Rules.of.Play.Game.Design.Fundamentals [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Enchanted Information

Whether you prefer a model of perfect and imperfect informa-tion or Pearce's four categories, it is important to consider the ways that games manipulate information to generate mean-ingful play. Consider the game Enchanted Forest, a children's board game that uses information in a number of ways. The game is summarized below:

In Enchanted Forest, players are seeking a number of treasures that are hidden on the board. When a game begins, a set of tree objects are shuffled and placed in set locations on the board. On the bottom of each tree is an image of one of the treasures in the game.There is also a deck of cards, each card containing the image of one of the treasures. At the start of the game, the deck is shuf fled and the top card is turned over. This is the treasure that all of the players are initially seeking.

By rolling two dice and moving on a network of paths, playersmaneuver their pieces to specific trees. When a player lands on atree, she can privately look at the treasure under the tree. If a player thinks that she knows the location of the treasure pictured on the face-up card, she can in subsequent turns travel to the castle on one end of the board and pick up the tree where she thinks the pictured treasure is hidden. If she is correct, she shows the tree to the other players, puts it back on the board, keeps the card, and turns over a new card, which becomes the next treasure for all of the players to seek. If she is not correct, she puts the tree back without revealing it to the other players and moves her piece to the village, which is located on the far end of the board from the castle. The first player to collect three cards and get to the castle wins.

Other special rules in the game allow a player to bump another player back to the village by landing on his piece. Rolling doublesallows a player to optionally take a special action instead of moving. Special actions include shuffling the card deck and picking a new card, looking under any tree, and moving directly to the castle

Enchanted Forest manipulates game information in a variety of ways. Let's use Pearce's four categories to analyze the use of information in the game. Enchanted Forest contains all four kinds of information:

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  Information known to all players: There are many elements of Enchanted Forest not hidden from players. For example, the networks of paths on the boards, the locations of the players' pieces, the cards each player has collected, and the treasure that players are currently seeking represent information known to everyone.



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  Information known only to one player: The one kind of information that is known only to one player is the loca-tions of the treasures that players secretly uncover as they move about the forest. In most games that make use of private information, that information is kept in a hand of cards or an otherwise concealed collection of game components. In Enchanted Forest, however, the privately held information is something that each player keeps in memory, adding to the challenge of using the information.

  
  



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  Information known to the game only: Initially, the locations of the treasures under each tree are kept hidden from all of the players. However, as the game proceeds, the hidden information about the treasure locations shifts subtly from this category to the others. As they move about the board, each player begins to piece together a larger picture of the information hidden under the trees. Sometimes, when a player correctly guesses the location of a treasure, the information is temporarily made public.



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  Randomly generated information: Enchanted Forest creates random information through a two-die roll. Players use each die separately when deciding where to move, so that rolling a 4 and a 5 can be used to move one space (moving five in one direction and then doubling back four spaces). These flexible rules of movement offer players many possibilities for navigating the network of paths on the game board. Moving onto a particular space can let a player look at a tree, enter the castle, or bump another player back to the village. Rolling doubles also allows special actions. Even the raw, randomly generated information of the die roll is used in a number of ways in the game.

  
  

  Enchanted Forest
  

As a game of Enchanted Forest proceeds, players gradually discover the hidden information stored under the trees, allowing them to build their own personal system of information and accompanying strategies. How will you navigate the board? Do you want to seek out trees that no other player has looked at, so that you have an informational advantage? Or perhaps you want to shadow other players and make sure that no one else has an advantage over you. Maybe you should just look at the trees near the castle, so that you can more quickly move there if a treasure you have seen turns up on a card.

If each player were allowed to take notes and store the data they gather, then a gradual accumulation of the game's hidden information would be inevitable. However, because players are storing all of this information in their memories, it is easy to forget exactly where a treasure is, even after they have seen it. The fact that players must memorize the locations of the treasure under each tree forces them to focus their attention on the game, making each guess in the castle a little bit risky. Furthermore, because strategic use of information dominates the game, there are many ways to acquire information, beyond looking under trees. If another player has just looked under a tree and is now heading for the castle, is it because she has just seen the treasure that is on the current face-up card? If you are closer to the castle, can you beat her there and make an educated guess based on her behavior? Or is it all a bluff to get you to waste your time making a false guess so that you will be sent back to the village?

The same kind of dilemma confronts you when you roll doubles and can take a special action instead of moving. If another player is about to reach the castle and make a guess, you can shuffle the deck and draw a new card. But that might only reveal a card that the player already knows. If you think you know the tree where the treasure is, you can teleport next to the castle. Or perhaps you just want to ignore the other player's movement toward the castle and use your doubles to look under a tree on the far side of the forest.