Re: is less more?

["Troy Holaday" <tholaday@...>]

I think this is absolutely true.  There is a concept out there that theories which 'seem' right gain more adherance than those which are provably correct (two examples, the persistance of an earth-centered universe model long after it had been disproven and Einstein's theory of relativity which is general thought to be true despite being untestable - at present).  I know that comment seems really far afield, but the thing most of these 'beautiful theories' have in common are their intuitive simplicity.  They can be stated with one very simple example or need not be stated at all because they feel 'obvious.'  Some of the absolute best designs I have seen for abstract games are so simple that their true genius is downplayed, and so mechanically 'catchy' that playing them is almost irresistable.  Abalone is an example of a game that a lot of people site as a great modern abstract game.  The mechanics are 'fun' (you build up big lines of marbles to 'push' other marbles around and off the board), and they carry the player past the 'experimental' phase where moves seem somewhat random, to the point where he develops more sophisticated strategies.  In a game with a lot of rules or randomness, the game and not the player seems in control, so that the participants feel like spectators.

Troy Holaday
Assistant Director of Academic Systems
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
(765) 285-3936
(765) 285-2082 - fax

>>> david.cousins@... 2/23/02 5:34:11 PM >>>
Here is a new thread.

I personally find that the more rules a pp game has, the less likely I
am to play it. The simplicity of the gameset design wants me to carry
it over into the game rule design. I want to be able to read or
explain the rules once and have players get most of the game mechanics
down. It is then in the strategy of how the simple rules work against
each other, or how players interact that I think makes a cool game.

Just some thoughts,
 Dave.





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