New Games Journal? Old Games Journal?

The dispute between New Games Journalism vs Old Games Journalism is basically the fight between a modern gun vs flintlock guns. The New Games Journalism is basically everything we see on the internet today about games, while the Old Games Journalism is everything on the paper dating the year 2000 and older (this is just a rough sketch of time!). To say the least, New Games Journalism is probably more popular than the Old Games Journalism due to the fact that they are more easily accessed and found through the little cracks of the world where internet resides.

If I can voice an opinion, I would say that I obviously would prefer the New Games Journalism due to these several facts: they are easily accessed, they are free of charge, some provides videos! The Old Games Journalism consists of words and pictures and personally, I find it less attractive and a lot more boring. However, being the "new age" kid that I am, I have not been reading a lot (if not, none at all) of the Old Games Journalism, rendering my argument somewhat biased, however provided the facts, I can say that my argument is sound.

An example of a New Games Journalism would be;

This video of Machinima's top ten scariest video game characters

An example of an Old Games Journalism would be;

(insert any Shonen Jump magazines article [or the sort] here)

Hnefatafl: Design Document

For the second assignment, we are to create a design document about the iteration of the ancient game of our choice. My game of choice is Hnefatafl. The direction of my iteration was led by further reading the history of the game. Where in one nordic excavation site, there was found, two fossils of young (what appeared to be of 9 year olds) male persons wielding a sword in the hand, along with the board game of Hnefatafl. This was the baseline for the assumption that ancient Nordic youth was forced to go to war with the adults and that the game was part of the life that revolves around war and violent. The way I see that game from the historical fact is that to merge the game and the history. The game revolves around the theme of escaping capturers, and I so I thought it would be justified to say that the youth did not want to go to war (they may be forced into it). To iterate the game aesthetically, I changed the theme of the board game to escape the death, which gave me the skulls and tombstone pieces. And so the look of the board has changed to this: 

"The theme of the game is to escape death. This is presented using the gameplay mechanic of Tafl board game, where the king tries to escape attacking soldiers. In this game, you play either as the skulls (initially king’s army) or the tombstones (capturers)."

The new gameplay and ruleset is listed below:

- The game is played on a 11 x 11 board.

- 8 skull pieces in the center surrounding 1 jeweled skull, and 6 tombstone pieces in each of the 4 surrounding edges.

- Players take turns, moving one piece at a time.

- Players take control of each side 3 rounds, then swap sides for the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th round.  

- The movement of all pieces is the adjacent blocks of any range.

- Pieces cannot move diagonally.

- Pieces cannot move through another piece.

- No pieces other than the jeweled skull is allowed to settle on the marked center square.

- If a piece is sandwiched by the opposing pieces, the sandwiched piece is out of the game.

- No tombstone pieces are allowed in the three marked squares in each corner.

Winning Conditions:

- The game is won by winning at least 4 rounds.

- If both players won 3 rounds each, then the game is a draw.

- To win a round, all four corners have to be filled with skulls with the jeweled skull in one of the corners. (3 skulls and 1 jeweled skull).  

- Alternatively, eliminating all opposing pieces will grant the player a victory for the round.

- When a corner is occupied by a skull, the block will become void (the skull stays on top of it, however it is not available for any other skulls).

- If the jeweled skull is sandwiched by the center square and one tombstone, the skull player loses the game.

- If there are less than four skulls (includes the jeweled skull) surviving, it is automatically a loss for the skull player.

- If there are less than 2 tombstones, the skull player will automatically win. 

David Parlett's Workshop

The great David Parlett is now in the house. We were enlightened that day, of the elements of a great non - digital race game. He used examples from the game of his invention "The Hare and Tortoise", where players use carrots as a currency to proceed in the game. In the workshop, he covered a great range of questions such that, what is a race game? what is the goal of the game? what determines the movement? Before attending the workshop, I thought I knew a great deal of stuff already in the making of board games, especially racing board games with dices and the likes. But I was clearly mistaken, and did not (obviously) possess the knowledge that David has. It takes serious time and a lot of think to be able to create something that is not dull, but is enjoyable. Ignore his teachings, and most likely, you will end up with a game far too complicated for play or a game that bores people by the minute. David Parlett man.

Games Britannia: "Joystick Generation"

The third part of Games Britannia covered the rise of video games. There was no issue whatsoever in the event, but one game had made a great carmageddon (bad pun) that day. The game was called Carmageddon, where objectives are none but to run over people and pretty much destroy everything in your wake of death machines. It was an issue to a lot of people due to the fact that games were considered to be a part of education (this was discussed in my older entries). The game was censored, and had to replace the humans with zombies and blood to oil slicks. It was amazing to see how seriously it was taken back then (and that games today are pretty much that; if not more violent). This game, despite its infamy, is probably the reason why people blame video games for the majority of violent acts in the now. Another game worth mentioning in this case would be the infamous Grand Theft Auto. It is a game where basically you become your own person, in another living world. Yes it is a free roaming game, meaning freedom to move anywhere and do anything, and to kill anyone. As how violent it would seem to be, GTA has been a great time waster for me, that whenever I played GTA, I would only walk around town, steal some cars and kill some people. As a lot of other people would see it, the game is an epitome of violence and act of crimes present in today's world, however, to all those people (and my mother), I would say nay. These are games that people can release their stress and madness into, if they so want to kill; they can do it in the game instead of the real world. People who commits crime when inspired by video games are people with mental issues, therefore, neglecting them of the normal society which was supposedly a place where they belong (pfft). People such as myself, enjoy killing in games, enjoy gore and violence in games. In fact, the more violent and punishing the game is, the more enjoyable we find it to be; however, we are very nice people with heart and mind, and will not subdue to the temptation of crime in real life? (just kidding). In a serious note though, these "violent video games" are no more than a different world of fun for us normal people and it would be best to leave it at that.

La Decima Vittima - Pervasive Games

Pervasive games... is probably the most intriguing game in my opinion. It involves individuals going about the streets (or anywhere really), stalking their "contracts" to kill (obviously not really killing them). The game is to act as an assassin, and the job is to kill the contracts given to you, and the last assassin standing wins. This game is portrayed in the movie "La Decima Vittima" where literally the whole movie is about the game. There are these two main characters in the movie; Marcello and Ursula. They were both assassins, and at the final step of the game, Ursula was sent a contract to kill Marcello. In all oddity, Ursula wanted to make the assassination very grand, and so proceeded with the set ups. In many unfortunate events, Ursula failed to pull of her plans and Marcello, was yet to realize that she was the assassin assigned to him. In the shortest of words, Marcello and Ursula spent so much time together (because Ursula wanted to gain his trust), and by the end of the movie, they could not kill each other.

It was a great movie in my opinion, because I enjoy the game very much. However in terms of lesson learnt or anything like that, I cannot find any; though, I really enjoyed the movie.

Tweaking Ancient Games

To iterate a game is very natural to many of the game designers, or even just enthusiasts. Iteration is healthy in terms of these very old games, as some of the rules were poorly designed, or lost in time. A good example of this would be the Royal Game of Ur, that it has been around for over 4 000 years old. The fact that it is very old is a good reason to iterate the game, as it needs to adapt to the modern world if it wants to stay around. Another game worth mentioning is the Hnefatafl, as it is a very broken game. The tweak for this game involves adding a bidding mechanic, in which player bids the movement it takes for them to win. The act of iterating such as this creates a space in which these ancient games can linger in today's world. Iteration is also good in cases like monopoly, where the number of iterations is just too many to count. In different houses, monopoly is played differently; for example, one family might use the free parking squares differently from another family, and the use of the bank.

The Trip to British Museum

The great trip to the British Museum commences!

Inside, we were greeted by the great Irving Finkel himself. Proceeding in the trip, we covered a great deal of ancient board games, hereby the tafl games, and that Royal Game of Ur. There were more ancient stuff in the museum in the different areas, however some of the games were not easily recognized as games due to there being a lot of damages and / or missing pieces. The sensation that was present during the time was very different to when we played the ancient games in the classroom; as these were the real thing, the real wood and stones.

It was very amazing to be able to see the fossil of games, and even more amazing that we had met Irving Finkel! Hah! Irving Finkel!

Games Britannia: “Monopolies & Mergers”

In the part two of Games Britannia, Benjamin Woolley talked about the capitalist of games; which is the game of Monopoly. It was the popular fact that the British were the first ones to implement moral instructions on games. This was later on spread in the United States, and in there, it was forged to be a game that reflects a low effort that generates cash and hence the "American Dream". This is the birth of Monopoly, where the core of the game revolves around money and avarice.

Further in the documentary, Woolley discussed as well, the importance of great British games such as the Cluedo, and the Scrabble, where it is more than just a game. They are games that pictures world events and conditions, games that reflects on society. 

If I can voice an opinion, it would revolve around the idea that these games were of high importance; however is not recognized by the major portion of the society. In my opinion, these games are very great due to the reason of their birth.

Ancient Board Game: The Royal Game of Ur, and a Game of Senet

We have encountered so many of board games in our life, but this ancient one, I have never seen, heard, or played. This is the Royal Game of Ur. The mechanic is pretty simple and very familiar, and that would be because it uses the dice mechanic. This was a game that was considered to be of the oldest layer in the history of board games, and so hypothesized that this was the father of many of the recent board games. Despite the age of the game, it was quite the playful one; which in my dictionary means a good fun and interaction between players. It encourages players not just to rely on the dice, but to also involve their decisions.

Now the second game, the game of Senet, is a very similar game to the Royal Game of Ur. It involves the dice movement mechanic and somewhat similar approach to player interaction and decision making. The only major difference that it had was the shape of the board; being a simple 3 by 10 squares rectangular board.

My experience with these two board games were very fun. Although I am not an enthusiast of board games, these two games gave me a sensation that I have never experienced. I wouldn't say that these were the most fun of games I have ever played, but the feeling is more of an awe than fun. It is the sort of feeling you get when you went to a historical site and saw device that performs similar to an iPhone.

Ancient Board Game: Duodecim Scripta

This is an ancient board game (yet again) accused to be the father of the modern day Backgammon. The game has a very beautiful looking board, with ancient Roman scriptures written on it, with each letter acting as a "block" where game pieces would land. The game involves a very thin form of strategy, that is implemented through a simple decision in the order of moving the pieces. I did not bother too much with the fact that sometimes the game would conclude to be broken, but in general, the gameplay was very amusing.

I personally never played Backgammon, but if I were to say, this ancient game is very relaxing. Either that, or I didn't really know what I was doing. It too showed an atmosphere that is not present in many of the modern board games. One of the reason would be the fact that it is ancient, and the other being the unique gameplay that it has.

Ancient Board Game: Hnefatafl

This is the game of of Scandinavia, the ancient civilization of Odin. Jokes aside, the game presented a very broken gameplay, as one side would always win. It involves white pieces (gathered in the center), and black pieces (scattered on the edge) on an 11 by 11 square board. The goal is to escort the king of white pieces to reach the edge of the board. Now, this is broken due to several things, one being the "pieces elimination" method is highly unfair; where it takes two pieces to eliminate one opposing piece, but it takes 4 pieces, to eliminate the king. Another one would be the fact that the "finish line" for the king is any square on any edge. And the last one being the movement of the pieces are similar to the movement of the Rook in the game of Chess. Due to this imbalance, people needed to modify the rules for the game to make it a balanced game, and that trouble was the (assumed to be) birth of the modern day Chess.

I personally liked the Nordic history and Scandinavians, so there is no limit on how biased I am to this game. Yes it is broken, but to me, it felt very powerful to be able to play the game of this great origin. Also, the game pictured a war scenario where a king is surrounded by enemies and he was on the quest to escape the fate of death, or being captured.

Games Britannia: "Dicing With Destiny"

Part 1 of Games Britannia, by Benjamin Woolley, discussed about the change of perception of games. In short, games were more than just a "fun factor" of our lives. In the ancient civilization of men, games were the path to those who practice the art of war and combat. Games were in fact, part of military training. In time this become more associated with gods and deities, however, yet again lost its meaning as people turned to games as a way of income (gambling). In that era, dices were considered the spawn of evil (mostly by the churches) as it is seen as an object of no faith (due to it relying on luck). And with that, the father of modern board games were born (snake and ladders, ludo, and the likes of them), with a new purpose that is, to educate.

If I can voice an opinion, it would be towards the fact that the purpose and perception of games changes within the centuries, from a tool of war, to a gambling set, but at the end of the day, it comes it comes back to being a form of education (tool of war being an education to tacticians). My thoughts on this would be that games are a necessary portion of the pie of life as it helped shape our history, and in fact, educating.