[HN Gopher] Zoo Vadis, or how to breathe new life into a thirty-...
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       Zoo Vadis, or how to breathe new life into a thirty-year-old
       classic
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 48 points
       Date   : 2023-01-10 07:24 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (boardgamegeek.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (boardgamegeek.com)
        
       | irrational wrote:
       | > While I wish we could satisfy everyone, we ultimately have to
       | follow the most logical branches on the decision tree. And as we
       | all know, that naturally leads to one crowning answer. Indeed,
       | this is the answer to the great mysteries of life, liberty, and
       | the pursuit of happiness. The answer? Anthropomorphic animals.
       | 
       | There is a kernel of truth here. Whenever humans are used in
       | board games, it inevitably leads to charges of misrepresentation,
       | cultural appropriation, historical white washing, downplaying
       | colonization, etc. The obvious solution is to not use humans. So,
       | use animals, aliens, fantasy creatures, robots, etc. instead. Or
       | just avoid using agents altogether. In Castles of Mad King Ludwig
       | you are building a castle by adding rooms. No thinking creatures
       | at all.
        
         | minsc_and_boo wrote:
         | When it comes to board game theming, I agree, and I
         | particularly like that they took the theme here too. It takes
         | the drier, more serious Roman Elections and makes it more fun
         | and fantastic.
         | 
         | I do think you lose the historical context on some of these,
         | but I'm not sure board games are really the medium with which
         | to educate history, especially if it means normalizing or
         | reinforcing social norms that shouldn't be.
        
       | jfzoid wrote:
       | Reiner Knizia is my favorite game designer of all time. I love
       | how he takes familiar games and "bends" [1] them into new games
       | by applying the right incentives into other games. For example,
       | Lost Cities starts off looking like Solitaire, but when I play it
       | I feel like I am using skills of reading my opponents hands that
       | I learned from my (brief) bridge days.
       | 
       | If you are a gamer, I cannot recommend highly enough Tigris and
       | Euphrates, Ra, Lost Cities, or Samurai
       | 
       | [1] I am trying to make a General Relativity metaphor here.
        
       | almostdeadguy wrote:
       | Old-school euros (sometimes called "Old-school German games" or
       | OGs[1]) are sadly a dying category of game amongst the new crop
       | of narrative-driven games or highly complex and thematic
       | solitaire Euros. Truly a shame, since these games along w/ train
       | games [2] and some economic games (Splotter games [3], auction
       | games like Neu Heimat/The Estates [4], etc.) are some of the most
       | intriguing and interactive games you can play. They are also
       | games that are truly about playing your opponents (choosing
       | actions that encourage them to better your position, learning to
       | play the game well at different player counts or w/ players of
       | different skill levels, etc.).
       | 
       | A recent evolution of the term "Euro" has given it the
       | connotation of describing games that are largely solitaire, but
       | historically it was used to denote games that lacked an element
       | of chance (little to no use of shuffled cards, dice, or other
       | sources of randomness), that were often not thematic or based on
       | a licensed property, but that were often _highly_ interactive.
       | Knizia in particular has designed some of the best interactive
       | multiplayer games of all time.
       | 
       | As much as I appreciate the resurgence of interest in board
       | games, I don't love that the designs seeing the most press are
       | narrative games that don't advance the medium or really lend
       | themselves well to the format of tabletop games, but rather seem
       | to be an attempt to bolt on the strengths of video games in a
       | clumsy way.
       | 
       | [1] https://boardgamegeek.com/guild/3948
       | 
       | [2] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/19/series-18xx
       | https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/65/winsome-game...
       | 
       | [3] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/140/splotter-
       | sp...
       | 
       | [4] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/249381/estates
        
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       (page generated 2023-01-11 23:01 UTC)