{"id":68,"date":"2020-03-29T19:57:16","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T19:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/chapter\/getting-a-better-understanding-of-war\/"},"modified":"2023-06-07T17:37:59","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T17:37:59","slug":"getting-a-better-understanding-of-war","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/chapter\/getting-a-better-understanding-of-war\/","title":{"raw":"Getting A Better Understanding of War","rendered":"Getting A Better Understanding of War"},"content":{"raw":"
\n\nThe game of War is a game for people of all ages to play.\u00a0 The game is very simple, you use a deck of cards, half of the deck goes to one player and the other half to the opponent.\u00a0 Both players flip cards at the same time and the person with the highest card takes their own and the opponent's card.\u00a0\u00a0In this analysis, I will discuss what the game of War is about.\u00a0 I will talk about how to play the game, what you need to use to play, who the audience is,\u00a0and the elements\u00a0of\u00a0a game that\u00a0Costikyan\u00a0states in his article.\u00a0 I will express the weakness of War and how it fits in to\u00a0Costikyan\u2019s\u00a0six game elements.\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nThe name of the game is War.\u00a0 The intended audience for the game can be anyone.\u00a0 War is simple and it is very easy to catch onto it.\u00a0\u00a0The game can be designed for kids, older children or adults.\u00a0 War is a fun game for people of all ages.\u00a0 The materials needed for War is a\u00a0full\u00a0deck of cards, minus the jokers.\u00a0\u00a0The dealer must hand out cards to both players so one player has half the deck and the other player has another half of the deck.\u00a0\u00a0There aren\u2019t any materials you need besides that.\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nWhen it comes to the game of\u00a0War, it is\u00a0considered turn based.\u00a0 It goes by rounds, both players flip over their top card to see who wins in the\u00a0round,\u00a0the winner of the round gets both cards that were flipped over,\u00a0then the players go again, and it repeats.\u00a0 Players keep flipping over their cards\u00a0until their pile is empty, after that with the cards the player has one, uses that pile to continue playing.\u00a0\u00a0War is an easy game, Aces are the highest card and beats everything, King is the second\u00a0highest and beats everything besides and Ace and so on.\u00a0\u00a0The number card\u00a0two\u00a0doesn\u2019t beat anything unless there is a War.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0A War is when both players flip over the same card.\u00a0<\/strong> When that happens,\u00a0both players place down three\u00a0cards, face down and flip over the fourth card, whoever has the higher card, gets\u00a0all\u00a0the cards that were placed down.\u00a0\u00a0Once one of the players run out of cards to\u00a0play and\u00a0doesn\u2019t have any more cards that they won from previous rounds, loses\u00a0and the other player wins.\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nIn 1994, Greg\u00a0Costikyan\u00a0wrote an article called, \u201cI Have No Words and I Must Design.\u201d\u00a0 In this article he explains his six elements\u00a0of a game,\u00a0those six elements\u00a0are;\u00a0tokens, goal(s), opposition, decision-making, information and managing resources.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Costikyan\u00a0said an activity must have six elements in order to be considered a game, if the six elements aren\u2019t present, the activity is not a game.\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nAccording to\u00a0Costikyan, these are what the six elements mean.\u00a0\u00a0Game tokens are something that represents a player and the player\u2019s status within the game.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0For example, in Monopoly, the fake money represents\u00a0how wealthy or poor someone is.\u00a0\u00a0A goal is something the player is striving for.<\/strong>\u00a0 In Monopoly, the goal is to\u00a0be the\u00a0last player with money or to bankrupt\u00a0all\u00a0the players.\u00a0\u00a0The opposition is something that gets in the way of the player reaching their goal.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0The opposition is also the struggle in the game, the obstacle you must overcome to be victorious and achieve the goal.\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nThere are many important factors in\u00a0War,\u00a0but\u00a0decision-making is the most important characteristic of a game.\u00a0 A player must be presented with a series of choices which will impact their chances of reaching their goal.\u00a0\u00a0In order to make these decisions, you need to have some sort of information.<\/strong>\u00a0 In Chess, the player is presented with perfect information, which means there is nothing hidden from the opponent.\u00a0 Lastly, managing resources.\u00a0\u00a0A resource is something a player uses in order to achieve the game.<\/strong>\u00a0 In Monopoly,\u00a0the resource is the spaces you land on.\u00a0 Using information, the player can know whether the space has been purchased or not, so they can use money to purchase it.\u00a0\u00a0Tokens, goal(s), opposition, decision-making, information and managing resources are the six elements\u00a0an\u00a0activity must have to be considered a game.\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nAccording to\u00a0Costikyan\u2019s\u00a0definition, the single major weakness of War is decision-making.\u00a0\u00a0The definition states, \u201cGames are a \u201cform of art in which the participants, termed Players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0There is no decision making because you flip over the cards in your pile face down, so you are blind to what cards you contain.\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nThe major weakness of decision-making in War affects other elements.\u00a0\u00a0The definition says players make decisions\u00a0in order to manage their resources through game tokens.\u00a0\u00a0In War, the game does not have decision-making,\u00a0you flip cards at random to see who has the higher card.<\/strong>\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nYou can\u2019t manage your resources because\u00a0again,\u00a0you are flipping cards at random,<\/strong> you have no idea what card you will flip next.\u00a0 You have no control over the card your opponent flips over as well.\u00a0 Lastly,\u00a0War does\u00a0contain\u00a0game tokens.<\/strong>\u00a0 The number of cards you have in your pile determines how well or how badly you are doing in the\u00a0game;\u00a0it represents your status<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0There is a goal to War.\u00a0\u00a0You need all the cards in the deck to win.<\/strong>\u00a0 Once your opponent runs out of cards, the game is over.\u00a0 The opposition is your opponent,\u00a0War is a head-to-head, one player against the other.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0There is no information in War.\u00a0 You don\u2019t know what cards you have nor what cards your opponent has either.\u00a0 Without any information, there are no decisions to be made in the first place.\u00a0\u00a0Decision-making is the single major weakness in the game of War.\u00a0 It also affects the elements of managing resources and game tokens.\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nAs you can see, War is a game for all ages, and it is very simple.\u00a0 The rules are easy to understand, and you can play with anyone.\u00a0 In the War analysis, I discussed the rules of War, the materials needed and how War is considered rule based.\u00a0 I analyzed\u00a0Costikyan\u2019s\u00a0six elements that must be included for an activity to be considered a game.\u00a0 If an activity doesn\u2019t\u00a0include\u00a0tokens, goal(s), opposition, decision-making, information and managing resources, it is not a game.\u00a0 War\u2019s major weakness is decision-making, and it also affects the elements of managing resources\u00a0and game tokens.\u00a0 According to\u00a0Costikyan, War is not a game.\u00a0 Overall, War is a fun activity to play with anyone and there are interesting factors that make\u00a0it fun and enjoyable.\n\n<\/div>","rendered":"
\n

The game of War is a game for people of all ages to play.\u00a0 The game is very simple, you use a deck of cards, half of the deck goes to one player and the other half to the opponent.\u00a0 Both players flip cards at the same time and the person with the highest card takes their own and the opponent’s card.\u00a0\u00a0In this analysis, I will discuss what the game of War is about.\u00a0 I will talk about how to play the game, what you need to use to play, who the audience is,\u00a0and the elements\u00a0of\u00a0a game that\u00a0Costikyan\u00a0states in his article.\u00a0 I will express the weakness of War and how it fits in to\u00a0Costikyan\u2019s\u00a0six game elements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The name of the game is War.\u00a0 The intended audience for the game can be anyone.\u00a0 War is simple and it is very easy to catch onto it.\u00a0\u00a0The game can be designed for kids, older children or adults.\u00a0 War is a fun game for people of all ages.\u00a0 The materials needed for War is a\u00a0full\u00a0deck of cards, minus the jokers.\u00a0\u00a0The dealer must hand out cards to both players so one player has half the deck and the other player has another half of the deck.\u00a0\u00a0There aren\u2019t any materials you need besides that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

When it comes to the game of\u00a0War, it is\u00a0considered turn based.\u00a0 It goes by rounds, both players flip over their top card to see who wins in the\u00a0round,\u00a0the winner of the round gets both cards that were flipped over,\u00a0then the players go again, and it repeats.\u00a0 Players keep flipping over their cards\u00a0until their pile is empty, after that with the cards the player has one, uses that pile to continue playing.\u00a0\u00a0War is an easy game, Aces are the highest card and beats everything, King is the second\u00a0highest and beats everything besides and Ace and so on.\u00a0\u00a0The number card\u00a0two\u00a0doesn\u2019t beat anything unless there is a War.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0A War is when both players flip over the same card.\u00a0<\/strong> When that happens,\u00a0both players place down three\u00a0cards, face down and flip over the fourth card, whoever has the higher card, gets\u00a0all\u00a0the cards that were placed down.\u00a0\u00a0Once one of the players run out of cards to\u00a0play and\u00a0doesn\u2019t have any more cards that they won from previous rounds, loses\u00a0and the other player wins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In 1994, Greg\u00a0Costikyan\u00a0wrote an article called, \u201cI Have No Words and I Must Design.\u201d\u00a0 In this article he explains his six elements\u00a0of a game,\u00a0those six elements\u00a0are;\u00a0tokens, goal(s), opposition, decision-making, information and managing resources.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Costikyan\u00a0said an activity must have six elements in order to be considered a game, if the six elements aren\u2019t present, the activity is not a game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

According to\u00a0Costikyan, these are what the six elements mean.\u00a0\u00a0Game tokens are something that represents a player and the player\u2019s status within the game.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0For example, in Monopoly, the fake money represents\u00a0how wealthy or poor someone is.\u00a0\u00a0A goal is something the player is striving for.<\/strong>\u00a0 In Monopoly, the goal is to\u00a0be the\u00a0last player with money or to bankrupt\u00a0all\u00a0the players.\u00a0\u00a0The opposition is something that gets in the way of the player reaching their goal.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0The opposition is also the struggle in the game, the obstacle you must overcome to be victorious and achieve the goal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

There are many important factors in\u00a0War,\u00a0but\u00a0decision-making is the most important characteristic of a game.\u00a0 A player must be presented with a series of choices which will impact their chances of reaching their goal.\u00a0\u00a0In order to make these decisions, you need to have some sort of information.<\/strong>\u00a0 In Chess, the player is presented with perfect information, which means there is nothing hidden from the opponent.\u00a0 Lastly, managing resources.\u00a0\u00a0A resource is something a player uses in order to achieve the game.<\/strong>\u00a0 In Monopoly,\u00a0the resource is the spaces you land on.\u00a0 Using information, the player can know whether the space has been purchased or not, so they can use money to purchase it.\u00a0\u00a0Tokens, goal(s), opposition, decision-making, information and managing resources are the six elements\u00a0an\u00a0activity must have to be considered a game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

According to\u00a0Costikyan\u2019s\u00a0definition, the single major weakness of War is decision-making.\u00a0\u00a0The definition states, \u201cGames are a \u201cform of art in which the participants, termed Players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0There is no decision making because you flip over the cards in your pile face down, so you are blind to what cards you contain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The major weakness of decision-making in War affects other elements.\u00a0\u00a0The definition says players make decisions\u00a0in order to manage their resources through game tokens.\u00a0\u00a0In War, the game does not have decision-making,\u00a0you flip cards at random to see who has the higher card.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

You can\u2019t manage your resources because\u00a0again,\u00a0you are flipping cards at random,<\/strong> you have no idea what card you will flip next.\u00a0 You have no control over the card your opponent flips over as well.\u00a0 Lastly,\u00a0War does\u00a0contain\u00a0game tokens.<\/strong>\u00a0 The number of cards you have in your pile determines how well or how badly you are doing in the\u00a0game;\u00a0it represents your status<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0There is a goal to War.\u00a0\u00a0You need all the cards in the deck to win.<\/strong>\u00a0 Once your opponent runs out of cards, the game is over.\u00a0 The opposition is your opponent,\u00a0War is a head-to-head, one player against the other.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0There is no information in War.\u00a0 You don\u2019t know what cards you have nor what cards your opponent has either.\u00a0 Without any information, there are no decisions to be made in the first place.\u00a0\u00a0Decision-making is the single major weakness in the game of War.\u00a0 It also affects the elements of managing resources and game tokens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

As you can see, War is a game for all ages, and it is very simple.\u00a0 The rules are easy to understand, and you can play with anyone.\u00a0 In the War analysis, I discussed the rules of War, the materials needed and how War is considered rule based.\u00a0 I analyzed\u00a0Costikyan\u2019s\u00a0six elements that must be included for an activity to be considered a game.\u00a0 If an activity doesn\u2019t\u00a0include\u00a0tokens, goal(s), opposition, decision-making, information and managing resources, it is not a game.\u00a0 War\u2019s major weakness is decision-making, and it also affects the elements of managing resources\u00a0and game tokens.\u00a0 According to\u00a0Costikyan, War is not a game.\u00a0 Overall, War is a fun activity to play with anyone and there are interesting factors that make\u00a0it fun and enjoyable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["jacob-costello"],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[62],"license":[],"class_list":["post-68","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-jacob-costello"],"part":63,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions\/69"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/63"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/creatinggames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}