Cup of Head

Did I fail the game, or did the game fail me?

  As far as the CoH group is concerned (and I suppose gamers in general) I would be considered by most to be a cynic and a skeptic when it comes to what constitutes a good gaming system. My friend has his own blog on game mechanics and design that handles this subject thoroughly and I agree with most of it. But at the end of the day, the question I ask my self is "Did I have fun?" Nine times out of ten this has to more to do with whom I am playing than what I am playing, but most games IMO leave a lot to be desired regardless of my company.

  Blame it on mechanics, genre, style, or what have you, I find myself looking inward for the answer. As I often do in my real life, I look for my shortcomings first. Did I fail this game? Let us, for the sake of this entry, leave mechanics at the door. We will all agree to disagree on this subject for now, and from what I have experienced, I will disagree with a large majority of gamers as to what constitutes a good game mechanic and rule set. Rather let us focus on the feel of the game. I break this "feel" down into two separate yet dependent categories: genre and feel.

 Genre is simple. I like superheroes, fantasy, pulp, detective, cyber punk, western, sci-fi, and other few genres. I dislike vampire, werewolf, horror, zombie, WWII, war game, apocalyptic, and other few genres. A game can, in and of itself, make me feel the genre and thus get me halfway to where I want to go as a gamer.

 Feel is complex. It is the ability of the game to replicate that genre. The best example of this I ever played was Deadlands. I had serious problems with the mechanics, but put a poker chip in my hand, show me that custom western character sheet, and let me pretend my visa-vis is a cigar and I am having some fun. I wish I could tell you it was anything other than the game doing a good job of replicating the genre, but there it is.

  My friend recently got me involved in two super hero games (by far my favorite genre). Sentinels of the Multiverse and the recently released Dice Masters. One has fictional heroes in a card game that has each hero represented by a single deck as are his teammates, villain, and location of conflict. The latter is comprised of dice that represent a character and are rolled to see what that hero is capable of. Both captured the genre, but in different ways. The former played great. Each card played wrapped me up in the fantasy of my hero displaying one of his many abilities and which card I chose let me adjust to what the villain was doing or what my team needed. The later played flat to me. The collecting of cards and dice with my favorite Marvel and DC characters was fun, but when we got to playing, the dice representing the heroes were hard to get out. Not to mention, they did straight damage. No real powers or hero abilities to speak of.

 So here is my where my question comes from. When playing Dice Masters recently, the heroes were attacking robots and came from behind to win. After winning, we narrated how that would have looked in a comic panel or on a movie screen. The imagery was epic. The game was epic. But they were different. The game was epic because we barely won. The recap was epic because we added the feel to the genre that the game could not. So, is that the game's fault or mine? Is it incumbent on me to add the feel to the genre? Am I spoiled by games like Deadlands and Sentinels? Those games are able to provide genre and feel without me forcing my imagination into overdrive. Or, should I expect to have to add that imagery myself to get the full experience?

 I think it is a little of both but more of the responsibility should be on the game. Any good group of gamers, actors, or improvisers can bring the feel to any genre game. But the truly great games bring the genre and the feel. I watch some of our group members do a great job of playing bad games and making them fun. That is because our group is fun and imaginative. I just wish the games we play would help bring that genre and feel out more and games that are able to do that are more likely to draw me in. Sure, I can help, but I shouldn't have to help some of these games so much.

  Having said all of that, can someone get word to Dice Masters that I want the Nightwing version of Dick Grayson and not the Robin one? I need it for my collection.  Thanks.