Game Evolution
by Giles Pritchard

It’s getting to the time of year where we run our school games day.  It is, of course, very exciting. It is also a huge amount of work. Training this years group of games ambassadors to become proficient with a collection of nearly a hundred games is no mean feat, and by no means do they all become experts!

In fact, it is a singular truth, that no matter how many times I explain a game, nor how carefully I run over the mechanics, sometimes a game enters a strange sort of twilight zone where the rules as written are not how the game is played.

I sat down to play Ninja vs Ninja – a staple favourite of many of my students, the boy I was playing with rolled the dice, then moved his Ninja well past where they should have stopped, and proceeded to kill one of my Ninja while making ‘ching twang ching’ noises to simulate the violent excesses of the martial duel going on between us.  Needless to say my Ninja was swiftly dispatched.  After several turns of this the boy patiently explained to me that I wasn’t making enough noises when our Ninja fought, and this was why, according to his rules, I was losing. I tried to make more noises from then on!

Ninja vs Ninja had changed.  It wasn’t a game about rolling dice, moving pieces, tactical deliberations about whether to move further or turn back, whether to try and take out an opponent’s Ninja or stay safe… It had evolved.  For the group of boys I had joined, during our games club session, playing Ninja vs Ninja that day; the rules as written were not the game that came in the box.

What to do! The obsessive teacher inside me yearned to pull out the rules sheet and show the boy how he was playing wrong, and that his friends shouldn’t worry about his sublime ability to manufacture sword-duelling noises with his lips!  But then I stopped.  Ninja vs Ninja is a staple favourite of many of my students, these boys love the game.  My problem was that they didn’t necessarily love the game as written, but loved it for what it had become.

Should I stop them?  Should I question their rules?  There were a couple of factors to consider:

1. I wasn’t running a lesson, so the mathematics of the game system not being utilised wasn’t important.
2. The game was balanced, the boys knew their version of the rules, noises and all, and applied them fairly – in fact often being over-sure that everyone had an equal chance to win.
3. The game was fun. The boys loved the game experience.  That was the game for them, and they loved playing it.

Ninja vs Ninja may always, for those boys, be played with sound effects.  I could pull them up – I could correct them; but they are enjoying the game, and most importantly for me they were enjoying a social experience together.  They were talking, laughing, smiling, and making sword fight noises as friends – and for our games club – that’s what game playing is all about!