I Play from the Gut

Stephen Colbert once quipped, “Your gut is the pope of your torso – it’s infallible.” It’s a part of his bit, his mockery of political pundits. For him, all decisions should come from the gut, not the brain. It should be the heart of reasoning thought – or unthought as it were.

I find Stephen Colbert pretty funny, but I also find that this bit has some connection to reality. That’s because there are some activities that should genuinely be undertaken with the gut in control and with the brain, if not disengaged, than at least in low gear.

And for me, one of those activities is gaming. You see, I’ve come to realize that I play games from the gut. Continue reading

Form Follows Function

Form Follows Function. It’s a rule in modern architectural design. According to Wikipedia it means that “the shape of a building or object should be predicated by or based upon its intended function or purpose.” I think that’s a rule that could be equally applied to board game components — and with at least as good of a result.

To me, you see, it’s all about usability. The components of a game should make a game easier to use, and for at least the last ten years we’ve been moving rapidly in that direction — to the point where I’m aghast when I pick up a game (usually published on the American market) where the question of usability has not been addressed. But, these questions of usability have usually fallen short of the architectural ideals that talk about how the shape of something can improve its usability, and that’s what I’m going to address today.

First, though, a look at what we’ve done thus far. Continue reading