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Mar 28th, 2012 at 01:58:06 - Contract Bridge (Other) |
In the previous log, I described the gameplay associated with Contract Bridge. I will now analyze the overall the appeal and innovation of this game.
The most appealing aspect of this game is the social aspect. The game is played with 3 friends, and during gameplay, people can talk about their lives, make jokes, drink, or even watch a little television. In my case, I played this game at a birthday party with friends I had not seen in months. While playing, we talked about new things going on in our lives. We also talked to other people in room. Although it may seem like the non-participating player with the board hand might get bored, that player often would talk to others, get a drink, use the restroom, or watch whatever was on the television. It actually provided a pleasant break while letting your partner do the work. This concept of a board hand is particularly unique; I am unaware of many card games that have a similar feature.
The social aspect applies to gameplay as well. As I played with other people, I gradually learned their bidding strategies and styles a play. I had a chance to read other players' moves and expressions, almost like poker.
The other appealing aspect of this game is the amount of strategy involved. Due to the numerous tactics that can be employed in bidding and attempting to take tricks, Bridge does not get old. Furthermore, several variations on this game exist, which help keep even veteran players interested.
The most frustrating component of this game is the scoring. All the players had prior knowledge of the game, and two had even taken lessons. However, we still couldn't remember all the scoring rules without looking some things up. I'm sure this is not an issue when playing the game regularly, but this is a problem for casual players. Fortunately, we had easy access to computers with internet, but this could pose more of a problem when playing away from a home. However, I would not changing the scoring rules--they do add a great deal of strategy to the game.
Due to the popularity of this game, Contract Bridge has already been implemented as a computer game. Both single player and multiplayer versions exist. Single player is somewhat difficult to implement because players like such a wide range of conventions. Unless the player is allowed to program his own conventions (which would probably be more difficult than the average user would want), there is no easy way to accommodate this. However, some of the more popular conventions could probably be added. The best computer implementation of this game is multiplayer over a network. This allows players to utilize all their favorite strategies and keeps a small component of the social aspect. However, the party-like atmosphere is not possible via a computer implementation, and in some cases, discussion may be limited to prevent teams from cheating. Connection issues and voluntary quitting also pose a more significant problem in this style of game.
I consider Contract Bridge to be a fun option when choosing a card game to play. While it is easier if you have 4 players who know how to play, it is not too difficult to teach others. I plan to continue playing this game in the future.
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Mar 27th, 2012 at 20:28:41 - Contract Bridge (Other) |
Today's GameLog is for a popular card game known as Contract Bridge. Played with a standard 52-card deck, Bridge is a four player game. I have been playing this game casually for years and chose to write about it due to the extraordinary amount of strategy involved for a card game played with a standard deck.
The game is set up by dealing each player 13 cards (exactly one quarter of the deck). Jokers are not utilized. Gameplay is divided into a bidding phase and playing the hand. Players will look at their cards before making bids. Bids consist of a number and a suit; the lowest possible bid is one, meaning that you and your partner expect to win at least 7 "tricks" combined by the end of the hand. A trick consists of each player playing a single card; the player with the highest card wins. The highest possible bid is 7, which indicates that you expect to win all 13 possible tricks. The suit of the bid indicates which suit you want to make the trump suit. The trump suit helps determine which card is the highest in a trick; a card in the trump suit will always beat a card of another suit, regardless of the number. Therefore, it is advantageous to choose a trump suit for which you own a large number of high cards.
The bidding starts with the dealer. If he has enough high cards (Ace<-King<-Queen<-etc. are high), he will usually open with a bid of 1 or 2 in his best suit. Otherwise, players may choose to "pass," which means no bid was made. The bidding moves clockwise (player to your left) until 3 players consecutively pass, accepting the last bid to dictate the hand. Each player must bid higher than the previous player; for this purpose, the suit order from low to high is considered to be clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, no trump. Therefore, a bid of 2 Diamond can beat 2 Club and 1 Spade, but cannot beat a bid of 2 Spade. No trump can also be declared, indicating that you are equally strong in all 4 suits and do not want a trump suit. If all four players immediately pass without a bid being made, the cards are reshuffled and a new hand is dealt.
Once the bidding finishes, the player to the left of the winning bidder starts play. He may choose any card in his hand to place face-up on the table. After this card is played, the winning bidder's partner lays his entire hand face-up on the table for all players to see (partners sit across from each other). He is no longer involved in gameplay, as the winning bidder will play both his own hand and the "board" hand. The winning bidder will choose a card from the board of the same suit as the card laid down. Finally, the player to his right will play a card and then he will play a card from his own hand. The highest card wins the trick, and teams keep track of the number of tricks they have won. The objective is to play high cards in order to beat your opponent's cards. While you are required to follow suit if you have the suit played, you may choose to play a card of the trump suit if you are void; the highest card in the trump suit will always win the trick. The winner of each trick, lays down the first card for the next trick, and play continues until all cards have been played.
After all the cards have been played, the hand is scored. Scoring for bridge is complicated. Two different scores are tracked--a total rubber score and a game score. Points are achieved for the game only by getting the winning bid and then taking the number of tricks you were contracted to win. One hundred game points are required to win a game, and the rubber is finished after one of the teams wins two games. A handicap is set on teams that win a game in order to help the losing team. Points for setting a team (or preventing the opposing team from achieving their contract) are applied only to the overall rubber, as are points for getting more than the number of tricks bid and other bonuses. Very large bonuses are applied to the team that wins two games, as well as any team that bids and wins a "slam" (a bid of 6 or 7). The end of a rubber is considered the end of play (although multiple rubbers may be played in tournaments), and the team with the most total points is considered the winner.
As I have described, Contract Bridge is a fairly complicated game. Both the complexity of the scoring and bidding allow for a great deal of strategy. Partners that know each other may agree to "bidding conventions" prior to the game, which essentially consists of strange-sounding bids to communicate to each other what your hands look like (for example, after a certain amount of bidding, a bid of 3 Club might indicate that you are actually void in clubs). With enough communication in this fashion, teams can increase their chances of making very high bids and earning more points. Scoring also affects bidding in a balance of attempting to prevent the other team from winning a game but also prevent them from winning too many bonus points towards the rubber.
This complexity and strategy is what appeals most to me in bridge. The game never seems to get old as there is always more strategy to learn. The game has enough appeal to garner tournaments and countless books have been written on strategy and bidding conventions. However, the game is still fairly quick to learn, assuming one person is present who knows how to play. Players do not need to know complicated conventions in order to play, and the game is still fun. In the next log, I shall describe more about what makes this game so unique and enjoyable.
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Feb 5th, 2012 at 23:41:45 - Bookworm Deluxe (Web) |
In the previous log, I described the gameplay associated with Bookworm Deluxe. I will now analyze the overall design and possible improvements to the game.
The game contains only one screen; brown tiles are displayed on the right, and a bar with the score, level, and a couple menu buttons are displayed on the left. The gameplay demands that only one screen be used, but a possible improvement might be an option to change the color scheme of the display. The game also has no background music; some light and inquisitive music in the background could improve the mood of the game. Additionally, gameplay might be improved by an ability to set the difficulty. This game could easily be played by young children assuming the number of spawned fiery tiles is low. At the same time, a game with high numbers of fiery tiles may be more inclined to keep experienced gamers interested. Currently, the game's difficulty remains unchangeable somewhere between those two extremes. The online version of the game has no ability to save progress, but this feature is available in the purchased versions of the game.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of the game is that a definition for a word appears occasionally. For the curious gamer, like myself, the game should really display the definition of every word selected. Such an addition would transform this puzzle game into a highly educational game. Through playing the game, the user could expand their vocabulary. In its current state, the gamer does learn new words but will never learn what they mean unless he is curious enough to look them up. However, this change would need to be instituted with younger players in mind; parents may not want their children to learn the meanings behind words with more adult themes.
The online version of this game is fun, but I can guess that this game really shines on mobile phone platforms. Users could pull out their phone anywhere, take a couple of words while waiting for friend, and save their place for the next time they have a free minute. At only $2.99 for the iPhone version, I would probably purchase this game if I had a compatible mobile device.
Overall, this game is still well designed. It can appeal to a wide audience, it's simple to learn, and can be played for a few minutes or a few hours. It's that very simplicity that makes it so addictive.
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Feb 5th, 2012 at 23:41:27 - Bookworm Deluxe (Web) |
Today's GameLog is for a web-based game called Bookworm Deluxe. This game may be played online on www.popcap.com. While this game is available to PC, Mac, and several mobile platforms, it is available to play freely online. I chose this game because I played it several years ago and found it strangely addicting.
Gameplay centers on a single screen with lettered tiles. The game is a puzzle game; the player strings adjacent letters together in order to form words. Words must be three to twelve letters in length. For each word formed, the player gets points, and the letters are removed from board. The tiles above the removed letters fall into their place, and a set of new random tiles appears at the top.
Complicating gameplay, fiery tiles and jeweled tiles sometimes appear. The fiery tiles burn through the tile below it each time the play chooses a word, but they may be used in words just like any other tile. If these tiles are allowed to reach the bottom of the screen, the player loses the game. The jeweled tiles provide extra points and extra protection against the fiery tiles; they can survive multiple turns with a fiery tile sitting above them. These tiles come in the form green tiles (which seem to appear randomly), gold, sapphire, and diamond tiles. The last three appear only when the player takes a very large word (11-12 letters to get a diamond) or through taking a word with multiple jeweled tiles (Using two sapphire tiles in a word forms a diamond).
The final option the user has is a scramble button; this button will change every normal and jeweled tile on the board into random regular tiles. This button can be useful if the player is having difficulty getting rid of a fiery tile; however, it must be used with caution as scrambling is also considered a turn (so the fiery tiles will burn through another letter).
Much of the appeal in this game lies in its simplicity. This is the kind of game someone can play while doing other things; they can have a game open while they are cooking or doing laundry. It does not even need to be paused. The player can learn the rules in a matter of minutes, and I often found my parents and siblings hovering over my shoulder picking out words.
Despite its simplicity, there is some strategy to be learned over time. When I first played this game, I lost rather quickly. I later learned to build a "cushion" of jeweled tiles at the bottom of the stage to protect myself. I also gradually learned many of the three-letter words in the dictionary. There can always be a challenge in this game, though; as I played this game longer, I developed a desire to create words with the highest possible number of points. This requires building up layers of jeweled tiles, and gradually building very long words from them.
Playing Bookworm Deluxe again after years away from it, I still find this game addicting. I glance at the tiles, and I just want to take one more word before I quit.
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