He's Not Heavy, He's My Brother >> Classifying Heavy Games
Jason Little
United States
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
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Over the course of my gaming toward the end of 2005, I've been involved in some thought-provoking and interesting discussions with several of my GeekBuddies about "heavy" games -- an adjective that gets bandied about quite a bit for a variety of games.
But what does "heavy" really mean? Perhaps we can find out together.
This GeekList attempts to define characteristics that games considered "heavy" seem to feature. Not all characteristics are shared by all games, but I think there are a few common elements that -- for most people -- help determine whether or not a game is "heavy" for them. First and foremost, I think heaviness, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder. It's a personal metric combining gameplay preferences, experience comparisons and complexity thresholds.
I also add some "false positive" listings... Terms that seem to be used interchangeably with heavy, which I don't think are quite the same (again, based on my admittedly biased and personal metric).
What do you think?
Do some of these characteristics seem more applicable than others to the "heaviness" of a game?
Have I overlooked some important attributes?
Have some games shifted in your perception, from heavy to non-heavy (or back) with repeated playings?
What is the single heaviest game, in your opinion -- and why?
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Jason Little
United States
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
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Significant Impact of Decisions
I think this is one of the most important (if not *the* most important) factor in classifying a heavy game. Decisions can be important in all sorts of games -- even light filler games... But for heavy games, the impact is much more pronounced (it may be subtle, but have significant ramifications).
A game that adds significance and impact to each and every decision often has a "heavier" feel to it than a game where you may be able to recover from suboptimal or "whimsical" moves. For me, this means that you can't take a single decision lightly, or possibly that one poor decision can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Age of Steam exemplifies this with regard to issuing stocks and the tight money management necessary to keep from going bankrupt -- each move, each decision carries the risk of possibly putting yourself out of the game.
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2.
Board Game: Goa
[Average Rating:7.75 Overall Rank:28]
Jason Little
United States
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
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Inter-connectedness of Decisions
Hard to find a better way to phrase this, but this describes games in which decisions are not made in a vacuum. You need to understand not only how your current decision may impact later decisions, but also how it impacts the decisions of the other players.
Whether this speaks to the order of operations in which you perform actions, or just bearing in mind the ripple effect an action may create, the interconnectedness of decisions adds another layer of complexity and analysis to the player turn. Sometimes this may be subtle, while other times it may be overt -- but each decision impacts future decisions.
Goa showcases this with the various development tracks, and understanding how the timing of actions can impact progress -- if you're drawing Expedition cards before you've advanced that track, you're not being as efficient as you could be. And knowing that someone is developing their ship building may shape your decisions on approaching the next auction, or shifting to develop a different track to get the expedition card bonus for hitting the 4th or 5th row.
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3.
Board Game: Torres
[Average Rating:7.24 Overall Rank:184]
Jason Little
United States
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
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Numerous Available Options/Actions
The more options available to the player, the more shrewd and thoughtful the gameplay requires. More options means weighing more alternatives, sifting through myriad situations and still being able to make sound strategic decisions to have a solid turn and advance your cause.
This can be implemented by an allotment of action points to spend each turn, as in Torres, or simply having several different turn options available. Making the most of these precious few options, or perhaps more accurately, picking the perfect combination of actions/options for that particular situation, helps provide some "heaviness" to the flavor of a game for me.
If players only received 4 actions per turn with Torres, or possibly only had 4 total knights, or didn't include Action Cards to consider, the gameplay experience would be wholly different.
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Jason Little
United States
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
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Sheer Immensity
Large rulebooks, large boxes, large bits. These things help create a feeling of weight (in Twilight Imperium's case, literal weight) to the overall gameplay experience.
In this case, immensity applies to everything about the game, but the combinations of powers, setup, abilities, actions, decks -- all these different moving parts which have to be taken into account and interacted with all add to the heaviness.
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Jason Little
United States
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
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Simulation
I think that games which attempt to simulate real effects and conditions necessarily are heavier than games dealing with the same conditions in abstract ways. With abstractions, you can have a small ruleset apply to a variety of situations, whereas attempts at simulation, to be more realistic, often require additional rulesets or special conditions.
A more abstracted wargame may use the same modifier for all sorts of combat situations, to help streamline the process and gameplay -- but a simulation wargame may take the extra step to differentiate fog of war, terrain, line of sight, morale, weather conditions, etc.
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Jason Little
United States
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
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Steep(er) Learning Curve
Games that require substantial effort on the part of the player to learn the game system are heavier than games that players can easily pick up or breeze through. I often hear players saying you need to invest 2 or 3 games to fully appreciate certain games, which to me certainly speaks to heaviness.
This goes beyond merely understanding the rules -- but being able to formulate strategies, appreciate nuances, plan ahead and recognize plans by your opponent. For heavier games, this can be a substantial investment of time and effort.
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Jason Little
United States
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
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Long and Short Term Planning
I think the best heavy games provide a means for players to balance both long and short term planning -- creating another decision point and influencing player actions. This adds heaviness as it may not always be clear whether investing in the future will reap greater returns than investing in the short term, and creates a greater sense of time flow, pacing and planning.
Die Macher showcases this attribute wonderfully with the revelation of upcoming regions which will eventually be scored. Players already have a lot of options available to them (see heaviness attribute #3 above) but having 4 sequential regions to spread those actions among adds a lot more impact to those decisions (see heaviness attribute #1).
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8.
Board Game: Caylus
[Average Rating:7.97 Overall Rank:11]
Jason Little
United States
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
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Perfect Information
The closer a game is to containing perfect information, the heavier it is. In this case, I'm using perfect information to mean all players have access to the same information, or everything is public knowledge -- cash, resources, cards, whatever the case may be.
With hidden/imperfect information, players can't possibly account for every situation. Even one hidden factor can make assessing actions more challenging, and create more chaos or unpredictability. But with perfect information, calculations and analysis are rewarded, as moves can be far more accurately optimized.
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9.
Board Game: Go
[Average Rating:7.77 Overall Rank:41]
Jason Little
United States
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
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False Synonym: Deep
I think the term "deep" is often (wrongly) used interchangably with "heavy" -- but I think they are quite different. Sure, many heavy games may be deep, but many deep games are not heavy.
I think Go provides a good example. I know many, many people believe Go to be a heavy game. I disagree -- but I do think Go is a deep game. Perhaps even the deepest game there is.
I think deep is a better description than heavy for many of the "easy to learn, lifetime to master" games. The core reason is that a game with a very discrete, very small/simple ruleset leaves a clean slate to work with. Instead of balancing a dozen options with a dozen possible outcomes, many of these games come down to taking that single option, and maximizing the outcomes surrounding that.
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Jason Little
United States
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
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False Synonym: Complexity
Heavy games can certainly be complex, but complexity can be found in many situations -- special exceptions, detailed turn structures or broad scoring possibilities. Unlike a steep learning curve, which can be overcome through experience, complexity is a constant.
For example, whether it is your first play or fifteenth play, the structured turn orders and shield scoring bonuses will always be a feature of Louis XIV, as will the special exceptions for trying to balance a 3 player game. Experience neither mitigates these factors, nor allows players to take advantage of their experience to improve their play.
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David Dockter
United States
Minnesota
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Flavor
I would add "flavor" - the more flavor, usually, the heavier the game is. What is flavor? Something close to "chrome", but, not exactly. Design elements and rules that reflect the historical period or situation that the designer wants you immersed in. And, I think it communicates how much the designer and design team put tender lovin care into their design.
For example, take Monopoly. I would say it has a lot of "flavor" - and it is NOT a complex game (the richest properties {Boardwalk & Park Place...dark blue color}..all the deeds to the properties...the tokens {instead of just pawns)...the hotels & houses...a ton of stuff to fiddle with, etc,
Anyways, I did a search of the database for games with at least 30 ratings...and at least 15 for "game weight"...here are the top ten:
Rise & Decline of the Third Reich (no surprise here)
rating: 6.53...weight: 4.84
Advanced Squad Leader (no surprise here)
rating: 7.85...weight: 4.78
Advanced Third Reich (no surprise here)
rating: 6.44...weight: 4.73
World in Flames (no surprise here)
rating: 7.16...weight: 4.63
Magic Realm (haven't played this one)
rating: 6.85...weight: 4.56
Empire in Arms (no surprise here)
rating: 7.43...weight: 4.53
Star Fleet Battles (haven't played this one)
rating: 6.64...weight: 4.52
Triumph of Chaos....what da......
rating: 8.93...weight: 4.67
Republic of Rome (no surprise here)
rating: 7.65...weight: 4.44
And the next 11 games on that list:
Revolution: Dutch Revolt, Antiquity, Die Macher (clearly heavy), Go, 1856, Roads and Boats, Europe Engulfed (clearly heavy), Paths of Glory (clearly heavy), Squad Leader (clearly heavy), 7 Ages (clearly heavy)
A number of things I found interesting about this list of 21 is:
1) Includes THE "cornerstones" of meat and potato wargaming: EIA, WIF, 3R, ASL, PoG
2) Complex, but, PLAYABLE games - So requiring a TON of time - others not.
3) 6 games on WWII, 1 on WWI and 1 on RCW - yes, subject does have something to do with how "heavy" a game is
4) A TON of flavor in these games
I know that my gaming friends really only like to play heavy games - unless we want to just have a fun drinks and muck about.
Anyways, my $0.02
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Jason Little
United States
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
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Time Required to Play
Another one based more on gut feeling again -- but games that take longer tend "feel" heavier... After all, if you could wrap up an equivalent gameplay experience in half the time, why would you need to make a game that's twice as long?
This doesn't apply to all long games -- Monopoly and vanilla Risk can certainly take forever, but lack many of the other characteristics I think other heavy games share.
Or to look at it from the flip side, when's the last time you played a 10-20 minute game and thought to yourself "Wow, what a heavy game?"
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