Developing a New Major

Image via Wikipediach2 – what’s in a game

good summary of thigns that go into a card game specifically and in most cases, games in general – i think it’s in this chapter – part of hte fun of games is the social time, the chance to talk during deals and after your hand is played

cards – pressed pastedboard printed on both sides – one side has hte suit and numbers, other some kind of pattern – this is important

randomness and secrecy

• other players can’t tell what you have because all backs look alike – he says then we have randomness in what suits/numbers you get because the cards are shuffled and secrecy because backs all the same so only the card holder knows what he has, games start from a random position
• different from dice – no secrecy – everyone knows what ya rolled right away (tho ya do get randomness since different every roll), similar to tile games (scrabble, backgammon) since they’re all the same on their backs so get secrecy

chance and skill

• card games bring a mix of chance and skill, different games more chance, others more skill lots of games so each person can ususally find one iwth a mix they prefer



• chance comes in because you get random start  – cards shuffled each hand and htey’re dealt face down so ya don’t know what others have (imperfect knowledge), opening unpredictable & unknown & unequal (some people may get a better hand than others)
• board games ahve fixed opening positions – everyone on the Go square, chess pieces have regulated positions
• get equality because game usually consists of several hands so over time you should get better hands and better chance to score/win or you might play as a team and maybe your partner(s) have better hands
• kid games often all chance – everything depends on the roll of hte dice, can win or lose on one roll
• skill shows up in games where certain people win more than others – skills include observation, reaction speed, ability to bluff, cheating, strategy, some memory
• strategy – choosing hte right move, some games have no choice – you roll and move number of squares indicated, need interesting/meaningful choice, need to be able to tell if some moves are better than others , more significant choice = more skill based game (rather than chance based)
• coherence = how your play affects the other players’ choices and how stuff at beginning affects stuff at the end of the game, can’t have a strategic opening because start is random, need information to form strategy (games that have auctions like bridge give players some additional info, uncertainty tho is important to making a card game fun
• information = if choice is important then you have to have information because uninformed choice is just guessing and not fun; board games are perfect info since you see the results of everyone else’s moves; card gameshave imperfect info strategy is to get information (sometimes you have to give up a point or a card to get the info – like play one of your cards to see if htey pick it up); info gradually learned as cards are palyed/deck exposed, poker face is one way to not give out information, some times team members big out loud and that gives info ; watch the others players (use psychology) to get info; over times games have evolved to give more info at beginning than games did in the past but games with perfect info (all hands fully exposed) haven’t caught on (not fun); more info you have then the faster you can get more info

Scoring

• not just win or lose – it’s win or lose by how much
• counters used to be called fish and were shaped like fish, maybe because they were kept in the pool
• really counters came from the french word fiche (pin or something of small value) and they were kept in the poule (chicken shaped egg container) from which money stakes would be drawn
• other ways to keep score – chalk marks on the table,peg board like cribbage, pebbles

cards as games

• defined as everything that happens between one deal and the next
• card games are relatively fast (gambling games are really fast, strategy games slower)
• the play is what’s important in most non-gambling games – so you might win at the beginning because of a good hand but over time/several hands chance of winning should even out
• some games don’t have a specific end point – just keep playing hands till someone tired and wants to stop; others have specific goals to reach or specific number of hands to play

number of players

• lots of games for 2 because it’s relativelyeasy to find at least one other player (used to be you played with your spouse because there wasn’t much else to do) – ex: cribbage, gin, ?piquet bezique sixty-six
• games for 3 very popular – can’t have perfect info about start since there are 2 other people to consider, each player kind of playing against a temporary aliance of the other 2 players
• games for 4 – tables have 4 sides so easy to organize – different kinds of 4 player games
  • cut throat (no c ooperative play)
  • alliance (one player against temporary alliance of the other three or temporary two aganst two alliances)
  • fixed partnerships (formal two against two alliances, partners sit across from each other
• as number of players increases the less info any one player has about the starting position

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