Playing Games

Josh interviewed me about UB3 the other night and we discussed how personal some people take the game. While I understand the frustration of losing, I don't understand the feeling of personal betrayal people feel in "reality games". Lying is part of the game. You can't get mad for people lying in poker, and neither should you be too upset about people lying in "social games" like UB3.

I am not very good at playing games. I like playing games, but typically I find that the rules eliminate all the fun moves you can make. For example, in the classic Settlers of Catan, there are so many rules about how you can trade that it limits the ability to negotiate with people. I like playing games that are more open ended. In talking with Josh I realized that my style of play comes from playing a lot of role playing games as a kid.

When playing dice-based role playing games the choices you make are open-ended. There is no straight path or limited options like a board game, there is just an open world and something you need to do. Coming up with outlandish off-the-wall ideas was an essential aspect of playing. Playing these games encouraged me to ditch the obvious path and invent new ways to reach objectives, including inventing new objectives, which in more traditional games would be "cheating."

For me playing a game is an opportunity to do something I'm not normally able or allowed to do. Playing any game is role playing. In video games I can shoot zombies in the face, fight space aliens, or drive cars really fast. SimGames (like SimCity, SimTower, etc.) all allow you to play a role (mayor, god, building manager, etc), and this idea of playing a role is how I look at games even when they are not "role playing" types of games.

I hadn't realized this about myself until Josh and I talked about it. So please don't be mad if I trashtalk, lie, and generally act like an asshole next time we play a game together.