Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics, MDA part 2: Exploring the Whee.
Work with Whee. Extract the flavor you want your players to experience.To experience the many flavours of Whee, do this:For sensation, eat ice-cream or swim in a cold oceanFor fantasy, make up a story and tell someoneFor narrative, read a book or watch any film not made by Michael BayFor challenge, run a mile at the gym todayFor fellowship, catch up with a few friends, or meet new onesFor discovery, take up a new hobby, or go somewhere you haven’t beenFor expression, write something. A play, a short story, even just share ideas with a friend about your thoughts on a book you read.For submission, meditate or get absorbed in gardening or a sport.Games are a combination of these, and perhaps a few more depending on your humour. It would serve us well to gear your thinking towards emotional outcomes, and how to affect that by tuning the mechanics.Board games largely feature challenge, but choosing the challenge to be against each other directly, or as a race, or against the board, will affect the other fun elements.To look at Matt Leecock’s game Forbidden Desert. It is a co-op, as many of Matt’s games are, so the challenge is against the board. You discover areas, tools and goals by clearing away the sand, there is dramatic tension (narrative?) as the water runs out, and we have the fellowship of winning or losing together.
Of course, I get fellowship with my friends in Small World from destroying their troll fortress while they demolish my ratmen army, but that’s a different flavor. There is also humour in the pathos of being left with one lame gnome without so much as a tinker-toy to play with. There was nothing else to do, so we game him a name and a sorrowful backstory.
The paper addresses an issue that might not be immediately apparent in the first round of playtesting: feedback loops. If the mechanics promote a positive loop: win=win more, then only one person will enjoy the game.The start of Settlers is a bit skewed towards win=win more, meaning that a novice with bad first-round placement will probably have a miserable time while the player with the best spots streaks ahead, but two negative loops reel it back in (a little) with a choice of who to steal from when you have the robber, and who to trade with.The mechanics don’t state who you must steal from, but in the dynamics, players usually punish the leader, but when couples play against others, this tends to warp. When one player taught the others how to play, they newbies usually pick on the trainer. Just what they do.
I taught Lords Of Waterdeep to some new players, and somehow the practice game became the real game, but without using the scoring track for missions. What this took away was the drama of chasing the winner, and of punishing them by withholding gifts or hitting them with mandatory quests. It was still enjoyable, but lacked tension, and we didn’t figure it out until the end. Those balancing loops are there for a reason!Use them wisely.