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分析棋盘&卡牌游戏中的资源配置及信息隐藏元素

发布时间:2012-02-22 21:33:33 Tags:,,

作者:Lewis Pulsipher

棋盘游戏和卡牌游戏所存在的根本功能差异是什么?我不清楚此问题在游戏玩家看来重要性如何,但这在游戏设计师眼中显然颇为重要(游戏邦注:即便是电子游戏设计师)。显而易见的实体格式非常重要,但如今我们已能够将非电子游戏转变成电子格式,因此二者的界限就变得不那么明显。更重要的是,各类型游戏都着眼于不同的挑战和玩法内容,姑且不论它们采用什么实体格式。

此外,我们还可以参考某款采用特定格式的游戏,然后通过另一格式设计出内容相似的作品。我以此设计出一款地牢探索游戏,我甚至还运用卡牌制作出《Britannia》的原型版本。我相信这种情况时常出现在欧式风格的游戏中。例如,《San Juan》是款以《Puerto Rico》为基础的卡牌游戏,《Race for the Galaxy》亦是采用相同模式。但我们会发现,欧式棋盘游戏并未有按照传统方式将棋盘用于调遣或定位目的,相反它们通过棋盘追踪其他信息。那么什么是传统方式?

两类游戏的最大差别在于,卡牌游戏是基于隐藏信息的游戏,而棋盘游戏则是涉及调遣及位置元素的游戏(我这里的位置是指棋子的实际位置,“位置”意味着调遣或配置)。

Britannia from armchairgeneral.com

Britannia from armchairgeneral.com

卡牌游戏

卡牌本身就很容易隐藏信息。信息通常不为玩家所知,但在卡牌游戏中,玩家通常会持有某些其他玩家所不知晓的信息:玩家手中的牌、纸牌的用途及作用。玩过许多卡牌游戏的玩家会反复遇到这种情况。

这里也有例外情况。传统卡牌游戏《Bridge》就截然不同,因为竞价后,玩家的纸牌就会完全显现出来。这让玩家的伙伴得以获悉对手们所持有的纸牌,虽然他无法因此获悉各个对手的具体牌况。同样在《德州扑克》中,游戏会向所有玩家公开多数纸牌信息,每位只会隐藏两张纸牌。但在《五张抽牌》中,游戏就隐藏所有纸牌信息,有时这甚至会持续到游戏结束。

诸如《Bang!》、《Atlantic Storm》、《Brawling Battleships》和《失落的城市》之类的卡牌游戏就融入众多的纸牌,但有些位于桌面上,所以它们会影响游戏中的所有玩家。

棋盘游戏

传统棋盘游戏包括定位和调遣模式的非洲棋、国际象棋、九子琪、巴棋戏、西洋双陆棋戏及围棋和中国/日本象棋。这些游戏有些只涉及棋子的移动,例如围棋。而在有些游戏中,棋子的初始位置已预先设定,游戏完全围绕棋子的调遣,如国际象棋或西洋棋。很少游戏既涉及配置,又涉及调遣元素。

注意这些传统游戏的鲜少运用骰子。骰子会带来不确定性,属于隐藏信息(游戏邦注:但这里的隐藏信息和卡牌游戏的不同)。植入骰子机制是在游戏未融入纸牌元素的情况下呈现不确定性的典型方式。14世纪末手工卡牌首次在欧洲出现。标准盒装纸牌的制作技术直到发明印刷术后才出现,所以真正的传统游戏都没有采用纸牌元素。

卡牌游戏之所以比棋盘游戏更受欢迎,是出于如下几点原因。第一,它们相对比较便宜;第二,它们的体验时间更短;第三,它们比棋盘游戏更丰富多彩,因为每张纸牌都呈现丰富的图像。更重要的是,隐藏信息通过引入不确定性因素令熟练玩家无法主宰游戏体验,同时让表现平平的玩家能够在小部分情况下胜出。换而言之,相比全信息游戏,休闲玩家在隐藏信息的游戏中更有机会获胜,多数传统棋盘游戏都属于全信息型游戏。

融合二者的游戏

我们完全可能基于纸牌制作出相当于棋盘游戏的内容,但游戏融入的是棋盘游戏而非卡牌游戏的功能元素。我将此方式运用至两个游戏原型的制作中,我的目标是制作只以纸牌作为组成要素的游戏,但我希望融入调遣和位置元素。如今许多基于纸牌方格制作桌面棋盘的游戏都曾出于相同的目的融入纸牌元素。虽然我们会将有些视作棋盘游戏,例如《卡坦岛拓荒者》和《Betrayal at House on the Hill》,但它们其实也能够基于纸牌制作内容,例如在后款游戏中,方格隐藏信息的方式和纸牌被抽取前隐藏信息的相同。《Tikal》和《Carcassonne》也采用类似方式。拓荒者将棋盘用于配置目的,Betrayal将棋盘运用至调遣,而Carcassonne则将“棋盘”用作配置单元,而不是将棋子放置于棋盘上。

在棋盘游戏中,位置和调遣元素通常主导玩法。国际象棋、西洋棋、西洋双陆棋戏,甚至是巴棋戏都属于调遣型的游戏。Hex and Counter(六角格)机制的战棋游戏是典型的调遣游戏,虽然我们也融入战斗和掷骰子机制中的机会元素。而《Monopoly》则不属于调遣游戏,因为玩家无法控制自己的前进方向,但游戏有涉及位置元素。在《一字棋》中,玩家在将棋子放置于棋盘后就无需进行移动,但棋子的放置位置非常重要。

赛车游戏通常涉及调遣和位置元素,但速度竞赛内容则就没有。

当然你可以在棋盘游戏中引入隐藏信息元素。这并不是什么新策略。早在1个多世纪前,人类就设计出国际象棋的变体内容——军棋游戏,其中每位玩家只会看到自己的棋子,当对手消灭玩家的棋子或将玩家的军时,裁判会告知玩家。虽然“方块游戏”这一词会让人联想到Columbia Games发行的桌面战旗游戏,但其中涉及的玩法策略(至少可以追溯到《L’Attaque》)直到1909年才申请专利,这其实更多体现在复制作品《脑力挑战赛》中。Columbia games在游戏中融入骰子及更复杂的棋盘,但最重要的是隐藏若干通常会在棋盘游戏中公开呈现的信息。

和典型棋盘游戏相反,许多欧式游戏所引入的是,不是基于调遣或定位目的的棋盘。棋盘用于追踪其他类型的信息。用于追踪大量虚拟商品的玩家版图都是小棋盘。但即便是在包含更大棋盘的游戏中,棋盘也并不是用于代表定位或调遣机会。《国王堡》就是个典型例子。

此外,真正的战争游戏是隐藏信息和调遣元素的结合体。鉴于调遣元素在战争游戏中占据重要位置,棋盘战棋游戏比卡牌游戏更受欢迎就不足为奇。

二者之外的游戏类型

Puerto Rico from blog.metagames.co.uk

Puerto Rico from blog.metagames.co.uk

有许多游戏既不是隐藏信息类型的游戏,也不是定位或调遣游戏。融入众多零件、纸牌和棋盘元素的欧式游戏有些属于资源管理游戏(游戏邦注:例如《Puerto Rico》)。这些游戏既未融入调遣元素,也没有涉及众多隐藏信息,虽然其中存在不确定性。资源管理取决于隐藏信息和不确定因素。不确定性源自很多地方,但主要来自于玩家、隐藏信息、掷骰子或其他随机元素。

拍卖游戏也不属于这两种类型,虽然相对定位和调遣元素,它们更多着眼于隐藏信息。可以这么说,资源管理归根结底就是进行配套收集,拍卖游戏也是如此。

除此之外,我们还有演绎型游戏(这主要涉及隐藏信息,虽然《妙探寻凶》也有融入定位和调遣元素)。假若我们能够将所有游戏都具体分成“隐藏信息”、“资源管理”、“定位和调遣”及“拍卖”类型,那就再好不过。但我觉得这不切实际,至少目前我就能够列举出许多上述类型的特殊例子。

可收集卡牌游戏主要围绕隐藏信息,虽然有些和传统纸牌游戏一样涉及定位元素。

桌面RPG游戏广泛融入调遣及隐藏信息元素。相比棋盘或是纸牌游戏,它们更接近电子游戏的模式。

棋盘和卡牌游戏中的竞争元素

桌面游戏行业倾向制作能够减少玩家直接冲突的“欧式”游戏。它们通常更像是转变成速度竞赛的谜题,“多人纸牌游戏”是我们对许多桌面游戏的一般描述。但桌面战棋游戏更注重竞争和对抗。

Mark Johnson在最近的“Mark Johnson”(游戏学)播客中表示,卡牌游戏融入的竞争性元素比棋盘游戏少。是否真的这样,为什么呢?我觉得确实如此。因为棋盘游戏通常涉及调遣和定位元素,它们会比纸牌游戏融入更直接的互动模式,而纸牌游戏玩家则可以在不给其他玩家带来任何影响的情况下出牌。传统棋盘游戏通常采用消灭对手的模式,而不是将自己变得更强大,玩家在游戏开始时通常会持有一定数量的棋子,然后随着游戏的发展,这些棋子会逐步减少。围棋则和其他传统棋盘游戏不太相同。传统卡牌游戏通常涉及强化设置或及技巧。这类游戏的玩家通常只围绕一定数量的纸牌开始游戏,然后逐步强化自己的地位。

在多人棋盘游戏中,调遣和定位机制通常意味着你无法攻击/阻止所有对手,因为有些处在很远的位置。在多人卡牌游戏中,你的左右两侧都有玩家,游戏规则只允许你攻击这些玩家,或“任何玩家”。

电子游戏

那么相比卡牌和棋盘游戏,电子游戏的特点究竟是什么?首先,要制作一款向玩家隐藏多数信息的电脑游戏非常简单,这是卡牌游戏的特点所在。当你给电子游戏设定程序时,你需要向玩家呈现信息,否则他们就会一无所知。

这些信息会呈现在类似于棋盘的平面中,虽然此棋盘可能会比实际的棋盘复杂很多。《吃豆人》是调遣类型游戏的典范,《太空入侵者》也是其中之一。《文明》也融入棋盘元素,《文明IV》植入方格网,而《文明V》则是融入六边形网格。

许多“策略”电子游戏都属于调遣类型的游戏,例如《星际争霸》和《文明》。这类游戏的隐藏信息元素也非常突出。但其中也涉及众多制作和技术层面的元素,因此这些游戏更多属于资源管理类型,而不是调遣或隐藏信息类型。若将其缩小成简单版社交网络游戏,《文明》就完全是款资源管理类型的游戏。

电子平台游戏属于调遣型游戏。而传统的文本探险游戏则属于隐藏信息类型。这两类游戏的代表还有很多,尤其是传统探险游戏,但上述两类是最典型的代表。

抽象游戏《俄罗斯方块》更多属于调遣类型,而不是隐藏信息。《宝石迷阵》属于定位和调遣类型,因为玩家需要移动珠宝,从而让成串的珠宝一同消失。射击游戏既属于定位和调遣类型,也属于隐藏信息。

和射击或即时/回合策略游戏一样,电子游戏非常擅于将棋盘和卡牌游戏的元素结合起来。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

The Fundamental Differences between Board and Card Games and How Video Games Tend to Combine Both Functions

by Lewis Pulsipher

What are the fundamental functional differences between boardgames and card games?  I’m not sure how important this question is from a game player’s point of view but it’s certainly important for game designers (even for video game designers).  The obvious physical format is important, but now that we can convert physical non-electronic games to electronic formats the lines are less clear.  More importantly, each type of game emphasizes or encourages different kinds of challenges and gameplay, regardless of the physical format.

It’s also possible to take a game that originated in one format and make something like it in the other format.  I have done this with a dungeon delving game and even made a prototype version of Britannia using cards.  I believe this happens a fair bit in the Eurostyle games.  For example, San Juan is a card game based on Puerto Rico, and so is Race for the Galaxy.  But as we’ll see many Eurostyle boardgames do not use a board in the traditional way, for maneuver and location, instead they use the board to keep track of other information.  So what is the traditional way?

The most important difference between the two kinds of games is that card games are inherently games of hidden information and boardgames are inherently games of maneuver and location. (When I say location I mean the location of actual pieces, not a representation of some virtual commodity such as the amount of money you have or the amount of victory points.  “Location” implies maneuver or placement.)

Card Games

By their nature cards make it easy to hide information.  The information is often hidden from all the players, but commonly in card games one player has some information that none of the other players can access: the cards in his hand and what they can be used for and what they can do.  Anyone who has played many card games has encountered this usage again and again.

There are exceptions.  The traditional card game Bridge is unusual insofar as, after bidding, one player’s cards are revealed (the dummy).  And this tells the Dummy’s partner what cards his opponents have, though not which individual opponent has which cards.  Texas Hold ‘em is another card game where some of the information is revealed to everyone and only two cards per player are hidden from the other players.  But Five Card Draw poker hides all the cards, sometimes even after the game ends.

Hobby card games such as Bang!, Atlantic Storm, Brawling Battleships, and Lost Cities have hands of cards but some cards are placed on the table so that they can affect everyone in the game.

Boardgames

Most really old traditional board games are games location and maneuver-mancala, chess, checkers, Nine Men’s Morris, Parcheesi, backgammon, Go, and Japanese/Chinese forms of chess.  In some of these games there is only placement (and removal) of pieces, for example in Go.  In others the initial placement is predetermined and the game is all about maneuver, as in chess or checkers.  There are few games that include both placement and maneuver.

Notice that few of these old games use dice.  Dice provide uncertainty within a range of possibilities, a kind of hidden information but not the same kind as we get with cards.  Dice were the typical way to provide uncertainty before games could include cards.  Handmade playing cards first entered Europe in the late 14th century. The technology to make uniform decks of cards did not exist until the invention of printing, so the really old traditional games do not use cards.

Card games are probably more popular than boardgames for a variety of reasons.  First they’re less expensive, second they tend to take less time to play, third they can be more colorful than boardgames because of the artwork on each card. Most important perhaps, the hidden information tends to make it harder for a planner-style player to dominate play, introducing elements of uncertainty and chance that make it possible for a less calculating player, or perhaps I should say one who is less a classical/planner player, to win a minority of the time.  Another way to put this is that casual players have a better chance of winning in hidden information games than in games of perfect information, most traditional boardgames being perfect information games.

Hybrids

It is possible to use cards to create the equivalent of a board, but then we have something that is functionally a boardgame not a card game.  I have done this in two prototypes were my objective was to make a game with only cards as components (to simplify production), yet I wanted to have maneuver and location.  Many games that now use cardboard tiles to create a board on the table would once have used cards for the same purpose.  While we might think of these as boardgames, such as Settlers of Catan and Betrayal at House on the Hill, they could have been produced with cards, and in the latter game the tiles are used to hide information in the same way that cards hide information before they are drawn from a deck.  Tikal and Carcassonne do the same kind of thing.  Settlers uses the board for placement, Betrayal uses it for maneuver, Carcassonne uses the “board” as the unit of placement rather than placing pieces on a board.

In a boardgame location and maneuver tend to dominate play.  Chess, checkers, backgammon, even Parcheesi, are games of maneuver.  Hex and counter wargames are typically games of maneuver, though we also have combat and chance elements in dice rolling.  Monopoly is not a game of maneuver because you have no control over where you go, but there is the element of location.  In Tic-Tac-Toe (Noughts and Crosses) you don’t actually move pieces once you put them on the board but where you put them is vitally important.

Race games (getting to a finish line before anyone else) are generally about maneuver and location, whereas speed contests (something is timed individually and best time wins) are not.

You can introduce an element of hidden information into boardgames, of course.  This is not new. More than a century ago we had a variation of chess called Kriegspiel where each player could only see his own pieces and a referee told a player when an opposing piece took his piece or checked his King.  While the phrase “block games” tends to put one in mind of the wargames published by Columbia Games, the technique goes back at least to the game L’Attaque patented in 1909, more familiar in the copycat game Stratego.  The Columbia games add dice and more complex boards to the equation but the key element is hiding some of the information that normally is exposed everyone in a boardgame.
Flat (cardboard/chipboard) pieces that are placed face down introduce another element of hidden information.

In contrast to typical boardgames, many Eurostyle games include boards that are not used for maneuver or even for location.  The board is used to help keep track of other kinds of information.  Player layouts for tracking amounts of virtual commodities are small boards.  But even in games with larger boards, the board may not represent location or present opportunities for maneuver.  Kingsburg is an example.

Actual warfare is a combination of hidden information and maneuver, among other things.  Given the prominence of maneuver in warfare, it’s not surprising that board wargames are much more common than card wargames.

Games that are neither type

There are many games that are not primarily either hidden information games or location and maneuver games. Some Euro games that have lots of parts and cards and boards are primarily games of resource management– Puerto Rico for example.  There is neither maneuver nor much hidden information, though there is uncertainty.  Resource management depends on hidden information and uncertainty.  Uncertainty can come from many places, but mainly comes from the players, hidden information, or dice or other random elements (which cards can also provide).

Auction games aren’t really either type, though they lean toward hidden information more than location and maneuver.  You can argue that resource management comes down to set collection, just as auction games do.

Further afield we have games of deduction (which is largely about hidden information, though Clue/Cluedo includes location and maneuver as well).  It might be nice if we could pigeonhole all games into a very few slots like “hidden information”, “resource management”, “location and maneuver”, and “auctions”.  But I don’t think this is practical, at any rate I see too many exceptions to almost any set of categories at this point.

Collectible card games are largely about hidden information, though some have an element of location (cards face up on the table) just as some traditional card games do.

Tabletop RPGs involve both maneuver and hidden information in abundance.  They are closer to video games than to either board or cardgames.

Competition in board and card games

It’s fashionable in the hobby tabletop game industry to produce “Eurostyle” games that reduce direct conflict between players to a minimum.  They are often more like puzzles that have been turned into speed contests, not games, and “multi-player solitaire” is a common description of many tabletop games.  Wargames, on the other hand, emphasize competition and confrontation, of course.

Mark Johnson suggested in a recent “Ludology” podcast that card games are less competitive than boardgames.  Is that so, and why?  I think it is.  Because boardgames are naturally about maneuver and location, they tend to involve more direct interaction than cards, where you can play cards onto the table and do very little to affect other players.  Traditional boardgames tend to involve tearing down the opposition, not building up, you start with some pieces and lose them as the game goes along.  (Even in Go, where you add pieces to the board, you’re taking your opponent’s pieces as well.  Go is not much like other traditional boardgames, in any case.)  Traditional card games usually involve building up sets or tricks.  You start with nothing but a hand of cards and gradually build up your position.

In more-than-two-sided boardgames the system of maneuver and location often means that you are not able to attack/hinder all the opponents, because some are too far away.  In more-than-two-sided card games you do have a player on your right and on your left, and the rules may allow you to attack only those players, or “anyone”.

Video Games

We can ask what the nature of video games is in comparison to card and boardgames.  First, it’s relatively easy to make a computer game where most of the information is hidden from the player or players, a card game characteristic.  When you program a video game you have to deliberately decide to show information to the player, or he’ll know nothing.

That information can be shown on the equivalent of a board, though the board can be rather more complex than a physical board.  Pac-Man is a quintessential game of maneuver, as is Space Invaders.  Civilization uses a board, a square grid through Civilization IV and a hex grid in Civilization V (version V generally exhibits a greater influence from board wargames).

Many “strategy” video games appear to be games of maneuver, for example Starcraft and Civilization. Hidden information is also quite dominant.  But there are so many layers of production and technology involved that these games are more about resource management than either maneuver or hidden information.  When cut down to a simple version as a social network game, Civilization becomes almost entirely a resource management game.

A video platformer is a game of maneuver.  An old-style text adventure game is a game of hidden information.  Yes there is more to both, especially to the old-style adventures, but these are the major delineations.

The abstract game Tetris is a game of maneuver much more than a game of hidden information.  Bejeweled is a game of location and maneuver insofar as you move gems in order to cause groups of gems to disappear.  Shooters are games of location and maneuver as well as games of hidden information.
What video games are particularly good at is combining the two major elements of board and card games together as in shooters and real-time or turn-based strategy games.(Source:gamasutra


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