How victory conditions frame play
How victory conditions frame play
How victory conditions frame play
January 13, 2022
By Terry Pearce
Summary
To understand each game's approach better, I encourage you to look at the games themselves, or better yet, play them.
The online learning game Evivve does something similar, but emphasises strategizing how each player will contribute their effort towards the common goal.
The boardgame Cosmic Encounters allows for two or more players to achieve the win condition in the same action, and with it a joint victory.
In the boardgame Ankh-Morpork, players each have a secret victory condition, and other players must figure it out to stop them.
Others allow gameplay to change the victory conditions, so that players can't ever be sure that the route they're taking will lead to victory, or can change the goalposts partway-through.
In Bridge, players in pairs must bid based on their hand strength, predicting how many tricks they will take.
The hope of the author was that players would play and realise, to use a quote from the 1980s movie, WarGames, 'the only winning move is not to play'.
Reference
Pearce, T. (2022, January 13). How victory conditions frame play - the winning issue. Retrieved February 18, 2022, from https://ludogogy.co.uk/article/how-victory-conditions-frame-play/