Exercise 6.3
Board Game Analysis
Choose one of the games listed and play it with a group of friends. Write your analysis of the formal, dramatic, and dynamic elements of the game in your game journal. Now find another group of players who have not played the game before. Have them play the game while you watch and take notes. Do not help them learn the rules. Note the steps of their group learning process as well as their impressions of the game in your analysis.
Analysis of Settlers of Catan
The Settlers of Catan is a multiplayer turn based board game created by Klaus Teuber in Germany during the 1990s. The game consists of mostly formal elements combined with dynamic elements such as strategy, chance, and competition which makes The Settlers of Catan a unique and compelling game.
The gameplay consists of players whom play against each other on a hexagonal tile game board, using a pair of six sided dice, using resource cards, using development cards, and using game pieces representing settlements, cities, and roads. Using a specific set of rules outlined in a included handbook.
Each player takes turns rolling a pair of dice. During each turn, the player can collect the corresponding resources and build settlements, cities, or roads to earn victory points. Building settlements give one point and cities two points. Additional points can be earned with special development cards and by building the longest road. The main point of this game is to trade resources. In order to win the game, the player must reach ten victory points
Each player is a settler on the Island of Catan. They can build settlements and cities in order to earn resources. There is little back story and players interact with each other to create unique dynamic during each play. With limited dramatic elements, the Settlers of Catan compensates by having rich dynamic elements in game-play. Each game can be new and unique because players experience strategy, chance, and competition. At the beginning of each game, a player determines where to place their initial settlements. Each terrain matches with a number and only when that number is rolled can the corresponding resource be collected. More experienced players will realize that choosing a good starting position will result in a better odds of success. A player needs to manage resources and earn victory points strategically in order to win the game.
A very significant dynamic element of this game is the chance and randomness created with shuffled cards and rolled dice. This randomness enables new and experienced players to play together and compete with each other more equally. A player can even steal cards from other players when they have a robber game piece. Other options include trading cards with another player or helping each other creating a mutually beneficial situation. After trying to play this game personally, I found the game very entertaining due to the possibly cooperative nature of the game.
Observation of Game Play
I observed four students playing this the Settlers of Catan during a regular fifty minutes school lunch time. The students had not played this game before. When they first started to play, the students were reluctant to start the game. They did not know where to begin and were reluctant to read the handbook. This board game was far different from the visual stimulation of computer and mobile games that they were accustomed. After five minutes of whining, one student finally picked up the rule handbook and began to read the instructions,.
The game finally started ten minutes into lunch time. As the students played on, there were more and more questions. Some questions were answered by the students that actually read the instructions while some questions were left unanswered. As more and more questions piled up, they became more and more confused and they they decided to make up their own rules for this first round. As the students became more immersed in the game, they became quite competitive. I was surprised to see two of the students trade cards to a mutually beneficial outcome.
Unfortunately, lunch was only fifty minutes long and they were not able to finish the game. One student even suggested coming back after school to finish the game! After observing these students play their first round of the Settlers of Catan, I can see why this was one of the most popular and best selling games of it's time. After playing the game, the students even decided to get their own copy of the Settlers of Catan in in order the play the game on their own!