Week 02 - Folk Games

This Thursday we got into our groups to discuss what our possible folk games could be. On Tuesday, we were told to start thinking about the possible games we can mod. As I have been in theatre since childhood and teaching summer camps for three years, I came in with a huge list: Samurai, Bippit Bippiti Bop, and Fro Catcher to name a few. Originally, we had plans to start thinking about how we could mod Frog Catcher. It started with a murder mystery mod but then we realized that it got too close to the game Mafia. We then tried to think of other ways to mod the game while also thinking of other possible games to focus on, which ended up being unsuccessful. Class ended up a lot faster than we realize so we came to the agreement that we would decide on a game by Sunday morning. Brian, on Saturday morning, suddenly produced the brilliant idea, due to my unfortunate situation of being stolen from, of modding Cops and Robbers. Brian explained how it could work, with instead of just robbers being chased by cops, the robbers try to steal something too. He thought of the idea of cops turning their backs and then when they think something is happening, they try to catch the robber that stole. While it was a good idea, it came with some problems: it was confusing, and it also did not seem fun for the cops. I'm thinking of possible versions that have functions like Night at the Museum, where the robbers can't move when the cop is looking at them, while the cop is able to walk around and catch them moving around/stealing something. Another thought is that maybe there is only a couple robbers (depending on the amount of players) in a crowd of "civilians," the goal for the cops is to find the robbers before they steal the items and get back to their "base" while the robbers try to not get caught by the cops as they steal. A thing I do have to remind myself of is that these rules and the way to play the game must be easily adaptable as we have no clue where this game will be played. Will it be played in a classroom? If so, how big? What about a hallway? Or outside? Sicart talks about how playing not just about rules, it is about, "...thinking, manipulating, changing, and adapting rules" (Sicart, 9). Our rules need to be adaptable and easy to understand so that depending on the environment and the people playing, the game is fun and inclusive to anyone who wishes to play.