#12 - The Changing Game

The Changing Game

The focus of today's Occasional Newsletter is a kind of game I call a "changing game."

Why would today's Occasional Newsletter focus on "the changing game" and what would it have to do with my work as a game designer or anything else?

Because I am also an advocate of social change. I want the world to be more fun. I have come to understand that the idea of games that are actually supposed to be changed is an idea that is equally radical. Because as long as people believe that games aren't supposed to be changed, that there's only one way to play anything that is packaged like a game or even just looks like a game, they find themselves too easily believing that life isn't supposed to be fun Even if they really, really try to make it that so.

Here's an example of one of my more successful changing game designs. I often call it  "Panther, Person, Porcupine." (If you click on the link, you'll even find a video of me explaining and playing it. How do you like that?). I didn't design it as much as modify it. I modified it into a game that can get easily modified.

Ipso quoto, I share with you, in particular, the last part of the Panther, Person, Porcupine article:

I first learned of this game as "Tiger, Man, Gun" - a South American children's game played by two teams. (For more two-team variations, see this.) Over the years, the game became "Panther, Person, Pistol" (more fun to say). I developed the three-team variation for larger groups, and as a springboard for extending the game into a simulation. After we'd play a few rounds, I'd introduce an opportunity for teams to send representatives to other teams and make deals (we'll be Panthers if you'll be Panthers, too). This became a powerful little simulation of the politics of bargaining and negotiation strategies, and, because everyone knew that everyone else was probably lying, a lot of fun. Later, the Pistol became a Python, a Porcupine and even a Persimmon.

In the video of the game, when the players go to assume the "person position," they do so by hugging each other - what they considered to be uniquely personal, so to speak.