Ludology

In this episode, Geoff explores the Ultimatum Game, which is used by social scientists to explore human concepts of fairness, competition, and cooperation.

Ryan and Geoff tackle another angle on story in games - the narrative arc. What creates rising tension, and what game elements can create a dramatic climax?

In this classic GameTek episode, Geoff talks about the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, and what it implies about social science and evolution.

Ryan and Geoff are joined by special guest Andy Parks to begin their discussion on how games incorporate story and narrative structure elements. Andy is a game designer of many games including Ideology and Camelot Legends, and is the author of a recent article on creating narrative in games for the website Booklife.

In this classic GameTek episode, Geoff talks about the Prisoner's Dilemma and how it applies to board games.

Ryan and Geoff conclude their discussion of balance by looking at a variety of questions: What does it mean for a game to be balanced? What are the different types of balance? Can a game be too balanced?

In this classic GameTek segment Geoff takes a look at triangular numbers and the way they are used in game designs. Features a bonus appearance by Alan Moon (sort of)!

Games that seem to have multiple strategies sometimes end up having just one dominant strategy that players follow. In this episode, Ryan and Geoff discuss ways the pitfalls of game design that can lead to this, and ways designers avoid it.

In this classic GameTek episode from 2007 Geoff talks about Multitouch Tables like the Microsoft Surface, and the role they may play in the future of boardgames.

In this episode, Ryan and Geoff discuss the difference between strategy and tactics, and the different forms that strategy can take in games.

What, another Ludology episode already? In episode 3, Catch The Leader, Ryan and Geoff both opined that the turn order mechanic in Power Grid diminishes the overall experience.  This prompted a lot of passionate debate in the forums. For this bonus episode, we are joined by listener and poster Tim Koppang, who defends this Catch the Leader mechanic as integral to the Power Grid experience, and essential to gameplay. Episode 4 will be posted as scheduled, on March 20.

Here is the next classic GameTek episode. This is on one of Tom Vasel's favorite topics - reviews! This is purely 'bonus' content, and we will still be keeping to our regular two week release schedule.

In this episode, Ryan and Geoff begin their series on balance.  First up: Catch The Leader. What exactly is Catch The Leader? When is it needed, if ever? When does it work and when doesn't it?

Regular Ludology episodes will be released every two weeks. As an experiment, on the 'in between' weeks we are going to be releasing classic GameTek segments from The Dice Tower.  This is the very first GameTek that was ever aired, on the topic of luck, and like all GameTeks is about 5 minutes long. This is purely 'bonus' content, and we will still be keeping to our regular two week release schedule. Please drop by our BGG guild and let us know if you enjoy these bonus releases!

In our second episode we take a look at what attracts people to games, and what keeps them coming back for more.  Plus Ryan and Geoff share personal stories about some of their game experiences over the years.

Welcome to Ludology! In this, our first episode, we tackle the question of what is a game, and what isn't.