diplomacy, Dungeons & Dragons, Milles Bornes, Monopoly, Othello, Pente, Risk, Scrabble, Sorry!, Stratego, Trivial Pursuit, Twister, Twixt, and Yahtzee.
The Game Report Online - Editor: Peter Sarrett (editor@gamereport.com)