Ludology - First Impressions

When I first heard this term, upon reading about my embryonic Masters Degree some weeks ago, I was quite surprised that Wikipedia did not immediately have a nice concise definition to sate my curiosity. So I decided to leave it and wait and see how our first class would turn out. I was pleased to see that despite my lack of understanding on the precise nature of the subject, it turned out to be a very interesting and fun experience. The first order of the day, to create a board game from scratch using nothing more that 7 random objects, paper and governed by just 7 rules, was a unique experience.

My very first board game I felt was a decent first go and had much potential. Of course, quickly hammering out rules so that they are readily understandable to someone who didn’t just spend the previous 15 minutes writing them tends to be a little more difficult than I initially thought.

When we were given the rather brief time of only 15 minutes to come up a game from scratch, I was uncertain I would be able to come up with something workable. I remember saying to myself, ‘This is impossible, I haven’t played a board game in years!’ But, despite this, I was surprised at how fast I managed to come up with my simple game.

Being a geek of cosmic proportions, my mind immediately pulled some memories from deep within the nether regions of my brain about a game I was obsessed with as a boy, Warhammer. This table top war game has inspired many recent video games, Dawn of War, Firewarrior, Space Marine, Mark of Chaos to name but a few. I loved the dark and gritty setting of the games, and the wanton carnage and slaughter as legions of my little painted soldiers fell to weapons of preposterous nature over the roll of a die.

So with this in mind, I busily threw together a game that involved some strategy and of course, violence. Although you needed some stretch of imagination to picture a random construct of ill fitting, knock-off lego bricks as valiant warriors defending their base. After some much needed input from another classmate, and like-minded fellow, we managed to refine the rules somewhat to result in a basic game that worked. Almost. So this construct was thrust upon my classmates who obviously needed a stretch of the imagination and some wise council from myself to get the ball rolling.

I found myself constantly looking over my shoulder wanting to explain rules or aspects that were not very clear. This was obviously against the spirit of the whole exercise, but as my class mates got to grips with what I had written I began to actually pay attention to the game I was given to play. This game was unusual and completely different to what I had created, but was no less innovative and interesting.

It was cool to see how different minds and their resultant thoughts could produce such a variety of unique games, some based on well known games formula, others completely random and new. I was reassured that this course will be an interesting one, and I am really looking forward to some of the things I will learn over the course of the next year. I am also looking forward to the idea of some board game nights in the local tavern, where good cheer and fine mead will undoubtedly unlock the creative game geniuses trapped in us all!