Week 09 - Card Games

On Thursday, mine and another group joined together and played Fluxx, a card game where the rules are always changing. There are action, objective, companion, and rule change cards that change how the game is played, but once a player is able to complete the current objective, the game ends and can begin again with the basic rules, waiting to be changed all over again. In Altice's reading, he explains the history of card games and the basic that they all typically follow: planar, uniform, ordinal, spatial, textural, and for some games, the card war. The planar is what the card looks like, its characteristics. For Fluxx, it had one side black so as not to show what cards you have to other players and the other side has one of the four possibilities previously explained, with actions being blue and telling you what the action is, companion pink, new rules yellow, and objectives purple. "Playing cards, no matter their geometric form, are cut to identical forms." (Altice), this is true for all cards, including the basic rule card are all cut the same so as not to tip off other players to what cards you have.  Like Altice says, "Cards occupy space," and with that space they need a space to play. The spatial area that Fluxx takes is a simple flat surface, preferably a table. Texture for these cards are very similar to regular playing cards, no special textures. The game I watched played was called The Mind. It is a card game that works to practically meld your mind with the other players by playing the lowest to highest card, with no mistakes, until everyone is out of cards. If you either complete the last level or lose all of your lives the game ends, the catch is that the players cannot talk through the entirety of each level. While I cannot tell what the texture is, I am able to explain the other aspects. The planar of the game is the same as all other playing cards, a rectangle, although based on the video, they look to be bigger than the typical size of a 52 card deck. Some of the cards have a ninja star or a rabbit on the front and back of them. Note, it will either be a bunny front and back or a ninja star front and back, they do not share the same card. Other cards in the deck will have one uniform side that states the name of the game and the other side of the card will have a number from 1 to 100, for the purpose of this game there are no repeats of the numbered cards. This game also needs a flat surface like a table to play on as you need room to lay the cards on top of each other.  The video did not explain the texture but they seemed smooth and quite shiny. This game does not involve a card war as the game highlights the importance of teamwork.

Link to the how to play video of The Mind: