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vanderz's Apples to Apples (Other)
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| [March 4, 2010 05:19:13 PM]
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Playing the game for additional time provided some more insight into the game play.
Apples to Apples is very much a social game. The interaction between the judge and players is crucial to game play. However, the interaction between all of the players is what makes the game fun. Laughing together at the submissions and the noun/adjective combinations was the best part of playing the game.
Because of this, a computer version of this game would not have the same value as the physical game. Evidently, a computer version of this game exits, but I have not played it. However, I feel that the game is largely fun because of the social interaction between the players and this would be diminished or lost in a digital version.
For us, winning the game was actually not that important. When we played again, we didn't even stop the game once one of the players reached the necessary number of card to win. Instead, we just kept playing and several of the players ended up with large stacks of green cards. For us, the actual game play was what was fun and not the goal of beating the other players.
The game does not really show emergent complexity. There really is not much skill to the game. Much of the game is luck and depends on what you have in your hand and what card the judge selects from the deck. The only amount of skill that one can use is how well you know the other players. For example, I had a card that I knew a certain player would probably choose regardless of what the adjective card was. I chose to save that card so that I could play it when that player became judge. Because of that, I was able to win that round.
One interesting part of gameplay that I noticed while we were playing the game was that the judging actually varied. At first, the judges tended to choose noun cards that were closely related to the adjective cards. After a while of playing, this began to change and judges started to choose the funnier card or the more ridiculous card even if one that was more appropriate existed.
In conclusion, Apples to Apples is a very entertaining and social game. It is a very easy game, but that does not detract from its enjoyment. I would play this again and would definitely recommend it to others.
This entry has been edited 3 times. It was last edited on Mar 4th, 2010 at 23:05:05.
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| [March 4, 2010 04:19:19 PM]
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For my second game analysis, I chose the card game Apples to Apples. There is a Wikipedia page for the game, but I will provide a quick overview of the game rules and gameplay.
Rules and Gameplay
There are two types of cards in the game that are colored either red or green. The red cards have a noun and a short description of that noun. The noun can include anything from a famous person, city, object, animal, etc. The green cards have an adjective and a few synonyms to help those who are not familiar with the word.
Image showing the stacks of red and green cards
There can be 4-10 players, and each player is dealt 7 of the red cards. For each round, there is a judge who picks up a green card and reads the card to the other players. The other players must then choose a red card from their hand that they believe fits the adjective on the green card. Once everyone has given a card to the judge, the judge shuffles the cards and selects the card that they feel best fits the adjective. The player whose card is chosen gets the green card. Play continues with the next person clockwise becoming the judge. The players who submitted a red card are allowed to get another red card so that they keep 7 in their hand. The game is won once one of the players collects a certain number of green cards. That number is dependent on the number of players playing.
Image showing a green card and the cards submitted by the players to the judge.
Analysis
Apples to Apples is a very easy game to play and is very easy to understand. The rules are very simple and can be explained to new users quickly unlike some other board games or card games I've played. Some of those games require you to constantly reference the instructions, and sometimes you actually have to play through it once before you actually understand what the directions meant. That is definitely not the case with Apples to Apples.
Even though Apples to Apples is an easy game to play, it does not mean that it isn't fun. The game is actually a very entertaining card game to play and especially with people that you know. The game has won several awards and deservedly so.
Much of the entertainment derives from the combinations of adjectives and nouns that result from the players' submissions. For example, the image above shows somebody who submitted "My Bedroom" for the adjective "Spooky". For us, probably the most laughs resulted because of funny combinations.
With a smaller number of players, we actually found it more entertaining for the judge to read aloud all of the cards instead of just the winning card. Many times while we played, the judge would read each card with maybe a small critique and end with the winning card. It even helped build anticipation for the other players when they realize their card hadn't been read yet and that they might win that round.
Unlike some other games, there is very little cause of frustration that results from playing the game. One of the things that could be considered frustrating was when a judge had to choose between really good cards or when a judge had really bad submissions and had to choose the card that was the least terrible. Another small cause of frustration was when you had a really good submission and was sure to win, yet someone else had submitted a card that was even better. For example, surely "Bon-Bons" would win for "Appetizing". Unfortunately, someone else had "Lobster" to play. However, these things are many times part of the fun, and if you're going to actually get frustrated in these situations, you probably couldn't enjoy any kind of game.
This entry has been edited 3 times. It was last edited on Mar 4th, 2010 at 22:48:32.
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vanderz's Apples to Apples (Other)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Wednesday 3 March, 2010
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