What Makes a Game Not Fun
- -From Sir Gorin's Book of War
- Previous Chapter: What Makes a Game Fun
There are a variety of things that can very quickly ruin a battle game for those participating. Let’s take a look at some of the more common elements:
- Lack of Clarity
When the rules of the game are not clearly explained or understood, you’ll find that players will not enjoy the game. I refer to this as the “Confusion Factor”™ of the game and you should attempt to keep it minimal. Take the time to ensure that the rules of the game and any battle game elements are clearly understood by all of the players and, maybe even more importantly, your reeves.
- Complexity
Another culprit often responsible for raising the Confusion Factor to unacceptable levels is too much complexity. Battle games do not need to be complex to be enjoyable. Remember, our players already have 70-100 pages of rules to be familiar with. Adding 10 pages of rules for a single battle game will almost always result in failure. Both new and veteran players should be able to easily understand the game, what is expected of them, and how to achieve victory.
- Not getting to play
It’s hard to enjoy a game if you don’t get to play. Luckily, things have changed a lot since the old days and we no longer have to spend 5 minutes under the effect of an iceball. Needless to say, the more you keep your players actively participating in the game, the more opportunity they will have to enjoy themselves. At all costs, avoid creating or using battle game elements that are based around inactivity / not getting to play.
- Cheating
This one might seem pretty obvious, but it can’t be stated enough. We use a very in-depth rulebook to provide a framework for our games. When players act outside of this framework, it creates a great deal of frustration amongst other participants who are honoring it. Luckily, in my experience, this most often occurs due to a lack of knowledge or understanding. Keep this under control by knowing your group and assigning enough knowledgeable reeves. Make your reeves effective with things like bright gold tabards and whistles, and hold them to a high standard of professionalism.
- Not feeling effective
I saved this one for last because I feel that it is absolutely the most important. A good, healthy group will have a mix of skills, abilities, and talents amongst its members. Unfortunately, we often cater to specific skills and abilities while neglecting others. Pure fighting skill is a good example. It is absolutely imperative that you design games that allow more than just the good fighters the opportunity to be a hero. Examples on how to accomplish this will be discussed a little farther on. Needless to say, you will not retain members if they consistently feel unimportant / useless when they play.
- -Next Chapter: The Importance of Common Language
