Ludology

Emma and Gil welcome returning guest Eric Zimmerman, who last appeared on the show on Episode 79 to discuss the magic circle in gaming. This time, Eric discusses his idea of the 21st century being a "ludic century," and what makes games especially important today. We also discuss how games' powers can be used for evil, if tabletop games can become more environmentally sustainable, and see if there can be an equivalent to farmers' markets or slow food in tabletop game. SHOW NOTES 1m26s: Eric's previous tabletop games: Quantum, The Metagame (with Colleen Macklin and John Sharp). He also mentions Gamelab, Diner Dash, Sissyfight, Dear Reader, NYU Game Center (where Gil and Geoff are also adjuncts), and Rules of Play. Eric also mentions his large-scale art installation games that he's done with his partner Nathalie Pozzi. Here are a few of them: Interference, Starry Heavens, and Waiting Rooms. 5m34s: Here is Eric's original Ludic Century essay/manifesto, published in 2013. 16m27s: More info about Bernie De Koven and his influential book The Well-Played Game. 18m13s: More info about the slimy practice of gerrymandering. Eric also mentions the board game El Grande. 21m45s: More info about systemic racism. 24m17s: More info about Ultimate, also known as Ultimate Frisbee. 25m53s: One thing to note here is that impartial referees in sports are a relatively recent development. In the mid-19th century, both baseball and association football (soccer) originally had each team bring their own umpire, who would attempt to agree on calls. Back then, umpires did not make calls proactively; players had to appeal to the umpire in order to get a decision.  This changed as teams got more competitive and team-based umpires failed to be impartial. Both sports brought in a neutral referee who could resolve disputes between the umpires; baseball in 1857, soccer in 1881. Eventually, the team-based umpires were dropped entirely, with soccer keeping the single referee (though they eventually added two linesmen to help make calls) and baseball renaming the referee back to "umpire" and adding three additional umpires to handle calls at each base. (Sources: Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball, Richard Hershberger, and The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer, David Goldblatt.) 30m52s: Jane McGonigal's book Reality is Broken. 36m34s: The influential behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner. 48m32s: Cheapass Games has made many of their older "envelope" games available as print-and-play downloads. 49m00s: The gone-and-gladly-forgotten CD longbox. 50m15s: The Zoomable game RATS: High Tea at Sea by Eric and Josh DeBonis.  55m42s: More information about the environmental concerns around cryptocurrency. 1h03m10s: Slow Food is an organization related to the slow movement that pushes back against the fast pace of modern life. 1h09m35s: The game Gil mentions is Avatar Stalker, from the folks at Project Avatar. He also mentions The Nest, which was first mentioned on the show by Hayley Cooper of Strange Bird Immersive on Ludology 214 - Escape from Reality. 1h12m27s: Eric mentions the artists Alex Katz and Kara Walker. 1h15m55s: Eric’s website, the NYU Game Center, and Eric's partner Nathalie Pozzi.

Scott takes us through the history of the bizarre drinking game Pass-Out, which is arguably a direct predecessor to the modern risqué adult party game.  (Note: We at Ludology do not condone binge drinking, especially when prompted by a game. If a game tells you that you have to drink, but you feel that you need to stop drinking, you should stop playing the game.) BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME https://punchdrink.com/articles/house-rules-pass-out-board-game-1960s-drinking-game/ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1345&dat=19910806&id=G1pYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DvoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7002,621780&hl=en https://boardgames.com/designer/frank-bresee#google_vignette

Emma and Gil sit down with Carla Kopp of Weird Giraffe Games and Galactic Raptor Games to discuss designing solo modes for games, the merits of "bots" in solo games, and how these bots tend to be named "Steve." SHOW NOTES 2m00s: Carla's first published game Super Hack Override. 4m53s: We spoke with Morten Monrad Pedersen on Ludology 154 - Leave Me Alone! about using Automa to make solo versions of games. 7m02s: Sarah Reed is a game designer, disability advocate, and all-around excellent person.  11m00s: The Cat Lady implementation for iOS and Android. 18m20s: Just a quick reminder that we’re talking about the digital implementation of the game Cat Lady, as opposed to Carla’s tabletop AIs. AI difficulty levels are more common in apps than they are in tabletop games.  19m45s: The Splendor digital implementation is sadly no longer available. 20m34s: Gil mentions the solo mode that comes in the tabletop version of It’s a Wonderful World. Emma mentions the solo mode from the Galaxy Trucker app. 21m13s: Calico 21m47s: Gil forgets to mention that Friedemann Friese included an “achievement sheet” in Copycat. 23m49s: Race for the Galaxy. We chatted with Theresa Duringer, CEO of Temple Gates, who developed the app, in Ludology 177 - AI AI, Captain!  24m26s: We're talking about the COIN (Counterinsurgencies) series of games, which have asymmetry built into them. Usually, each faction has a bot that allows many or all factions to be present in the game, even at a low player count. We talked to Volko Ruhnke, who began the series, in Ludology 178 - COIN Operated. 24m56s: The virtual gaming platform Tabletop Simulator. 26m54s: The three-body problem. 27m19s: Power Grid: The Robots 28m33s: Dune: Imperium, Smartphone Inc. 29m21s: Gil's second published game Battle Merchants. 31m24s: The Networks 33m10s: The underrated but absolutely amazing Fantasy Realms.  34m49s: Seven Wonders and Alhambra. We discussed desicion scales in games with Matt Wolfe in Ludology 157 - Come Scale Away. 35m36s: Abandon All Artichokes 36m51s: Skull, Space Dealer 37m33s: Weird Giraffe's upcoming games: Sara Perry's Gift of Tulips, and Fertessa Alysse's Wicked & Wise. 40m12s: Tokaido 48m02s: Carla's company with Dan Letzring, Galactic Raptor. Dan also runs Letiman Games. 51m45s: Bunny Kingdom, Root. We interviewed Root's designer, Cole Wehrle, most recently on Ludology 222 - Johnny Fairplay. 53m07s: Charterstone, Feudum 55m48s: The free cardmaking program nanDECK. 56m59s: The often-linked conditions of Narcolepsy and Cataplexy. 1h05m58s: "Tony" here is designer, podcast host, and excellent person Tony Miller. 1h09m09s: Carla’s website, Discord, and Twitter.  

Geoff talks about how games benefit when designers use familiar terms to describe familiar concepts. He also dives into the term "mana," tracing it back to its indigenous origins, and explains how it became a popular gaming term to track how much magic a character can expend.

Emma and Gil sit down with James Mendez Hodes to discuss his work as a cultural consultant, and the series of "orcticles" he wrote describing how the depiction of orcs in fantasy games can bring up problematic real-world stereotypes. CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes many references to racism and a section discussing sexual assault. SHOW NOTES 01m55s: Orcus, a god of the underworld. 04m29s: J.R.R. Tolkien's Urak-hai, the strongest kind of Orc in Middle Earth. 27m49s: The Marathi people from India. We also get into the thorny, complicated, and vitally-important subject of intersectionality. 32m57s: Here is the Adam Ruins Everything episode on the "model minority" myth. 34m30s: Gil meant the "domino theory," a Cold War idea that suggested that one country that became communist would inevitably make its neighbors, and those neighbors, communist as well. 38m04s: More information about James Baldwin's writings on race. 45m19s: We had John talking safety tools on Ludology 227 - Respect the X. 53m03s: Edward Said’s Orientalism is an important analysis of how a group of colonizing nations perceive the nations they colonize. 57m56s: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  1h06m28s: Here is the comic Gil and Mendez are talking about, as well as the Sam Sykes tweet that inspired it. 1h11m43s: Here's another link to Jiangsi: Blood in the Banquet Hall (which seems to come up every episode!). We spoke with Banana in Ludology 228 - The Roles We Play, and Sen most recently in Ludology 236 - Role With It. Of course, you will hear a lot more from Sen soon on this very show! We also mention the RPG Agon. 1h14m43s: Blaise Pascal first expressed the sentiment in his 16th Letter from his lettres provinciales: "Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte." Mark Twain wrote out a similar thought two centuries later: "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead." 1h19m08s: More information about Maria Dahvana Headley's modern-day vernacular translation of Beowulf. Also, Eric Zimmerman's plea to keep games away from art, because in his words, "enshrining something as art is death." 1h22m47s: Mendez' website, Twitter, and Patreon.

Scott describes the history of Quarriors!, which became the base system for both the Marvel and DC Dice Masters games, among other licenses.  BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME Tabletop Gaming Magazine issue 3 “The Making of Marvel Dice Masters” by Owen Duffy https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/30410/designer-diary-dice-masters-no-catchy-title-just-b https://thegaminggang.com/game-news/table-top-gaming/the-gaming-gang-extra-77-interview-with-game-designer-mike-elliott/ http://www.ludology.net/ - episode 13 https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/134033-Marvel-Dice-Masters-Meets-Incredible-Response-Sells-Out-Rapidly

Emma, Gil, and Scott have a roundtable discussion in which they discuss the three sales channels, or markets, your board game can be available in: hobby, specialty, and mass. What are the differences between them, and how can a game move from one to another? SHOW NOTES 0m48s: Erica and Sen are joining the show! You can watch them in the Meeple Syrup Show. Some of Sen's games: Junk Art, Akotiri, and Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall. Some of Erica's games: Bosk, Roar: King of the Pride, Kodama 3D, Scott Pilgrim Miniatures The World, Steven Universe: Beach-A-Palooza, and the forthcoming Rat Queens. Here's Sen's appearance on Ludology 236 - Role With It. 2m11s: The hobby "classics": Catan, Carcassonne. The new hotness as of this recording: Bonfire, Carnegie (which is so hot, it's not even out yet...).  2m55s: More info about PSI, the sales agent Gil (and many other publishers) use to sell their games to publishers. 4m11s: Yep. 4m36s: Wingspan, Terraforming Mars, Codenames 11m15s: Phoenix Games and Mox Boarding House in Seattle. Emma also mentions Century: Spice Road, Exploding Kittens, Just One, and her game Abandon All Artichokes. 16m49s: Gloomhaven: JOTL, Pan Am 17m46s: Yes, Gil's told this anecdote before. He's talking about Avowel, the mobile version of his game Wordsy. 27m00s: Wingspan was written up in both the New York Times and Smithsonian Magazine, among others. 33m17s: We had Kim Vandenbrouke on in Ludology 212 - Inventing Play. 40m03s: Yes, Gil made the same point in the last episode. Still relevant! 41m37s: Not sure why Gil brought up Root but completely forgot about Fort, from the same publisher! It's a better example. 44m24s: The idea of affordances and signifiers from a design standpoint was popularized by Donald Norman in his book The Design of Everyday Things. This subject came up when we chatted with game designer and graphic designer Daniel Solis in Ludology 204 - The Eyes Have It. 45m11s: Kingdom Builder 47m39s: Seven Wonders 50m01s: The story of Lizzie Magie, Charles Darrow, and the way The Landlord's Game eventually became Monopoly is worth knowing about. You can read about it here. 55m51s: Verrater and Muerter.  59m12s: Emma and Gil gushed about their Quivers a bit more than they expected to!  1h01m27s: Red Raven made their game Megaland exclusive to Target when it was released in 2018. The Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game also had components exclusive to Target. 1h04m23s: Scott is referring to the mechanism in each game in the Betrayal family of games, in which the game assigns one player to turn against the other players in one of dozens of wildly different scenarios. 1h08m31s: We discussed complexity in Ludology 238 - Unraveling Complexity. 1h11m33s: Gil likes to occasionally return to this lukewarm review of Catan from 1998, complaining about game length, runaway leader, and balance issues. The more things change... 1h12m13s: Here's Emma's talk for the Tabletop Mentorship Program about playtesting! 1h13m48s: More info about the AEG Pitch Project. Also, more info about Scott's forthcoming game Alien: Fate of the Nostromo.

Geoff looks at a recent study that attempted to find a correlation between participants' actions in a game and how they would score in a survey of leadership skills. How can a game tell us whether a person is more or less likely to prefer to lead a group?

Emma and Gil welcome Emerson Matsuuchi back to the show to discuss his experience designing the Century game series, and what it's like designing 3 "mixable" games. SHOW NOTES 0m37s: We last heard Emerson as a guest on Ludology 106 - Hide and Seek. 1m01s: In addition to the Century series, Emerson has designed Reef and Foundations of Rome. 1m45s: When there's no pandemic raging around the world, Gil runs a playtest group in New York City. Emma and Emerson were both members before they moved away.  4m31s: Ah, the classic sitcom misunderstanding.  8m12s: A list of cards currently banned in Magic: The Gathering tournament play. 11m17s: Bruges 13m03s: Dominion: Second Edition 14m11s: You can watch Emma appear on Table Takes on Gen Con's Twitch channel. 26m56s: The Betrayal family of games. 29m14s: An API (application programming interface) is a software interface that allows programmers to allow various computer programs and other devices to talk to each other.  31m27s: In writing, "pantsing" means writing by the seat of your pants - in other words, not "plotting," or planning out your story in advance. 40m58s: Wingspan 46m24s: More information about Jones Theory, which suggests that gamers can optimize their collection by only collecting the "best" game of each genre or type. 47m40s: ZineQuest, a Kickstarter initiative for creators to launch small RPGs in zines, ran for the month of February. We discussed it with Jeeyon Shim in Ludology 244 - Games Brought to Life. 48m32s: Source code control, or version control, is a way for computer programmers to store all iterations of their code, so they can easily switch between older and newer versions of their programs, and integrate revisions to code with other people on their team. As Emma mentions, some code-savvy board game designers use version control systems like Git to track different versions of their games. 49m47s: We mention legendary board game designers Reiner Knizia and Uwe Rosenberg, and their games Medici, Medici: The Card Game, Caverna, Agricola 52m39s: Emerson mentions Runewars, Star Wars: Legion, Wings of War, and Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game. For a detailed history of these games, check out Biography of a Board Game 210.5 - Wings of War. 56m26s: Tom Lehman is dividing his expansions for Race for the Galaxy into several different arcs, which are not meant to be mixed. 57m54s: Eric Lang's tweet that Emerson mentions. 1h00m48s: Emerson's website, Twitter, and Facebook.

Scott delves into the history of the first big board game success on Kickstarter: Tory Niemann's Alien Frontiers. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME TEXT: https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/tabletop/features/11916-How-One-Project-Shaped-Gaming-s-Use-of-Crowdfunding https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/5209/interview-tory-niemann http://dicehateme.com/2010/08/alien-frontiers-a-new-world-for-game-publishing/ https://blog.tabletopia.com/tory-niemann-dont-underestimate-the-glossy-vibrant-dice/ https://thegaminggang.com/thoughts-on-gaming/the-final-frontier-10-questions-with-tory-niemann-designer-of-alien-frontiers/ AUDIO: https://therewillbe.games/podcasts/8102-planet-of-dice