Smorgazbord - Love Frustration

Love Frustration

FRUSTRATION! (by MB Games) is a firm family favourite in our house. We love playing it. Admittedly not so often with my youngest daughter who’s four and plays in her own special way. She can’t help it, which doesn’t sit so well with my eldest daughter who’s six and very serious about playing properly – not to mention winning.

The die-fuelled blend of race and tag is almost exclusively driven by luck. This is ideal when a range of ages and skills are involved as it tends to make all players equal. And it doesn’t adversely affect the fun as might be expected. Our games are typically exciting, not necessarily because the game itself is so clever or compelling but because of the opportunity it affords us to interact and perform with each other. It really is the taking part that really matters.

Playing games so often as a family (and playing Frustration! in particular) has made me appreciate at least the following:

Frustration! is more focussed fun than Ludo.
You get a lot of potent free spectacle when people play together.
The games you play with children aren’t always the ones they think they are playing.

“Frustration! is more focussed fun than Ludo.”

Frustration! looks like ‘just’ a version of Ludo but is in fact a neatly compressed version with two twists that make it more fun, more convenient, more dramatic, livelier and generally feel better. The twists in question are found in the board structure and the die.

The Ludo board is traditionally a cross in a circle, which may well have significant origins but can make for an awkward playscape. The Frustration! board is more streamlined all round. The large dead starting points often found on the Ludo board are reduced to simple, compact lines and no longer intrude on the flow. More importantly there are fewer spaces on the board (seven between each starting point compared to 11 or 13 in Ludo) and they run around the outside of the board in a neat circle, which improves the feel.

The die is contained within a ‘Pop-o-Matic’ – a dome which is depressed and released to buckle a metal plate and ‘throw’ the die. Unlike the more traditional loose die, this constrained version doesn’t need space in which to be thrown and it doesn’t get thrown into awkward spaces or end up at an ambiguous odd angle in a rug pile and need to be thrown again. It doesn’t even find itself detached from the packaging and lost over time.

Taking turns in Frustration! is faster because the die doesn’t need to be recovered after every throw. Not only is that extremely convenient, but the act of ‘throwing’ the die also feels good (it’s incredibly positive to the touch and the ear), makes you feel good and is lively and dramatic. Moreover there’s a dramatic focus with all players required to take turns at the centre of the board.

The pieces sitting neatly in individual slots on the board is more convenient: they don’t tend to get knocked over and it’s blatant that multiple pieces cannot occupy the same space, so there’s no scope for doubling up like there is in Ludo variant Uckers.

There are more spaces to circumnavigate in Ludo, which can be made less boring by using two dice to not only increase the pace of play but also increase the choices in play (dice throws can be combined to move a single piece or split across two pieces; however, what I like about the single die in Frustration! is the focus it provides – the unambiguous results).

I also like fewer spaces to cover because it increases the scope for drama: there’s more chance of colliding with other pieces and winning’s likely to be faster. (We usually play a rule that says you have to bring a piece into play when you get a six, which works well to spice up and speed up play, increasing the drama and convenience of reaching a satisfactorily swift conclusion.)

“You get a lot of potent free spectacle when people play together.”

Games played with real people in the same physical space feel better and are livelier and more dramatic than games played with artificial players or real players in different physical spaces. There’s a stronger connection to other players when you are in the same space and the increased convenience of interaction between players outside of the game makes for much more entertainment.

Moreover, all the observations, comments, etc made by the players mean you get so much ceremony for free. Emotionally charged people provide great feedback. There are a great many moments recognised by real players and typically with great spectacle. This performance is as much a part of the game as the game itself (and something that works well with Wii games).

When you are designing a virtual game, you need to (consciously or not) build in some sense of an arbitrator and an audience. You need to consider what moments are likely to merit comment and what form that comment might take. Obvious moments include starting play and ending play through win or loss. Usually you consider more – more moments to emphasise but also more variations of moments (for example, how well players win or lose).

Some key moments from Frustration! include:

When the game is set up (assembled). “Let’s go!”
When the order of play is determined. “OK!”
When the game actually starts. “Hurrah!”
When you release the Pop-o-Matic. (Trepidation…)
When the die stops to reveal a number. “Ah!”
When the number thrown is a six. “Yeah!”
When the number thrown is another six. “Oh yeah!”
When the number thrown is no use to you. “Bah.”
When you bring your first piece into play. “Hurray!”
When you bring your first piece into play after a long wait. “At last!”
When all four of your pieces are in play – and none of them is home safe. (Scary!)
When you are within a single die roll of someone else’s piece. “Hah!”
When you almost catch someone else’s piece and end up right behind it. “Ooh!”
When you get your first piece home safe. “Hurray!”
When you get your penultimate piece home safe. “Hurray-hey-hey!”
When you catch someone else’s piece. “Ha-hah!”
When your piece is brought into play to catch someone else’s piece. “Ahah!”
When you catch someone else’s piece just outside its home. “Ooh, close!”
When someone else has three pieces home and brings the fourth into play. “Uh-oh.”
When you win the game. “Hurrah!”
When someone else wins the game. “Oh.”

And so on (and on).

What’s surprising is just how many moments are recognised by players – moments that wouldn’t typically be recognised by virtual referees or spectators. There are concurrent moments (which don’t tend to happen too often in Frustration!) and consecutive moments – and there are repetitive consecutive moments to compound the spectacle (like throwing multiple sixes), all of which encourage commentary. If only virtual games were as rich.

“The games you play with children aren’t always the ones they think they are playing.”

I find there’s a need to play a quite different, quite careful metagame that’s invisible to the other players, acting like a secret DM or DJ, providing appropriate motivation and punctuation with a view to keeping play as flowing and dramatic as possible.

It often means I end up cheating but for the greater good, to make sure I don’t win outright but don’t lose too easily (or too obviously) either. It’s incredibly satisfying and inspires me that there’s great scope for making all virtual games even better.

UPDATE (Sunday 22 November 2009)

I’m now eagerly awaiting the arrival of “Double Frustration” after winning an eBay bid. I’d never heard of it. My expectations are low but I am looking forwards to seeing how it plays.