“Modern Lessons from Classic Games”
Part One: Chess
Let’s face it – We get a little compulsive when it comes to gaming. Of course, some games are more compelling than others. Here are a few of our favorite card and board games, past and present, and some of the game design lessons we’ve learned from them.
Chess – The Classic Board Game
Why has this simple board game survived for thousands of years and remained popular today? Everything is out in plain sight, there are only 6 types of pieces, and the board is a boring 2-dimensional checkerboard of black and white squares. If we proposed a game like this to a publisher today, we’d get laughed out of the building.
What’s to Love About Chess?
That very simplicity is a virtue. You can learn all of the rules in an hour and start playing immediately, yet there are deep strategies that take months or years to acquire. Chess only needs two players, so it’s easy to find a game. The equipment is inexpensive and durable. The best player tends to win (or at least hold the game to a draw), but a less-experienced player always has the chance to come up with a strong winning combination. There are strong national and international chess federations to rate players, hold tournaments, and help players find opponents.
What’s Not to Love About Chess?
Especially in tournaments, a single chess game can take hours to play. In fact, a typical open chess tournament consists of 5 or 6 games. One big mistake in any game can result in a loss that takes you out of contention.
This has been partially solved by use of the chess clock. In a tournament game, it prevents one player from agonizing for hours while his opponent suffers. There are also speed chess games in which each player only has 10 – or 5 or 2 – minutes in which to make all her moves. Speed Chess is a very exciting variant in which both players are likely to make mistakes. Chess also requires a lot of memorization, particularly of opening sequences, to play well. It’s “open” nature (no hidden information) has resulted in exhaustive analysis of opening sequences, which detracts from the creative aspect of that part of the game.
What Can We Learn from Chess?
Games don’t have to be complicated to be fun. Clear rules and a small number of possible “moves” that interact to allow deep strategy can make great games. It also helps that chess is a 2-player game. That makes it easy to find a single opponent and gives a “dueling” quality to a chess game. Chess also benefits from great publicity and online play ability due to the simplicity of the rules and game transcripts. When Electronic Arts first started out, their catch-phrase was “Simple, Hot, and Deep.” That describes Chess perfectly.
Similar Posts:
- “Modern Lessons from Classic Games”
Part Two: Bridge - “Modern Lessons from Classic Games”
Part Three: Dungeons & Dragons - Rock, Scissors, and Paper Tiger
Tags: Game Design
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Lori Says:
Somehow, I never quite got that lesson.
Posted: September 18th, 2008
Marquillin Says:
Chess is a great example of “less is more”.
Posted: September 15th, 2008