Magically Delicious Gaming

One part of Chris Crawford's article, "What is a Game?" that really struck me as being interesting as well as relevant to the type of games I play was the part about the significance and of interaction in games, which Crawford also refers to as his scale of “gaminess”. Crawford explains the nature of interaction in games (a.k.a. the “gaminess” scale) by comparing puzzles, which have little to no interactiveness in them, to slightly more interactive games, such as blackjack and tag. Crawford argues that blackjack and tag are higher on the “gaminess” scale because they are more interactive than puzzles: there are more players involved, and there are decisions to be made or physical activities to be performed. The higher tier games on the scale are the more interactive ones, such as football (a whole team of players, more complicated plays on the field), bridge, and poker (bluffing, decisions to bet or fold, many players).

I found this part so interesting because it really matches up to some of the games I enjoy on a day-to-day basis. I am going to call it a board game, even though it is a card game, but I’m going to post that my favorite “board” game is Magic: the Gathering. Yes, it’s those strange cards with the pretty yet trippy pictures on them that all the nerdy kids at your high school played at their own secluded lunch table, but I play it and I think if Chris Crawford knew about it, he’d rank it an 11 out of 10 on the “gaminess” scale. First off, there are a few hundred cards that come out in each new “set”—the most currently printed cards, so combined with all of the old sets, there are thousands of possibilities to put in each 60-card deck. That allows for creativity on the players’ part, so two players may have decks with the same basic colors (there are 5 colors in Magic cards, each representing elements…I told you, it’s nerd stuff) but the decks can be completely different when played. Magic is also highly interactive, because each player needs to be able to play cards on his or her turn and often be able to stop the opponents on their turns with special "Counterspell" cards. As Crawford describes with the traditional card games bridge and poker, there is also deception, cooperation, lots of strategy, as well as trying to interpret what the opponent will do.