Our game closet is overflowing and only gets more so every December. What is it about a new game that attracts and drives us?
I love familiar games like old friends – you fall into familiar rhythms and strategies, and appreciate the nuances of strategy and how they affect success and failure.
But I love new games for the brow-furrowing time of figuring. Trying to understand how rule 3 affects rule 1, what, if any, strategies you should apply. Anyone from the six-year-old up can be a winner in a new game, as we’re all equally in the dark about the right approach.
With a wide lens, I prefer a balanced approach – familiar games interspersed with new ones, allowing all of the brain to fire.
It’s the same with programming music: a balance of tried-and-true chestnuts and things I’ve never tried before is my preferred route to success. Discovery and familiarity in balance.