Market Mechanic Lecture: Money

Games that use money: The Game of Life, Monopoly, Daytona 500, City Hall...the list goes on and on and on.  But for something that is so prevalent in board games, money as a mechanic is an understudied topic.  Why use money?  What is the purpose of a money mechanic?  And for the more philosophical folks out there, why do we even use money in real life?

Why do People Use Money?

To understand why people use money we need to understand what the world looks like without money. Without money how do people get stuff from other people?  Without money some folks may get stuff as gifts or get stuff by stealing it.  Most of us are going to get stuff from other people by trading one thing for another.    

I want a slice of apple pie, you want a back rub, so I trade you a back rub for a slice of apple pie.  I did not rub your back because I thought you were a nice person nor did you give me a slice of pie because I looked gorgeous in my fedora.  I rub your back because in exchange I received a piece of pie and you gave me a piece of pie because I rubbed your back.  Both of us benefited from the trade. (You can read more about trade mechanics here)

 Economist have a formal name for this, they call it a barter economy.  Conceptually barter economies are easy to grasp.  I have something you want, you have something I want, we trade and we are both better off.  The downside is that barter economies easily become incredibly complicated.

Imagine that instead of wanting a back rub for a slice of pie, you wanted a horse shoe for your horse instead.  Well, I need to go find a blacksmith who will trade me a horseshoe for a back rub that I can take to you to trade for a slice of pie.  If I cannot find a blacksmith who wants a back rub in exchange for a horseshoe, I have to find someone else who has something the blacksmith wants for a horseshoe.  

Searching for the people I need to trade with to get an item the blacksmith is willing to exchange for the horseshoe I need to trade for a slice of pie takes a lot of time.  The time I spent searching is time I no longer have to relax or give other people back rubs in exchange for other things.

Money reduces the amount of time I spend searching to make trades by being a medium of exchange all buyers and sellers will accept.  If everything is priced in pounds of wheat then I no longer have to find the person supplying the exact good you want to trade for a piece of pie.  I only need to find enough people willing to pay me wheat for giving them back rubs to get a piece of pie.  You are willing to accept wheat in exchange for pie because the blacksmith is willing to accept wheat in exchange for a horse shoe.  

A medium exchange can be a commodity, like wheat, or pieces of paper/coin we call money.  Money has the extra benefit (in real life) of being much easier to carry around then pounds of wheat.  Money can also be backed by a commodity or by nothing at all.  No matter the case, money is a tool to make it easier for people to trade with each other.  

Use of Money as a Tool in Board Games

Money works best in board games when it simplifies trades.  Take The Game of Life.  All actions in the game can be reduced to whether or not you can exchange a single item to get a good or service.  Imagine playing Life where the Accountant gets paid by the Singer with a ticket for a rock concert.  How then does the Accountant pay the Doctor later in the game when their child gets sick.  

One way the game could have accomplished this is to include a set of tables that informs players how much of each service can be exchange for another.  For example, it might say that 3 rock concert tickets are worth 1 doctor visit.  A table large enough to account for all the possibilities of exchanges in The Game of life would be fitting for an Avalon Hill game.  Instead the game simplifies game play and reduces components by translating the ratio of goods exchanged into equivalent ratios of money exchanged.  If it takes 3 rock concert tickets to pay for a doctors visit then in a world of money rock concert tickets earn 1 dollar a show and a doctor visit costs 3 dollars.

Money takes all actions in The Game of Life and turns them into a single unit that can easily be observed and exchanged for any other actions in the game.  No need for any complex formula or table of exchanges that eats up time and takes away from gameplay.

Just because money makes trading easier, that does not mean making trading easier is desirable in a game.  

Settlers of Catan thrives on people navigating a barter economy.  Players have to navigate the process of trading wood for stone so they can trade stone for brick with another player.  They have to plan their cities and roads to acquire the commodities they need, both for trade and gameplay.

Imagine Settlers of Catan where settlements earn cash instead of a resource and construction was purely a matter of price.  Players would just focus on only placing the cities in locations that maximize earnings.  Decisions available to players would be reduced.  Players would no longer be interacting with each other over trading this for that.  In essence the game just became a new form of solitaire where you roll dice. Money reduces too much of the games complexity.

Money Theme vs. Money Mechanic

Money is only a theme if there is no exchange ever made with it.  Imagine a game where the person with the most money wins the game.  In this hypothetical game, you earn money by completing a task.  Once the money is earned you just hold onto it as a victory point for the end of the game.  The money is not used in any exchange.  Money, in this case is a theme for the victory points in the game.

Contrast this with the HoopCat’s game Fill the Barn.  In Fill the Barn the player with the most money wins the game.  However, players also need money to plant, fertilize, and harvest crops.  These are all actions within the game that might result in earning even more money.  So money is not just a victory point condition, money is also a way to exchange victory points you have now to take risks that might reward you with more victory points in the future. In this case money is being used as a tool to simplify exchange, making it a mechanic.

Congress of Gamers Preview 2013: Charlie Hoopes

Only a few more weeks to one of my favorite conventions, Congress of Gamers (http://www.congressofgamers.org/) in Bethesda, Maryland on September 28th & 29th.  In preparation for the event I am checking in on a few folks we have meet on the UNPUB circuit that we know are also attending Congress of Gamers.  Today I talk to Charlie Hoopes of HoopCAT Games.

I first met Charlie at South Jersey UNPUB last April.  He was there showing off his new game prototype FireBreak.

Charlie Hoopes: It was the first event where I showed FireBreak publically.   I was nervous on the drive to New Jersey that morning.  Firebreak was in a less-finished state than when we first exposed At-tat to UNPUB. And just because you and your own family like playing your new game there is no guarantee that anybody else will.

Dr. Wictz:          I think I was only a few tables away from you at South Jersey UNPUB.

Charlie Hoopes: You were 2 or 3 tables away from me and wandered over to play while taking a break from Post Position.  If I remember right, you suggested some changes and then immediately played a second game of FireBreak to test them out.  Your response as well as others to Firebreak’s debut that day erased any doubts I had over whether Firebreak was wroth further development.

Dr. Wictz:          Can you give us a quick overview of the games you will be playtesting at Congress of Gamers?

Charlie Hoopes: Firebreak is a cooperative game where players must work together to extinguish and/or contain a series of forest fires.  As the fire spreads, the players lose points, with extra penalties if buildings or wildlife areas are lost to the flames.  To win the game players must bring the blazes completely under control before they run out of points.

                          If anyone is interested, I will also have a copy of At-tat/Planx with me.  We have not taken this out since UNPUB3.  We are putting a theme on top of this path-making, board-vanishing abstract game prior to publication.  So if I can get the rough themed prototype ready in the next few weeks, I’ll be bringing that too.  Even if for no other reasons than to get feedback on the theme ideas from designers who already played the earlier un-themed version.

Dr. Wictz:          How has Firebreak changed since you started presenting it at UNPUB events?

Charlie Hoopes: Has it ever.  I would say that the advice from Dr. Wictz and other designers at UNPUB events has greatly accelerated the development of Firebreak.  At Congress of Gamers I will feature two major changes to Firebreak.

 

                          First, I have replaced the 37 individual tiles with 7 mega tiles.  The mega tiles are 7 spaces each, now giving a 49 space playing area.  Not only do the 7 mega tiles make for a very quick setup time, they also give me a way to guarantee that key areas (wildlife preserves, lakes, etc) can never be placed adjacent to each other.

                          The second changes is that instead of tallying points at the end, now you start with the maximum points and lose points as the fire spread.  If you run out of points, you lose the game.  Watching your points dwindle creates a sense of urgency that earlier versions of the game were lacking.

Dr. Wictz:          What inspired the theme in Firebreak?

Charlie Hoopes: My younger son (now 12) loves Forbidden Island and now Pandemic too, so for months he suggested HoopCat should make a cooperative game.  Yeah, right, game ideas don’t grow on trees, easier said than done.  With competitive games the tension and challenge come from the other players.  With a cooperative game, the tension has to come from the game itself, yet also be balanced just right so that the game never becomes either too easy or too impossible.  But then one day I had the idea that a fire driven by unpredictable-changing wind could provide that tension to a cooperative game.

Dr. Wictz:           How did you get into designing board games?

Charlie Hoopes: That story goes back to my younger son.  The full story was the subject of my very first blog.  Here’s the short version.  A few summers ago my younger son was excited to get a new game with a gift card he received for his birthday.  He bought a nicely-packaged game (that I will never name) from a big-name toy company.  it was the lamest game I have ever played in my life.  (Maybe they should have dropped by UNPUB for some playtesting before release?)  there were no meaningful choices to make, no way to affect the outcome and worst of all it seemed to drag on and never end.  We only played it once.  A month later, my son was ready to put it on the Goodwill pile.  I thought to myself, “Even I could make a game better than that.”

Dr. Wictz:          What games have you published?

Charlie Hoopes: We formed the company HoopCAT Games to self-publish our first game Fill The Barn.  Our game game was a hit with the Junior’s tournament at the World Boardgame Championship this summer.  Yet despite numerous positive reviews from Father Geek, Casual Game Insider Magazine, ISlayTheDragon, John Moller, and others, I am fairly confident we have not yet surpassed the sales figures of the wasted gift card game that pushed me into game making.  Although I think I made the better game, I just can’t match their marketing budget.

Dr. Wictz:          Why do you love making board games?

Charlie Hoopes: You have to love it - there is too little returns for too much effort to continue otherwise.  The first rule of being a game maker is don’t quit your day job.  When somebody plays your game and tells you they enjoyed it, that’s a reward that money cannot buy.

Dr. Wictz:          What draws you to Congress of Gamers?

Charlie Hoopes: I am drawn to any event that has an UNPUB affiliation.  UNPUB is wonderful because instead of you having to hunt down playtesters, the playtesters come to you.  And, how could I say no  when I learned that Congress of Gamers was the birthplace of UNPUB?

Dr. Wictz:         Any shout outs to your most dedicated game testers (cough cough, wife, gf, etc.)?

Charlie Hoopes: Did you say cough, cough?  Yes, I will shout out for Aaron & Austin (aka Dr. Wictz), you two have been Firebreak fans from the very first time you played, and I have appreciated your advice and encouragement.  And I will give a shout out to every designer who is part of the UNPUB community - if  I started listing names, I’m afraid I’ll miss somebody.

Dr. Wictz:          Thank you so much Charlie for joining us today.  If you want to learn more about HoopCAT games you can follow them on twitter @hoopcatgames, join their facebook group HoopCAT games, browse their website www.hoopcatgames.com, or read Charlie’s blog http://hoopcatgames.blogspot.com