Carcassonne, Caylus, and Catan

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AuthorTopic: Carcassonne, Caylus, and Catan
Electric Sheep One
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These three boardgames are very popular in my family, and in a lot of others, especially in Germany. They're all ingenious strategy games, with simple rules but a wide range of balanced but divergent strategies.

Their rules are simple enough, in fact, that the games could be given almost any theme or setting. But they are all cast as 'development' games in medieval or perhaps renaissance Europe (or in the case of Catan, a small hexagonal island being colonized in European style). And this flavor seems to fit well with the games' mechanics. No doubt the medieval development themes were established very early in the game design processes, and inspired much of them.

But could it be that much of the appeal of these games comes directly from their setting? Is their popularity a symptom of nostalgia for a period when building more stuff was not merely permissible, but unquestionably good?

Humans may well possess evolved instincts for building and expanding. Certainly our cultures have grown over millennia of struggling to build cities and produce goods. Then two giddy centuries of industrialization took us from the plow to the moon, and suddenly the music changed. Recent generations have grown up with energy crises, pollution crises, and climate crises, in steady succession, for the past thirty years. By now it must be sinking into our souls, somehow, that these are not just a series of isolated technical challenges. The collective unconscious is absorbing the awful news that growth isn't good anymore.

At this point my academic instincts to present two sides to everything have kicked in, and I have thought of an alternative, optimistic interpretation of all of this. But I'll wait and see if anyone else has comments first.

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Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00
Raven v. Writing Desk
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I'm curious to hear your alternative explanation. But I will say that I think those elements are present sometimes in the games you mentioned, though not on the surface and certainly less bluntly and painfully.

How many times have you seen someone (or even two someones) lose a game of Settlers because they got stuck on having the longest road? Or because they bought too many development cards, or too many cities, or built in a way that brought them lopsided resources with no way to balance them?

Then too there is the (rather Monopolyesque) limitation on building: you can't build if you don't have the playing pieces for it, so there is a static limit on how many towns you can have at once, and you can't canvas the island in highways (unless several players all abandon more constructive pursuits for it).

Anyway, I'm not convinced of the link between building and popularity. Other games are popular too -- even in Germany. And conversely, the U.S. is full of cynical, disaffected people who flock to beacons of hope like Oprah, but they don't flock to Catan in such numbers. Even in academia I find more people play Scrabble, and amongst gamers more people play Warhammer or Doom. I dunno...

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Slarty vs. DeskDesk vs. SlartyTimeline of ErmarianG4 Strategy Central
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Law Bringer
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quote:
longest road
Countless times.

Good days...

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Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Guardian
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I've never played Caylus, but I have played Carcassonne and Settlers. I don't think the games are appealing because of their atmosphere, or at least not completely. People like to play the games because the gameplay is different from the North American paradigm. They're quick games that get you right into the action.

And as for the emphasis on building and growth: ever play Monopoly? ;) Even though most people don't think in business terms when they play the game now, I'm sure people did when it first came out.

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Posts: 1509 | Registered: Tuesday, January 10 2006 08:00
Law Bringer
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I think the setting isn't really responsible for the popularity of the games, but it is interesting that they're all set in times well before modern .Then again, there's no a Starfarers of Catan game, or so the advertisement in my box tells me.

If there is an anti-expansion lesson in the games, it's unintentional. The problem is usually either beginning to expand without being able to finish (Carassonne) or getting into futile expansion wars while someone else quietly finishes smaller projects (Settlers). The lesson might be think small.

—Alorael, who has never even heard of Caylus. He'll have to look into it. He'll also have to find the name of another game he's played, which is non-medieval because it's wholly abstract. He figured out that the game always ends the same way, and it's always by making one player who can't win choose which of the others will. It's certainly an interesting dynamic, but it gets old fast.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Post Navel Trauma ^_^
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Don't forget Puerto Rico, the fun colonial oppression game.

Still, not all building games are set in ye olden days. There's Starfarers, which might disqualify itself by being Settlers In Space, but also things like the godawfully complex space-set Twilight Imperium, or the present-day On The Underground.

I agree though, present-day ones are rather rare. As an alternative explanation, perhaps the fact that we know a lot more about the present day makes it harder to be pulled into the simple abstractions of building that these games offer. Maybe you can make a village using a sheep, a few bricks, a bit of wood and some corn. Maybe you can make a spaceship using three energy sources and two lumps of unobtanium. But there's no way you could make a car out of three bits of coal, one lump of electricity and two lumps of iron ore.

[ Saturday, March 24, 2007 11:13: Message edited by: Khoth ]

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Posts: 1798 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Shaper
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Seidler von Catan, good times. We would play that in my German class. My team would always cheat and, instead of expanding our settlements, we would just collect cards non-stop. It worked, we usually won, stratagy smatagy.

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You lose.
Posts: 2156 | Registered: Thursday, August 24 2006 07:00
Raven v. Writing Desk
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Khoth's post clearly suggests what somebody's next project needs to be: Settlers of Spiderweb. If you gather some spam, some content, a server and some software, and you can make a satellite forum. Servers and software allow you to build more extensive network connections, while enough spam and content will allow you to upgrade your satellite forum into a forum that people actually visit. Spam, content, and servers allow you to buy community cards. The Ur-Noob may try to steal your resources, but you can always play a Moderator card to force him to move...

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Slarty vs. DeskDesk vs. SlartyTimeline of ErmarianG4 Strategy Central
Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00
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That makes me feel like the scientist whose innocent theories are used by some evil guy to create a horrific world-domination device (probably involving nuclear weapons, zombies or both)

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Barcoorah: I even did it to a big dorset ram.

desperance.net - Don't follow this link
Posts: 1798 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Off With Their Heads
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quote:
Originally written by Khoth:

But there's no way you could make a car out of three bits of coal, one lump of electricity and two lumps of iron ore.
Pssh, you mean you can't.

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Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Law Bringer
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quote:
Originally written by Khoth:

That makes me feel like the scientist whose innocent theories are used by some evil guy to create a horrific world-domination device (probably involving nuclear weapons, zombies or both)
You expected a topic to stay on track?

Still I used to spend hours playing the board game version of Civilization. Working my way up the ladder of civilization while sabatoging the other players. Although there was one time that they all ganged up on me to send Egypt back down with a host of plagues.
Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00