9.8 - finding purpose in interaction

On Tuesday, Dr. S introduced Up the River, a board game with simple mechanics that involved river pieces, a sandbar, and a big wave. The essence of the game was rooted in random chance, as your progression through the game was almost entirely dependent on the number you rolled on a 6-sided die. 

On Thursday, we actually played the game. From the extremely simple game board to the straightforward rules of the game, it seemed like Up the River was going to be some quick fun. Ironically, as Macklin and Sharp note in Chapter 3, “at some point, the complete lack of choice and the total reliance on chance gets old,” and after 25 minutes of endless going up the river and getting stuck at the sandbar, our group was getting bored. I must note that while looking for the name of the game and some backstory, I came across the rules online. I never read the physical copy in class, but an extra set of eyes would’ve helped speed our game up as I just realized we messed up an integral game rule: how to enter the dock. According to our group, the dock had to be a direct hit. However, according to the rules I read online, you could enter the dock directly or indirectly. Regardless, our group quickly formed an alliance against the sandbar and aimed to remedy the pacing of the game with our modification.

In Chapter 4, Macklin and Sharp break up the player experience into 5 different layers. My favorite layer, Interaction, is absolutely essential to a great game as “this is the step where patterns in the data create information, which in turn enables knowledge on which the player can make decisions and act.” This is the layer that needed work in Up the River.

In the game, there is a rule that if you roll a 6, then you can either send one of your boats up to match one of your other ones or you can send one of your opponent’s boats back to their furthest one. This rule was honestly extremely annoying because in a game where your only objective is to move forward, rolling the highest number on the dice, and oftentimes not being able to move at all was highly unsatisfying. Our group decided to change that rule to either being able to move your boat forward 6 or to move one of your opponent’s boats backward 6.

When we played with our modified rules, it not only added to the interaction layer but also had an influence on the other layers, specifically the purpose layer, as noted in Chapter 4. With the introduction of this new rule, our game pace and dramatic tension increased, but interestingly, it allowed us as players to develop specific playstyles and strategies. I noticed that you could begin to identify members into Bartle’s four core player types: “achievers, explorers, socializers, and killers.” I was personally a killer in this game. The purpose shifted from simply getting to the top first to potentially stopping others from getting there. This ignited the game and inspired our group, and all the others in the class, to think of very creative ways to continue to mod this very simple game.

Macklin, C., & Sharp, J. (n.d.). Chapter 1. Games, Design and Play. In Games, design and play: A detailed approach to Iterative Game Design. essay, Addison-Wesley.