Friday, December 01, 2023

Heavy is the game that holds the crown... Strategic weight vs Logistical weight

There are some games of a particular type that I sometimes refer to as "ducks-in-a-row" games, where the fun is in logistically executing actions rather than actually planning the actions themselves. Often in those types of games the strategic depth is low, so it's fairly easy to decide what you'd like to do... but actually getting it done is far from trivial. That can be a fun, puzzle-y challenge. While in other games, it might be easy to execute what you want to do, but coming up with what's a good thing to do is less clear

So maybe it's reasonable to split "heavy" games into 2 categories -- let's call them "logistically heavy" and "strategically heavy." For example, Ark Nova is strongly in the "logistically heavy" group, while 

Are there any games you can think of that are both logistically heavy AND strategically heavy?

The thing I'm thinking about isn't long term vs short term (strategic vs tactical), and when I say "logistically heavy," I don't mean planning... perhaps I should try again. The thing I've got in mind is (to throw a few more terms in the mix) Decision Cognition vs Compliance Cognition, as we talked about them on The Argument Hour... if you happened to catch that podcast.

Ark Nova has a lot of stuff that feels more like Compliance Cognition: 

I want to play this animal, so I will use my Animal action - no problem. I need an enclosure - it says I need size 4, oh and it says it needs to be by water. So I have to build that. Ok, what else do I need? A partner zoo in Asia? Ok, so I'll use an Association action to get that. Oh, I also need to upgrade my Animal action first? Ok, how do I do that? Oh, I need ANOTHER partner zoo, or I can get 3 more hat icons to do it... oh, or if I can find a way to get 2 Shields, then I can get it that way (as long as someone else doesn't do it first)...


In more general terms, this boils down to something like: "I want to do this? Ok, now I need to do these 5 other things first."

Some players play a game like that and think "I just want to decide to do the thing, then do the thing!"

This is what I mean by games that are logistically heavy. In order to do the thing, you need to do several other things, and each of those things might have a couple of steps or pre-requisites as well

But deciding which thing you want to do in the first place in Ark Nova isn't terribly complex -- it's pretty straightforward in fact. It's not the 'what' that's tricky, but the 'how', so it's not strategically heavy. The weight of the game comes primarily from the logistics -- from getting your ducks in a row

... As opposed to games where the what is challenging, but the how is not. I think these tend to be called "lighter" by folks

I think there's compliance cognition (which isn't quite the above, but is similar), there's logistics, and there's the strategic decision. At the highest level, you make your strategic decision, the move that's going to (hopefully) advance you toward winning. The next level down is logistics -- what has to happen in order to enact your plan, decided above? Below that there's a layer of rules that you need to navigate in order to achieve each logistical step.

In the simplest case, you decide what you want to do (decision), then you just do it (logistics), and you're allowed to (rules)

In a more complicated case, you decide what you want to do (decision), there are prerequisites and steps you have to take in order to do it (logistics), and then there are compliance considerations about what you're allowed to do (rules)

6 comments:

Scurra said...

I think this is a great analysis. I am a puzzle solver by nature, so I have no problems with compliance cognition because that is what puzzles are about -they define a set of rules, albeit often deliberately left for the solver to deduce, and then invite you to see how those rules are being enforced in a logical fashion. (As a result, bad puzzles tend to be ones where the setter sidesteps their own rules; sometimes this works but more often the solver just gets cross with the setter.)

And I can absolutely see how other people with a different mindset might get bored with that process. I tend to think that the trick is to try and deflect people before they discover that this is what is going to happen. (A good example of this may be when I was discussing Key Market with Richard Breese back in 2010, and we decided to do a Geeklist that specifically outlined how much logistical and compliance effort was going to be required in order to try and, well, warn people off before they got frustrated!)

Ludicioso said...

I'd say that Lisboa is both logistically and strategically heavy. Do you have any example of games that are only strategically heavy?

Seth Jaffee said...

Wouldn't Go be a good example of a strategically heavy game that's not logistically heavy?

I think games like that are not viewed as "heavy" much of the time

Ludicioso said...

If I understood correctly, you are saying that strategically heavy games put their emphasis on what the player wants to do. In order for that to be a meaningful decision, the breadth of options has to be very large, as in Go or Chess, because if the player can only get a card or place a token (as in No Thanks!), there is very little to think about.

Maybe Tikal could be one of those games, because choosing what to do among all the possible moves is what's difficult. Carrying out your play then is really simple.

I think that those games are not as popular today because they tend to produce a lot of analysis paralysis.

Seth Jaffee said...

I think you understand what I was saying perfectly :)

I don't know how popular that type of game (SH but not LH) is nowadays, but like I said, I think people don't view them as "heavy."

I think when people say a game is "heavy," they're probably usually referring to *logistical* weight

ekted said...

Innovation is a game where I am constantly distracted by all the Compliance Cognition options. I see a great move, but I need 3-4 turns to setup the right situation. My opponent takes a single turn which worsens my ability to exact my plan, and now I see another option. At any given time, there might be 2-5 logistical plans to carry out, and every turn, some vanish and new ones appear.