Games with Garfield

Handicaps are a regular feature of some games and sports, go and golf being two prime examples. Often among game players it is resisted, however, because if they play at an advantage and win - well - it isn’t really a victory. I used to be in that camp, but became a complete convert a long time ago playing squash.

My experience playing squash was that of being crushed repeatedly by my more advanced opponent, and while I enjoyed the game it was a bit depressing. We talked about handicaps, but I was resistant because I felt like that would take away the value of the win if I did win. Eventually we tried it though, and I immediately started having a much better time. I realized my resistance was founded on a false premise, that if I win without a handicap it was a glorious victory. In fact, if someone is much better at squash they will expend less energy beating you, and how glorious is it if your victory was based on your opponent slightly underestimating how much energy he had to expend? It was wonderful seeing that my opponent was working now as hard as I was every game, and that if they slacked I could take advantage of it.

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January 22, 2010 – The Ding

Level up with game designers Tyler Bielman, Richard Garfield and Skaff Elias as they discuss the Ding. Is this podcast skill-based? Why are undead the only real enemy? When is persistent chunkiness a good thing? And how is karate like frequent flier miles ? Listen now and feel yourself get more powerful in one quick session as Games with Garfield gets down with the Ding!

 

 The Ding [39:53m]: Play Now

LINKS:

Doing! | Dungeons & Dragons | War Games | Original Chainmail | Re-released Chainmail| Runequest | Call of Cthulu | GURPS | Warhammer Quest | Hero Quest | Descent | Titan | Talisman | Axis & Allies | Promotion (chess) | King me! | Monopoly | Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour | Frequent flier miles | Borderlands | World of Warcraft | Poker | Jonathan Tweet | Mafia Wars | Facebook

Contact: info@threedonkeys.com

I have said it before and I will say it again. Most game designers are avid gamers themselves. Many have game libraries that would keep you busy for weeks. Much to my wife’s dismay, my game collection now spans the entry room outside of my office, three large shelves in the garage, the armoire in the guestroom, and 8 shelves in the closets downstairs. Added together there are a lot of games.

While this may be a big collection, most of them never leave the shelves. There are a number of the games that I have not played in years, and there are probably 20 or so I have never played. One of the many perks of being in the field is that you often get free stuff from game companies. I also make it a point to pick up copies of popular board games to analyze them to see if there are any interesting mechanics that I can potentially use in future projects. It is hard to invent the wheel these days, and most games are merely new combinations of existing mechanics with various flavors thrown on. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and game designers, while arrogant, are more than happy to flatter in this way. Almost every designer if asked about a particular game will cite prior references that influenced their work on that particular project.

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December 12, 2009 – Nerfing

We’re back and sounding better than ever! Join game designers Tyler Bielman, Skaff Elias and Richard Garfield for an in-depth exploration of “nerfing.” When is something “broken?”  Which is more important, power level or player perception? And what is the secret of the “magic spreadsheet?” It’s a hard-hitting episode about a soft-sounding practice when Games with Garfield takes on the nerf.

 

 Nerfing [48:23m]: Play Now

LINKS:

Corey Macourek new media design | Giant | Chicken Blood Soup | Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer | Arcane Legions| Ultima Online | George Mikan | Wham! | Carcassonne | Cosmic Encounter | Magic: The Gathering | MTG Pro Tour | Moxes, Black Lotus & “Power Nine” | Wall of Wood | Rush (Zergling) | Zendikar “treasures” | Rochester draft | Netrunner | World of Warcraft

Contact: info@threedonkeys.com

November 11, 2009 – James Ernest

NOTE: Due to technical difficulties beyond our understanding, the audio quality of this podcast is not up to our usual high standards. We’ve elected to post the podcast despite the slight audio problems and we hope you can enjoy the show.

A special guest joins the podcast as James Ernest discusses Cheapass Games, poker and the wonders of self-publishing. Usual suspects Tyler Bielman, Skaff Elias and Richard Garfield question the prolific designer about his amazing portfolio of games and the processes that went into them. It’s an in-depth look into both design and production this week on the show.

Oh, and check out this link to James’ comic: Brian and John

 

 Interview: James Ernest [54:05m]: Play Now

LINKS:

Cheapass Games | Button Men for iPhone | Kill Doctor Lucky | Wizards of the Coast | Mtg-L| Reality Twist | XXXenophile | Cheapass big list of games | Essen | Diceland | Falling extra cards | Lunch Money | Icehouse | Sealtest ice cream | Before I kill you Mr. Bond | James Ernest’s Totally Renamed Spy Game | Martin Wallace’s Totally Renamed Train Game | Carbonated Games | Amazing Society | Marvel Super Hero Squad MMO | Mayfair Games (publisher of the forthcoming “Dust and Sin” board game) |
Contact Juggling | Game Table Online | Dominion | Agricola | Stonehenge | The Art of Texas Hold’em | Dealer’s Choice | Rules of Play

Contact: info@threedonkeys.com

Even if you have not read any of my posts before and even if you have no idea who I am, there is no way that you visited this site, saw this title, and did not at least read a few lines to see what it was about. I mean, there could be pictures, right? Welcome and apologies to those of you who found this article through a Google search on “bikini”, because there are in fact no pictures and this is an article on gaming.

Fantasy is hands down the most popular IP for both RPGs and MMORPGs. It is not even close. An old tracking site mmogchart.com (sadly not updating these days) showed in 2008 that fantasy accounted for 94.2 percent of the market share by users. Even if you exclude the WOW juggernaut, which accounts for about two-thirds of the market share, fantasy still accounts for over 80 percent of the market share. EVE, which is a very good execution for a sci-fi game and a personal favorite, is one of the top non-fantasy games but had only a 1.5 percent market share in the data analysis. Even popular IPs such as Star Wars and the Matrix have not put a dent in the fantasy genre MMORPG armor. Comic book IPs, which are kind a modern fantasy genre, also account for only a fraction of the total MMO market.

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This interview might interest folks that are reading this blog:

http://www.edge-online.com/features/interview-mind-twist

October 10, 2009 – Scrabble

NOTE: Due to technical difficulties beyond our understanding, the audio quality of this podcast is not up to our usual high standards. We’ve elected to post the podcast despite the slight audio problems and we hope you can enjoy the show.

Word freaks rejoice! For the first time, Games With Garfield is doing a podcast devoted to a single game. And the name of the game is Scrabble! Join game designers Tyler Bielman, Skaff Elias and Richard Garfield as they sift their way through the history, variants and yes, even “Garfield Garbage.” Join us for a celebration of the world’s favorite word game.

 

 Standard Podcast [38:41m]: Play Now

LINKS:

Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer | Scrabble | World Scrabble Championship | Word Freak | Carcassonne | Speed Scrabble | Bananagrams | Scrabble Variants | Upwards | Boggle | Alphablitz | Quiddler | ‘Doing!’ | OSPD | Clabbers

Contact: info@threedonkeys.com

Origins

Pecking Order is a game I developed originally for a standard deck of cards, and later augmented a bit for publication with Winning Moves. The inspiration for the game came from watching birds jockey for perches - I would watch them approach and sometimes dislodge the other bird, and sometime fail to dislodge the other bird. I imagined that it wasn’t really known which bird was higher in the pecking order until this challenge took place … and that is the basis for the game.

The original game as played with a deck of cards is as follows:
Two players each take a suit - one diamonds and one hearts. The spades are placed up on the table in order. The clubs are set aside. Each player shuffles their deck of 13 cards. Choose who goes first then play alternates.

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History

In 2001 (I think) Alexey Stankevich created a game called Astral Tournament. On the surface it looked like a simplified Magic:The Gathering clone. Once one started to play it was easy to see that it was much more original than that. After years of difficulty in adapting Magic to online play I deeply appreciated a game that was designed for computer play from ground up.

In Astral Tournament players played dueling wizards. Each player was dealt “cards” from a common deck of 60 cards, so that 20 went to each player and 20 were unused. Each turn players gained an astral power (mana) in 5 different types of magic - earth, air, fire, water, and death. Any card a player was dealt was available to that player the whole game provided they could pay the astral power cost. Each turn a player could play exactly one card - a spell or creature. A spell had an immediate effect - like damage or healing, a creature went into one of several slots in front of the player, and each turn would attack the creature in the opposite slot or the opposing player if it was unblocked. Players took turns playing cards until one of them had no more life - and thus lost the game.

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