Blog Post for 3/21

Today I learned more about complexity in games by playing Dead of Winter. Dead of Winter was much more complex than other games we had played, and so as a result felt like a substantially different experience from those games. The complex mechanics of the game meant that there was a lot the player had to keep in mind, and a lot of different outcomes for each situation the player was put in. I felt that this was a positive, as having so many different elements made the game more engaging by allowing the player to adopt a wider range of strategies and generally do more actions than in less complex games. However, the complexity also had a few negatives. For one, the game took a long time to set up and to learn. It took us around half an hour just to set up the board, and learning the game took even longer. The rulebook was several pages long, even though a large amount of information was conveyed on the cards themselves rather than in the rulebook. The game was not only complex mechanically but also thematically. The game placed a large emphasis on story, having a short narration at the beginning of the game and so-called "crossroads" cards, played at the beginning of each player's turn, that helped to flesh out the story. However, I personally disliked these story elements, especially the crossroads cards, which slowed the game down substantially as the rather large paragraph on each card had to be read aloud before the player could take their turn.