game girl advance: Bored Games

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July 11, 2006

Bored Games

I was at my local game store on Sunday (the tabletop kind, not the electronic kind), walking off my World Cup woes (it's still too painful to talk about but oh Zizou why, why why?) when I came across World of Warcraft: The Board Game. I would have bought it except that it was almost ninety bucks. I'm intrigued, especially upon reading the official publisher's notes, explaining that it "is a team-based fantasy adventure. The Horde and the Alliance factions must compete to be the first to defeat the invincible Overlord...."

But hold on a minute, on the back it says it's for 2-6 players. How do you recreate World of Warcraft with two players? For that matter, how do you have competing teams with two players?

As I said, I'm intrigued. I have spent many happy hours on board games. Actually, I met Warren Spector over a board game, before I quite knew who he was, many years ago. But there's something odd about adapting a persistent-world MMOG to a board game that takes 4 to 6 hours and requires up to, but not more than, six players.

Board games ought to be solid enough to be good on their own, without the benefit of an electronic game tie-in. That is not to say that there are not natural correspondences between the two platforms, because some of the basic design principles are the same. Thus Risk works brilliantly as both a board game and an electronic game.

But some elements of board games are difficult, if not impossible, to recreate electronically. Diplomacy is an excellent game that, when I used to play it with a bunch of my Machiavellan friends, inspired hours of secret treaty-talk, backroom deals, slips of paper exchanged, and of course, backstabs and betrayals. In that setting it was extremely important to sit right across from the other players and read their eyes to see if there was a traitorous glimmer lurking there somewhere.

Although I loved Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights passionately, I also never felt that they truly captured the experience of real tabletop D&D, even in multiplayer mode. Code was ultimately too confining when compared with the free-ranging, flexible imaginations of real players. I considered them different games, not recreations of actual D&D.

Since I've lost my train of thought and I'm not sure how to end this, I'll list some of my favorite board games (by the way, why is it that so many great board games are of German origin?). Puerto Rico is an excellent, fun resource-management and strategy game; Carcassone (I've actually visited the real Carcassone, in southern France; it's an amazing medieval structure); of course, Settlers of Catan; Diplomacy; and I know it's not really a board game because there's no board, but a rousing game of liar's dice at the bar is always a good time.

So next time you're bored at home, call over a couple friends and crack open a box, dust off the dice, and get those figurines set up.

Posted by jane at July 11, 2006 12:49 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Tabletop games getting all the love lately - Converting Table Top Games to Video Games

I could wax nostalgic over those games for hours, but what I really want is to see is better, more thoughtful conversions to video games so that I don't have to have a group of high school or college friends in town to enjoy them.

Oh well, I at least get my fix at Dragon*Con each year!

-Andrew Douglas
theoreticalgames.com

Posted by: Andrew Douglas

on July 11, 2006 02:25 PM

Coincidentally I just got this last weekend for my birthday. We started a game Sunday, haven't finished it. The rules are pretty intense, but good.

I really like it. I actually was able to 'spec' as feral druid and it does alot of things well that translates the game to a board. The character building is really smart and having 3v3 system means lots of different combinations. If you just have 2 players, they each control a team. The combat system is pretty smart as characters can have tanks, nukers, healers, etc and does both PvE and PvP. Not a huge surprise for the cost, but the build quality is top notch, all the cardboard counters are double thick and the figures are really really well sculpted but unpainted which is actually kind of awesome and tempting. It takes like 2-4 hours to play a game but it moves really quickly w/ little downtime for the inactive team. I'm already kind of hankering for the expansion pack.

Posted by: geedeck

on July 12, 2006 05:39 AM

one reason i have such fond memories of diplomacy is the RARITY of full seven player games seen through to completion. i am not sure how many of those i have played, but i bet it's less than 10, maybe even less than 5.
the rush of dopamine that occurred as a reward for such an accomplishment has made a very lasting impression. let me know if you ever convene a full game.

Posted by: eric

on July 12, 2006 10:11 AM

I think this kinds of conversions can bring a very rich theme to a board game. The board game itself needs to stand up on its own with the theme enriching that foundation.

For more than you every wanted to know about board games check out Board Game Geek. Here's the entry for World of Warcraft

Posted by: chadm

on July 12, 2006 12:02 PM

I think this kinds of conversions can bring a very rich theme to a board game. The board game itself needs to stand up on its own with the theme enriching that foundation.

For more than you every wanted to know about board games check out Board Game Geek. Here's the entry for World of Warcraft

Posted by: chadm

on July 12, 2006 12:02 PM

I think this kinds of conversions can bring a very rich theme to a board game. The board game itself needs to stand up on its own with the theme enriching that foundation.

For more than you every wanted to know about board games check out Board Game Geek. Here's the entry for World of Warcraft

Posted by: chadm

on July 12, 2006 12:02 PM

As others have mentioned, the WoW board game is actually pretty enjoyable. It generally encapsulates the experience of leveling from 1 to 60 and "racing" the other faction to completing endgame content. And it does so with a surprising amount of accuracy, considering its comparative simplicity.

In fact, I've occasionally found myself grinding through mobs on a quest and thought, "Man, I'd really like to play the board game right about now." It's a fun way to spend time with a handful of friends who also play the game, if you can get them all face-to-face.

Obviously, it's an interpretation of the experience, focusing on the gameplay rather than the virtual world socialization. Although that makes me wonder about how feasible it would be to make a game that simulates the social MMO experience, and all of the griefing and guild-drama that entails. But perhaps that's a bit too meta for most.

Posted by: Fizzbang

on July 13, 2006 08:12 AM