As you may or may not have listened, our latest podcast discussed the benefits and downsides of wanting to play new games all the time versus “mastering”, if you will, a game. In the podcast, I broke down the cult of the new into two categories: those who want to play brand new games all the time and those who want to play games that are new to them, not necessarily hot off the presses. We kept referring to “diving deep”, which I’m not sure we agreed on a definition, hence we came up with two groups within the tried and true games. Diving deep could mean regularly revisiting a game just for the enjoyment of the game, or it could mean revisiting a game with the intention of exploring its intricacies. When we came up with the podcast idea, we wanted to figure out whether it was more important to play more games or play one game better.
Anyway, I took my oldest son to the airport, and we brought Hive Pocket with us. We’ve had this game for a few weeks and played it once before, several times in one sitting. He read the rules and taught the game (and actually did a good job with the teach much to surprise). The results from that night’s five games were that I won three games, and he won two. And, as he put it, I didn’t beat him one of the games, I just won. That in and of itself is an interesting take on things for a ten year old, but I sort of forgot about it.
So, we’re at the airport playing Hive Pocket. Well, let me take a minute here to explain my views on gaming with children. My son is very bright. Sure, all parents say that, but I think it nonetheless. Because I know he’s bright, especially with abstract thinking, I don’t really take it easy on him. I want to challenge him. I want him to challenge himself. The long and short of it is that I don’t let him win.
OK, back to the airport. We’re playing Hive Pocket, and after several rounds, he is getting frustrated by losing. He started getting very upset about losing his ability to win. I tried to talk to him about the importance of working on the basics and not worrying about fancy moves. I also talked to him about learning from losing and understanding why and how the previous strategy didn’t work. How does any of this relate to cult of the new and diving deep?
After this attempt at a pep talk, he started coming up with variants. He wanted to continue to explore the game but wanted to do it in new ways that he thought would help him win. So, then, does that make a third, combined group of people that want to do both in the way that he wanted to do as described above? And, if so, when the person who ascribes to this mentality is a child, which one is more important?
Here are the variants we played and the outcomes.
Variant 1: Random Set Up
We played this variant three different ways.
The first time, he had all the tiles face up and just set them up in a pattern. We kept our queen bees and placed them last, following existing placement rules. Gameplay then continued following normal rules.
Thoughts: Because he saw them, I’m not 100% if his ten-year-old mind didn’t place the tiles a certain way on purpose, but I let it slide. It added something to the game in that we were working in a reactive environment, trying to make the most of the situation.
The second time, we turned all the tiles face down and created a pattern. From there, we flipped them all over in their positions. Then, we placed our queen bees and followed normal gameplay.
Thoughts: Pretty much the same as the first but erased any possibility of him consciously or subconsciously placing tiles on purpose. But, that being said, I wonder if letting him look at them while he set them up has some of its own merits because, hopefully, he’s using strategy as he places them. Hmmm…
The third time, all tiles, including the bee, were face down and placed. We flipped them all and continued gameplay as normal.
Thoughts: Not knowing where the bee was was interesting. Other than that, it played out similarly to the other times mentioned above.
Variant 2: Blind Drawing
For this variant, we had all of our tiles face down in front of us, including the queen bee. We drew and placed tiles without knowing what it was.
Thoughts: What was most interesting about this was his queen came out on his third move, and mine didn’t come out until much later. He was most upset by this and thought it wasn’t fair, but it did force him to have think more actively about his queen, which is something I don’t think he was doing up until this point.
Variant 3: Mind Control
My son is very aggressive when playing games. He doesn’t like penalties, but he sure likes inflicting them on others. To play using this variant, when someone misplaces a tile, the other player makes their next move. Everything else stays the same.
Thoughts: He was giddy with excitement when I misplaced (okay, I did throw him a bone or two. I’m not a total monster) and liked trying to “mess me up” by playing my next move. This is okay to me because it requires some thought as to how placing the opponent’s tile will play out in a way that doesn’t help them but somehow helps the self. On the other hand, when I got to do his next move, he was not a happy camper.
Variant 4: Hungry Beetle
Remember how I said he likes to be an aggressive player? This variant involves allowing the beetle to “eat” any bug he climbs on because he’s attacking the hive; the only bug that couldn’t be eaten was the queen. All other play stays the same.
Thoughts: He didn’t think this one out. He was consumed with how he can use it to eat up all my bugs, which he did his fair share of. However, there were times when I forced him to eat his own bugs because his idea was that the beetles eat any bug he climbs on. He did not like this idea because he also ate a lot of his own bugs this way. Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to play with this one a second time because his flight boarded. I would like to play it this way again because it forces him to think more about his play. How can I place this beetle so I eat her bugs and not my own? Is there a benefit to sacrificing my own bugs? Also, there could be a situation when no queen is surrounded because there aren’t enough surviving bugs to encircle the queen, so then there might need to be another win condition, such as the person with the most bugs in the hive wins.
During my drive home, I thought about if there was anything inherently wrong with his desire to make new versions of the game. It would seem as though he needs to focus on the basic Hive game before adding all these variants. At the same time, however, he is still displaying signs of excitement about and the desire to play and understand the game. By creating variants, he is thinking about the game in a different, deeper way. And, that’s good. But, his playing isn’t that strong, so he needs work on that part. As a parent, which is more important? Do I suggest a condition before he can start making variants? For example, before we let him play Sherlock in Mr. Jack Pocket, he had to successfully hide from Sherlock three times. This made him think more purposely and carefully about his actions in order to actually win and not just play haphazardly. What do you all think?
the ox pen 