I believe that most games that turn addictive among many people got "clarity". Clarity: The players feel that they can spot and perform decent moves fairly easy. Chess is a game with nice depth. Compared to Go, chess got a so much higher "level of clarity" = making it more popular/addictive than Go. Nick Bentley uses "specious turn options" instead of clarity. He thinks this describes it even better.
This is a really cool characteristic to consider. I'm not sure it is the KEY to "addictiveness" but I do think it is ESSENTIAL for addictiveness. It makes me wonder if it is an essential ingredient for another episode: what is the key to a board game's success?
@@theperfectboardgame It can maybe be number 1... clarity/specious turn options, "the right amount" of depth, the balance (this includes how much the players feel that they got a chance to win/get an "acceptable" result), and last pleasing aesthetics... (at least it has helped chess ALOT).
Revive! I love that game. It fills so good when grabbing new character cards building up that engine/tribe. I noticed you're right. The game ending can come sudden and quickly
I love games that make the endgame trigger player controlled. I'm not sure if it's just because it's more novel though, or if it's a mechanic that I genuinely like better. On one end, with a set amount of turns, that makes planning your future turns more straightforward. But a variable amount of turns creates more interesting interplay between players. Most of the time, that means you want to be efficient with your turns and end the game as fast as possible. However sometimes, it may be in your best interest to delay the game a bit in order to ensure you end the game with the best board state (games like Scythe or Ark Nova do this). It's also curious how ease of setup may or may not affect addictiveness. To me, it doesn't. It will definitely affect the ability to bring it on the table. However, you can still really want to play something despite that. It may require you to schedule time for it, and/or find a group of people that can play it, but it doesn't make it less addictive; just less played (which I don't feel are completely equivalent). Ark Nova is probably a good example; though it's not a huge issue to setup either. It's still more components than a lighter game, with more fiddliness. I always want to play Ark Nova, but I just can't sometimes. It's also a reason why Ark Nova is one of the most played games on BGA; because it removes the setup and fiddliness. And as a result, a ton of people can play it more often than they could otherwise. I play Ark Nova a lot on BGA, but I also prefer just playing the physical version solo if I have the time for it. it's also one of the few medium/heavy games I've played multiple times in a row as well.
Neither does Wingspan exhibit this quality. In Wingspan, you know exactly how many actions you have left. There is expectation, a beginning, middle and end. I think the addictiveness comes from getting cut off unexpectedly. Later in the video, I use Earth as an example. Earth is like Wingspan, but it terminates early.
I believe that most games that turn addictive among many people got "clarity". Clarity: The players feel that they can spot and perform decent moves fairly easy. Chess is a game with nice depth. Compared to Go, chess got a so much higher "level of clarity" = making it more popular/addictive than Go. Nick Bentley uses "specious turn options" instead of clarity. He thinks this describes it even better.
This is a really cool characteristic to consider. I'm not sure it is the KEY to "addictiveness" but I do think it is ESSENTIAL for addictiveness. It makes me wonder if it is an essential ingredient for another episode: what is the key to a board game's success?
@@theperfectboardgame It can maybe be number 1... clarity/specious turn options, "the right amount" of depth, the balance (this includes how much the players feel that they got a chance to win/get an "acceptable" result), and last pleasing aesthetics... (at least it has helped chess ALOT).
Revive! I love that game. It fills so good when grabbing new character cards building up that engine/tribe. I noticed you're right. The game ending can come sudden and quickly
It definitely hasn’t received the attention it deserves.
@@theperfectboardgame I was gonna say the same thing in my comment. My wife and I play the base game haven't gotten the expansion
I love games that make the endgame trigger player controlled. I'm not sure if it's just because it's more novel though, or if it's a mechanic that I genuinely like better.
On one end, with a set amount of turns, that makes planning your future turns more straightforward. But a variable amount of turns creates more interesting interplay between players. Most of the time, that means you want to be efficient with your turns and end the game as fast as possible. However sometimes, it may be in your best interest to delay the game a bit in order to ensure you end the game with the best board state (games like Scythe or Ark Nova do this).
It's also curious how ease of setup may or may not affect addictiveness. To me, it doesn't. It will definitely affect the ability to bring it on the table. However, you can still really want to play something despite that. It may require you to schedule time for it, and/or find a group of people that can play it, but it doesn't make it less addictive; just less played (which I don't feel are completely equivalent). Ark Nova is probably a good example; though it's not a huge issue to setup either. It's still more components than a lighter game, with more fiddliness. I always want to play Ark Nova, but I just can't sometimes. It's also a reason why Ark Nova is one of the most played games on BGA; because it removes the setup and fiddliness. And as a result, a ton of people can play it more often than they could otherwise. I play Ark Nova a lot on BGA, but I also prefer just playing the physical version solo if I have the time for it. it's also one of the few medium/heavy games I've played multiple times in a row as well.
Uncertain reward
11:08 What about Wingspan?
Neither does Wingspan exhibit this quality. In Wingspan, you know exactly how many actions you have left. There is expectation, a beginning, middle and end. I think the addictiveness comes from getting cut off unexpectedly. Later in the video, I use Earth as an example. Earth is like Wingspan, but it terminates early.