Analysis of Mechanics:
What are its core mechanics?
The game relies on a mix of luck of the draw and choices the players can make. There is a spinner that dictates what place you land on on the board, but there are choices and to make for your “life” at every step. Additionally there are consequences for those choices.
What makes it distinctive?
While in game play it is very similar to monopoly, it’s narrative is unique. There is not really another board game that let’s you competitively play out your adult life. It is essentially a way for kids to pretend to be adults.
What are its best and worst aspects?
The game mechanics are a bit uninteresting. It’s pretty similar to monopoly. Additionally, the narrative of the game is pretty unrealistic and the game seems to be only aimed at privileged people. However, while simple the game mechanics do work well to move the game along at a nice pace. And, the heavy narrative aspect allows for socialization between players. There is also some interesting conceptual potential in the idea of living out a parallel life.
The Prompt
With our prompt “make it relatable to millennials” we decided to make it an MMO themed life game, where you will play out you internet avatars life. We also wanted to make it more social, so now player play out their lives as a MMO party. However, at the end someone is still awarded an award for being the MVP of the party and the person who did the worst is shamed with trash talk from the other players.
We were also intrested in making the decision faster paced, and the game quicker.
The conceptual idea of the piece is to play off of the idea of a parallel life and how millennials where the beginning of a generation who could grow up with digital selves.