Since we have a thread going on overdone and underused themes, how about mechanics?
I am surprised that we haven't seen more trading resource games become popular with Settlers and Bohnanza in such high demand.
Mechanics >> What's Hot? What's Overdone?
Fri, 07/15/2005 - 15:59
Fri, 07/15/2005 - 16:43
#1
Mechanics >> What's Hot? What's Overdone?
Auctions!!!
This is a good mechanic when it goes with the theme; you know a game about auctions! I am getting tired of games were I have to bid every turn.
Fri, 07/15/2005 - 17:26
#2
Mechanics >> What's Hot? What's Overdone?
Yeah, me too.
And it's a crutch, a cop-out: An easy way to balance the worth of each object.
The designer effectively delegate the "balancing work" to the players.
Sat, 07/16/2005 - 15:48
#3
Mechanics >> What's Hot? What's Overdone?
I'm not particularly adept at auctions, but I don't think it's fair to say they're a cop-out or a crutch. Letting the players establish the relative worth of a resource strikes me as a perfectly legitimate way of achieving balance in a game.
As I think about my favorite games, none are auction games, but the mechanic is a legitimate means to an end.
That's my take, anyway.
Steve
Sat, 07/16/2005 - 18:23
#4
Mechanics >> What's Hot? What's Overdone?
I agree that auctions can certainly be a valid mechanism, but I also agree with hpox that they're used as crutches in a lot of designs, and it's what makes them so popular.
Can't figure out if cotton should be worth 3 gold or 4 gold, compared to wood being worth 2? No problem, just auction them off and let the players decide their values.
Sun, 07/31/2005 - 20:21
#6
Re: set collecting, trick taking
jjacy1 wrote:
In fact the anti-dice mechanic of "flip over the next card instead" mechanic seems overdone to me. New unique randomizing methods are needed as I am sick of flipping cards, or pulling tiles outta a bag, or rolling dice too.
This is so true.
Although I thought the contrary when I started playing eurogames: dice are not bad. Even rolling a straight 6 sided die with no probability trick is fine in most case.
Sun, 07/31/2005 - 21:40
#7
Mechanics >> What's Hot? What's Overdone?
I suspect that the "flip the next card" trick is popular for many reasons:
1. Precise control over the odds. You can have a 6 in 55 chance of X, an 11 in 55 chance of Y, etc. This is a general property of cards.
2. Randomization with memory. Another general property of cards. If you want something to happen no more than 2 times during the course of the game and you only go through the deck once, you can be sure it won't happen more than twice if it's nnly on two cards.
3. This one's not a general property of cards, but I bet it explains a lot of the use of this trick: it's cheaper. If you've already got cards in the game, adding a symbol or something to the existing ones costs nothing. Dice cost something, even if they're cheap non-customized dice.
On the other hand, dice can do things that cards can't... like the opposite of #2, always having a slim chance of something happening, with no memory to the randomization.
I suspect the money is a driver much of the time.
-- Matthew
Well, card games in general that aren't really "new", just a variant on rummy or whatever set collecting or trick taking game you can play with a standard deck of cards already... at least in my opinion there seem to be a ton of them about.
In fact the anti-dice mechanic of "flip over the next card instead" mechanic seems overdone to me. New unique randomizing methods are needed as I am sick of flipping cards, or pulling tiles outta a bag, or rolling dice too.
I'm trying to come up with the "next not dice" idea...