Recording Games: Which Games "Count"?
I just finished up a game of Wallenstein on SpielByWeb this week (which I won, of course*), and it revived a little bit of a struggle within me about which games "count" when it comes to recording them on BGG. I know that this debate rages from time to time on the 'Geek and other various places around the old interwebs (like on a recent Boardgame Babylon episode), so I thought that I'd make my opinion bright and clear so that you, my fine
So here are my three rules for determining if a game "counts":
Rule 1 - A game counts if you play it against a real person.
It doesn't matter where you play it (online or in person), because any game played against one or more human opponents is real enough to count.
Rule 2 - A solitaire game counts if the boardgame has official solitaire rules.
If you take the role of multiple players and play aginst yourself in a game, it doesn't count. However, as a corollary, games that have "built in" AI (like most coop games, e.g. Pandemic) count even if you play them solo because you're still playing against the game, not yourself. 'Cause that'd just be dirty...
Rule 3 - A game does not count if played against a computer-generated AI.
When you do that, you're not actually playing the game. You're playing a computer-game version of the game, which is different from a computer interface for playing the "real" game against other people.
So are there any other situations that my three cardinal rules of determining whether a game counts don't cover? What are your rules about this?
*just a minor jab at Kenny and Tom, whom I totally slaughtered in that game. I mean, I really killed them. Okay, maybe "totally slaughtered" is a bit much. But I did defeat them soundly. Well, I won by a bit. It was pretty close I guess, but I did pull it out despite being 6 grain short in the second year...
How to deal with online play has not been a problem for me because I haven't played online. I do, however, find your approach to numbers 2 and 3 interesting. It seems the only difference between them is whether the AI is electronic. A solitaire tabletop game has AI, just one implemented with tables, cards, dice, etc.
What about incomplete games? If I've played a game for a substatial period of time (relative to its usual full length), I'll record it even if not finished.
What about a game that starts on one day and finishes on another? Do you record it as played on the day you started or the day you finished? Is it the same answer for a face-to-face game begun at 11:00 PM and finished at 1:00 AM and a game by email finished a week or a month after it began? For games played in one sitting, I tend to record on the day the game was started. For games played in more than one session, I tend to record them as played on the day they were finished.
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But the "AI" within a game (like a coop) is actually part of the game design. AI in a computer version is outside of the game itself and added in, usually by a third party and meant to replace a human player. So by its very nature, computer AI's are "artificial" to the game as originally designed and to the original game experience.
Incomplete games are more of a case-by-case decision. When I played Android, it took us 2 hours or so to play through the first week (half of the game), and since it was on a weeknight, we called it there. I felt that I had spent enough time with the game and it had even come to a quasi resolution, so I counted it. And for RPG's (which I record on Geekdo now as well), I pretty much count any "session", even if it is just character creation, world building, or whatever.
Games played over several days (like all play-by-web games) are counted on the day they finish. Games that start on one day and finish on another (passing through midnight) are usually counted on the day they were started (but that's mostly just because I'm entering all the games from game night at the same time, after the fact, and I barely notice what the times actually were).
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I agree with your points although I typically only record F2F games. I suppose my primary reason for tracking plays is to see how much value I'm squeezing out of games I spend good money on, hah...
I suppose I could track F2F and online games seperately... but it's a hassle since BGG doesn't offer that differentiation.
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But it does, Matthew. If you select the "More" option in the "Record Play" box, there's a "Location" field.
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I have read #2 and #3 four times, and I still am not following you. What's the difference? A computer-generated game is still computer-generated if it's you playing against the game, isn't it?
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#2 is about games that have built-in systems you have to work against when playing solo. Whether it is the disease mechanics in Pandemic or just the puzzle-like aspect of choosing actions in Agricola, the "opponent" you're working against is the game itself, as designed and intended by the designer.
#3 addresses computer-generated "artificial intelligence" taking the place of a human opponent. Fot instance, The Settlers of Catan is supposed to be played against 1-3 other humans, but the app I have on my iPod lets me play against up to 3 AI players. In cases like this, the AI is something artificial to the actual game (Setters) itself. It was programmed by a third party and was not a component of the actual boardgame design itself. So, because it is "artificial" and added to replace a human opponent, it "doesn't count".
Very recently (as in yesterday), however, I picked up the Roll Through the Ages app, and it's made me think hard about whether plays of it should count or not. That game (as designed) has solo rules. And on the app, you can play using those exact same rules. The only difference there is the interface; that you're "rolling" simulated dice rather than hunks of actual wood. So really, it seems to fall more into #1 and #2 rather than #3. But I still find myself not wanting to count those plays either. Maybe there's more to this topic...
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