What Makes a Good Strategic Game?
What Makes a Good Strategic Game?
What Makes a Good Strategic Game?
August 3, 2022
By Sarah Le-Fevre
Summary
Arguably, all games which have a win state, require players to adopt some form of strategy, in order to beat either an opponent or the game itself, but not all games will be suitable for learning around Strategy in its real-world sense, which is usually about achieving some outcome through a set of coherent policies, decisions and processes.
In between these two extremes is a very wide range of game experiences which can be used to create learning experiences around strategic thinking, and strategic planning and implementation.
You can even use 'off the shelf' game experiences, if you are satisfied that they will allow the testing of sufficiently relevant strategic 'experiments'.
Terraforming Mars is a game which has considerable promise for strategic ideation and innovation learning, but also in 'general' strategic thinking learning, without requiring your organisation to be in the business of terraforming planets.
The off-the-shelf route is also available here, and the best advice I can give in selecting a game, is to play, as often as you can, to get a feel for what a game can do in your learning setting.
Although 'Luck' can play a part in such games - the VUCA outcome more or less requires that - a too heavy reliance on luck as a play mechanic, will usually render a game less useful for learning purposes, because there should be some reasonable correlation between 'skill' in strategic decision-making and the success of outcomes, so as not to make players too frustrated, and to demonstrate the benefits of good practice.
As a certified facilitator in both methodologies, I can create and run strategy learning experiences using Lego® Serious Play® or Evivve, The Leadership Game.
Reference
Le-Fevre, S. (2022, August 03). What makes a good strategic game? Retrieved August 12, 2022, from https://ludogogy.co.uk/what-makes-a-good-strategic-game/