week 12- The Beginning of Board Games

The Watch It Played video that I watched was for the board game Star Wars: Villainous. In this game 2-4 players take control of iconic Star Wars villains and compete to accomplish their goals first, while dealing with any heroes or obstacles that are put in their way. I would say Star Wars: Villainous maps to Soren Johnson's four notions of transparency very well. 

First off the game has consistent and transparent rules about how the game progresses through each turn and how each type of card is played. Even though each player has a different win condition the game functions the same for every character with a few minor exceptions. The players state their victory condition at the beginning so that everybody knows their goals. The player can move their piece to any one of their spaces known as sectors and use any number of the listed actions on said sector. Each player is given a reference log that tells them what each action symbol means,and a tip book with individual rules for each character that has an additional mechanic. 

It does a decent job of abstraction to focus on the inner game, by tying most actions and cards to an exchange in the different currency. Players can use the actions to gain the two types of currency credits and ambition tokens. All playable cards have a cost of one of these currencies. Certain cards like the hero cards are placed to cover up half of sectors they are placed in to limit the actions that are at the players disposal until they are eliminated. The ability for the opponent to place the hero cards in any sector enhances the sense of strategy by allowing the players to decide how they can hinder the other player.

The game showcases its transparent visual mechanics labeling each spot on the board and keeping the cards' designs uniform to find information easier. The player board has each section labeled and provides indicators for where cards should go. These indicators show what actions should be covered by a card placed there. Action icons are all uniform and make it fairly easy to understand what they do even without the reference log. 

Pre-luck is used to help facilitate competition and strategy. Even though you have no control of what your opponent draws or which sector they place their hero or ship card to hinder you, it does not leave you without options to retake the situation. Simply moving your character or equipping allies with different  items can overcome luck.