No second chance to make a first impression

The theme of a game is something that needs to be considered carefully, as I tried to prove the last time I tackled the topic, pointing to issues that turned out to be somewhat problematic when it came to reception of some games. Sometimes navigating through what rubs players the right or the wrong way turns out to be surprisingly difficult, as a small misstep can make some of our potential customers unwilling to buy our product, regardless of the quality of its mechanisms. So, maybe dropping the theme completely would be a better idea altogether?

Image source: 
BoardGameGeek

The obvious answer is, well, no. Themes are there for two important purposes. The first one relates our game to other games already present on the market, allowing it to either stand out, or fall in line with similar products. This is a little bit like sending a message: “If you like games like Puerto Rico or Caylus, you will like this game as well” or “This might tickle your fancy if you like Talisman style fantasy adventures”.

The second purpose is of a seemingly different nature, as it is a more practical one. A theme is something that helps us learn a game. It uses shortcuts that help our brain process all the new information we are feeding it in order to finally sit down and have some fun around a gaming table.

Now, I know that at this point some of you might say that a lot of games do not have a theme and they are doing pretty well. However, even in some of those cases rudimentary theming is often also involved, especially if the game comes with six types of pieces, with each of them using different movement rules (and as a side note: while I would never try to argue that Chess is thematic, once you read The Flanders Panel, you will never look upon Chess the way you had looked at the game before).

Image source: 
BoardGameGeek

However, if you try to completely remove a theme from a more complicated (rules wise) game like Agricola, you will quickly see how ungodly difficult it would be to teach it to new people. Just think about trying to make new players remember that the yellow and orange pieces are multiplied through placing them on brown squares (which you first place on green squares), while the white, black and brown pieces are gained through placing them on green squares which need to be either surrounded by your sticks or need to contain a cube of your colour before you are actually allowed to place them, and any multiplication is performed only once every four, three or two rounds.

The two above reasons make some of the most abstract European games, excellent titles like the classic Goa, Shipyard or Yspahan cling to their theme, hoping that even with a significant number of disassociated mechanisms, they will still be able to make use of the ones that make some sense, and give new players a foothold, that will allow them to actually learn the rest of the game.

In short, the theme of the game is there to translate a bunch of complicated mechanisms into a language we can easily understand and relate to something we already know. Farming, building a castle, constructing ships, sending good overseas – all this help us make enough sense of some wooden cubes and some strange symbols to actually have fun while pushing them around a board. And the memory of this process also allows us to choose efficiently while making purchases, which brings us back to relating our game to other games on the market.

Image source: 
BoardGameGeek

A proper theme of a game announces what we can expect inside the box. A ship, a sheep and a sad guy on the cover will tell us that we will most probably be optimizing our moves, exchanging cubes for other cubes and preparing a nice point salad. A dude with an oversized weapon, a fiery dragon or a charging army will tell us that we will most probably be rolling dice, playing “in your face” cards, putting narration over common sense and relying on both strategy and luck to win the day. Altogether, the box tells us then, if the learning process will be aided by a positive filter, or hampered by a negative one.

Finally, it all boils down to our likes and dislikes yet again. I know a very aggressive gamer, a fan of extremely confrontational games, who suffered through an explanation of Istanbul and ended up really liking the game, after he had powered through the somewhat stunted learning process to appease his wife. I also know a very multiplayer solitaire centred gamer who decided to give Combat Commander just one try and ended up having lots of fun leading her troops, but only after overcoming her aversion to aggressive gameplay and World War II history.

And as much as the above cases tell us that many gamers can actually enjoy games towards which they were initially reluctant, the publishers should probably learn a completely opposite lesson. Because in fact, most people will not play a product they are not fond of right from the start, and with the abundance of games on the market today, no game will have a first (not to mention the second) chance to make a good impression – and very rarely will there be another person around to help with making the first one really count.

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About Turkey and the latest events

I had an article about last week's UK Games Expo, but I decided to postpone that article and get back into politics a bit because of what is happening these days in Turkey.

In my simple way of looking at the world, I see the political leaders as servants of their nation, as representatives of the electors and as protectors of the rights of people, principles that are at the foundation of most political systems. But I am not naive and I know that most leaders take advantage of the power they were given and play their own political games and I also know this is true regardless of the religion, of the democracy perception or the ethnicity of that country. But there's always a fine line between using and abusing the power.

In my humble opinion, the line was crossed for the past several days in Istanbul and the rest of Turkey. What made me take a stand and write is the first hand news I got from my friends living these events in Taksim Square, being abused by the police, sprayed by water cannons and poisoned by tear gas.

If the kind of pictures I've seen and the the stories I've heard came from the usual media channels I would probably feel appalled, discuss this with my friends but finally move on - it's sad but true, like most of us I see and after a while look the other way thinking that there's not much I can do - but having this first hand info, I decided this is the moment to speak up.

In a democracy the army and the police are institutions designed to serve and protect the citizens, common people like you and me.  I am wondering today how many Turks feel the protection of the police paid from their own taxes (and I am not trying to be sarcastic here)? I bet there very few and those who still do have no friends or relatives beaten up or arrested during the protests. I am not supporting the cause of the protesters and I am not against the Erdogan (Turkish Prime Minister), I simply support the right of the people  to speak up their concerns, their right to stand for a cause - whichever that cause may be - and the right to demand the politicians - as public servants - to listen.

I come from a young democracy where people are still easily manipulated into taking stand for the wrong reason, in exchange for money or supporting the wrong cause. But even if I do not believe in their cause, I respect their right to gather and voice their opinions. Lately, silencing the crowds rather than listening to them  has become increasingly popular among governments around the world.

Looking at the "riots" from a government's point of view, this is one of the worst things possible. If they talk to the people they could be perceived as weak so, who knows, maybe more strikes, protests or even a revolution will come. Not talking is another bad option, it shows that politicians have lost connection with the people (=voters) and their support private agendas. So, they figured out an easy way out, dismissing any protests as one of the following:

- Politically motivated, supported by the opposition, meant to destabilize the government and to focus the attention away from the important matters on the current public agenda. I am not saying this never happens, but most often this kind of message is pure manipulation with the sole purpose of ... focusing the attention away from the important matters on the public agenda

- Terrorism - the people protesting are immediately cataloged as terrorist, vandals and punks supporting an extremist faction which is trying to rip the country apart. This kind of labeling works especially well in those countries with minority problems, with a know history of paramilitary groups or with rather oppressive regimes.

Do you recognize any of the above in what is happening these days in Turkey? If so, I believe it is up to everyone to speak up and let both the Turkish government as well as your own that it is not OK to use police force against people and that freedom of speech is not a luxury but a right.

The blockage of the Turkish media, mostly controlled by the government, of the events in Istanbul generated a massive reaction on the social media, millions publicly showing support for the protesters in Istanbul and other parts of Turkey. With this article I am adding another drop in the ocean, hoping to [keep on] raising awareness. I do claim to know the Turkish political situation in details, I am not against the Turkish  government or Prime Minister and I have limited knowledge of the agenda of the protesters. But I know one thing, the violent response from the government is wrong! 

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