Tafl

Tafl!

 

During our last session we played a game of Tablut (tafl). There are two players involved in the game and each have their own corresponding pieces. One player will have eight white pieces while the other will have sixteen black pieces, all played on a 9x9 board.

The player with eight pieces will also have one other piece, a king that must escape to either the edge of the screen (as Murray specifies) or to one of the four markers in the corner of the playing board (others such as Schmittberger 1992; Helmfrid 2005 had suggested that the escaping to the edge was unbalanced)

The attacker had to ensure that the player with the king failed in reaching the edge, or corner, of the playing board. Each player had the opportunity to take out an opponent’s piece by surrounding it on two sides (adjacent to it). The attacking player, however, had to completely surround the king (again, depending on who is correct, on both sides or completely surrounded) in order for them to win. It is noted that a piece can move between two others and not be captured.

Players can move their pieces as they would a Rook in a game of chess: any number of squares in an orthogonal direction.

My opponent and I had two incredibly close games, once we had understood how to play of course. In the first game I had managed to get myself in a difficult position, and, only down to less than 5 pieces, I had managed to avoid being completely surrounded and I was able to get my King to the corner of the board.

I was then on the attack in round two and by this time we were making split second decisions, something I went to later regret as I had opened up an opportunity for Will to secure his King and win the game.

Senet and a Royal Game of Ur

The Royal Game of Ur is played with two sets of seven markers. One set is black, the other white along with tetrahedral dice. There was some speculation as to how this game was played.

It is suggested that players start on their own corresponding spots and the pieces enter and leave on the same block, a kind of circuit around the board and each player meets along a narrow bridge where they are able to take out each others markers. Another idea is that there is no combat of any kind and it is simply a race to get all of ones markers on and off the board before the other player.

Robert Bell seems to think that the rosettes present on the board have some sort of significance but it is unknown as to what. Becker comes to a conclusion that both player with 7 markers and 3 dice have to fight their way across the board but it is also unknown as to which direction or where they start and finish.

Senet was a difficult game to understand, I'll start with the rules:

We each had 7 identical playing pieces and 4 tetrahedral dice each tippexed with two white tips.

Score               Dice Combination

1                      Three plain and one marked    and Throw Again

2                      Two plain and two marked      END OF TURN

3                      One plain and three marked     END OF TURN

4                      None plain and four marked    and Throw Again

5                      Four plain and none marked    and Throw Again

1.      The first player to throw 1 begins play.

2.      Pieces can only move forward

3.      A piece may land on an empty square, or swap places with an opponents undefended place

4.      Two pieces of the same colour on adjacent squares defend one another and cannot be swapped

5.      Three consecutive pieces cannot be overtaken by the opponent.

6.      Throws of 1, 4 or 5 allow you to throw again.

7.      Successive throws are made before move a piece or pieces.

8.      Multiple throws can be subdivided between pieces, so if you throw a nine, you can chose to move one piece nine squares or to move one piece six squares and one piece three squares and so on.

9.      The last five squares with hieroglyphic signs have special meanings. Squares 26, 28, 29 and 30 are safe: if a piece is on one of these squares, the other players pieces cannot land on the square and swap with it.

Reading it back, it seems a lot clearer than it did when we were first presented with the player sheet and rules. Perhaps we didn't read the rules more thoroughly but I think we had to restart the game numerous times before we managed to understand it, if only, a little bit.

The idea behind it was that it was some form of race game but each piece had to make it to the end in order for either player to win. It makes for a very challenging and long game as you can easily prevent players from moving their pieces by simply having three in a row, which prevented them from moving, unless you (or they) made the move forward and opened up a space.

Battleships!

A Game nearly everyone has played in some form

It started out as a simple game of battleships. You get 5 ships and you can place them anywhere on your grid. The first one to sink the opponents ships, wins. Simple!

In our pairs we played a standard game of Battleships. Once the game was over we had to iterate on its design.

So what does that mean?

You have your game with the standard rules, and then you add to it. For example, we came up with the idea of allowing the player to initially have their first go, if they hit a ship, they were allowed one chance to follow up with a second go. It allowed both players to destroy each others ships in a quicker time but also gave a sense of relief and satisfaction if the other player missed.

Another iteration was allowing a 'super bomb' to be used. Every third go, the player could pick a grid, and the four adjacent tiles would also be affected by the bomb. So, even if the players initial grid was empty, there was still a chance for a ship to be hit in one of those other grids.

In our Wednesday lecture tried to understand how to define video games and how to categorize them.

We looked at the studies of James Newman who referred to Roger Caillois who came up with Paidia and Ludus.

Paidia can be simply explained as, “play” for pleasure

Ludus is defined as more constrained by rules, with a clear outcome (E.g. “Winning”)

He then furthered that by bringing in the following:

Agon: Competition - a competitive multiplayer game

Alea: Chance, Randomness - A gambling game or equivalent

Ilinx: Movement, Vertigo: - Outdoor sports, skiing, skateboarding

Mimicry: Simulation, Role-Play – Cinema

A game that came to mind when we were set this task was War Thunder which falls into the category of Ludus. I strongly believe this game can fall under the 4 categories explained above, if not, definitely 3.

War Thunder is based on tanks and aircraft throughout the Spanish Civil War through to the Korean War, with room to expand. Players take command of a plane or tank and are placed in equal teams and the objective can range from capturing positions, destroying certain targets, or the first time to lose all vehicles.  

World of Warcraft was a game I used to play and, to be fair, who hasn't? It offers the players with a huge sandbox to play in and gives people the freedom to do what they want, whenever and how they want to, which is why I think it can be categorized as a Paidia game. Feel like running around Goldshire killing rabbits? Go for it. Perhaps you want to just find a quiet spot and do nothing? Do as you please.

This is a game that could also fall under all 4 categories. Loot is based on a roll between 1 and 100, it’s an MMORPG and there are many strict Role-Playing servers who cater to those who want to role-play and for those who want a PvP or PvE only realm. Competitions between players in battlegrounds are also available. All accompanied with a ground of flying mount to get you around the world. 

Bibliography

Schell, J (2008) The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, CRC Press, Florida

Becker, A (2007) The Royal Game of Ur in Finkel ed.pp 11-15.

Kuss, Daria J. (November 2013). Psychology research and behaviour management. Internet gaming addiction: current perspectives. Volume 6 (1), 125-137.

Critical Games Studies

Blog Introduction

A bit about me:

I have just started studying Computer Games Design at UCS Ipswich and this blog will be updated and maintained as I progress through the course.

• Name the title of a book of fiction that you have, or are currently reading?
• I'm currently on the fourth book of a Game of Thrones. Reading was't my ideal way of relaxing or passing time but since receiving the first 5 books as a gift, I took to it rather quickly. It was then put on hold as soon as the TV series came out and I've more or less used that to gain an understanding as opposed to reading it in the books.

• Name the title or topic of a book of non-fiction that you have or are currently reading?
• I struggle to remember the last book of non-fiction that I have read. The current books in my collection are all to do with fictional TV shows or related to games, such as the Assassin's Creed series. 

• Which is the last live performance, music, drama or dance, you attended?
• I remember going to a 3 day beer festival with a few friends from work. Despite working long hours, and also needing to be at work the next day, we went on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights after work. It was a very memorable experience

• Name the title of the last film you saw? Cinema, online, DVD/Blu-ray etc.
• Ender's Game was the last movie I saw. I had been meaning to purchase it when I was next out shopping and I did! Not many people appreciated the movie seeing as it was adapted from a book but it wasn't one I had previously read so I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. 

• How often do you read a newspaper? (Which one? Online or physical?)
• I spend a short amount of time switching between the Daily Mail and BBC News. It's either to kill a bit of time or read up on something I've heard from other sources such as friends and family. I don't think I've ever bought a physical copy before and so I only check them online.

• Which Art Gallery / Museum / Exhibition did you last visit?

• On numerous occasions I've been to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford. They had air shows from World War 2 and every exhibition was open to the public for the entire day. I plan ahead to make sure that I am able to visit the museum as I enjoy seeing those kinds of planes fly.

How many hours a week do you spend playing video games?


• Maybe 7 to 24 hours (Soon to be shortened by uni work). If it's a game I've been waiting for since the day of announcement, everything is put on hold just so that I can play this game. The longest I've ever spent gaming in a day amounted to 18 hours. Why? Well, why not. If you have a hobby you enjoy, then you should enjoy it. 


• How many hours a week do you spend playing games other than video games?
• It's considerably lower than if I were playing video games. On the odd occasion I have played Dominoes with my family at home. It may even stretch to a game of Scrabble.