Board Games like Space Alert, Age of Wonders and Stratego are becoming hugely popular across the world. With millions of people playing the hugely popular PC and mobile phone game – and millions more watching others play it live on streams and recordings at YouTube. The underlying game mechanics are simple: each person is stuck on some sort of space station and has to perform a series of basic tasks, from fixing the station’s vital systems to keep things running smoothly. Every person starts with a set of tools/stations which can be upgraded to give them more freedom, weapons and skills as they explore the ever-expanding universe.
One of the things that make these games so fun is their simple social deduction and abstract design. There’s not really any need to explain the mechanics of the game beyond describing what each player does in each turn. For example, in one game played by one player, he must prevent a group of miners from accessing the mines around him. If this task isn’t accomplished, he loses that player and a new player are moved in his place. Simple enough.
Similar to this same theme, the same concept is extended to the multi-player games played online via a web browser and the ability to trade cards digitally. One night Ultimate Adventures is perhaps the best known and most popular board game based on the Amazon Kindle. Players take turns completing tasks, resolving conflict or trading with other players and, once the evening is over, the last player with the most cards wins.
There are other examples, such as the one night Ultimate Adventures which pits one player against another for a set time period. This social deduction game features players answering trivia questions about previous events and seasons. The second player on each team takes turns being a doctor who must save the remaining players before time runs out. These examples, like Amazon US and Amazon uk., offer social deduction games that force players to think out sequences of actions and reactions.
On the surface, the differences between these games might be relatively small. After all, the goal of Amazon US and Amazon uk. is to accumulate cards that represent various objects to build cities and to earn points. That’s about the only difference. However, the similarities end there: both these games offer players the opportunity to build and develop their own civilization, while also using their brains to conquer others via card trading.
The fact that these games make us think helps to explain why they are so popular among us. It is not the unique sets of rules that make them so appealing. Rather, it is the ways in which the rules and the strategies within them stimulate the brain. We need to admit that a lot of entertainment comes from simply getting lost in a virtual world, even if that world is one of extreme complexity.