On the other hand, part of the reason people can get so upset about who won a Monopoly game is you spend so much time playing it feels like it has to matter. Nobody finishes a Monopoly game with "Let's play it again, I'll beat you this time".(...And yes, I can easily see a very big argument going on, right up to board flipping, when whether someone's winning or losing is in complete flux until the last one or two moves.
I expect there is a something in there for game designers to think about. Nobody gets too worked up over who won a particular hand of blackjack or game of Connect 4, you just play another round. Even something a bit longer like Yahtzee or Scrabble or Checkers at least allows playing a few rounds before it's time for dinner or for the party to break up. A problem mostly comes up when the game takes long enough you can't do that, or strategy matters so much to the outcome the same person wins over and over. Short games where the outcome can swing on the last turn or two are actually a good thing when you look at them that way - you can play the game several times in a row with different winners each time, giving everybody several chances to feel they came close or were getting better, and diffusing out any hostility toward the winner among several people.
Statistics: Posted by malloyd — 07 Sep 2024 13:19