The Game's Afoot

As is at this point no secret, I am a rather large fan of Magic: The Gathering . Part of that is how its design helps to prevent power creep, as I mentioned earlier in this blog. More of my love for the game, however, comes from its versatility. Mechanically, Magic is a unified game. The basic functioning of the cards remains the same regardless of what mode of the game one plays. (I'm not going to get into the exact details of how they work, since that would likely bore most of my readers, but suffice to say that what one can do in the game is based on what cards one plays in one's deck.) However, within this framework exist a rather large number of game formats (not entirely unlike the truly colossal variety of poker variants). The most frequently played variety is called, appropriately enough, Standard. Standard is the most limited in card choice of all of Magic's major formats. Only those cards released in the previous eight sets (usually about the most recent t...

When I started this blog, I talked about how it was nessecary for a game to be ethical. When I wrote those words, I thought I would be talking only about ethics in game sales and pricing, not the actual content of the game itself. Thankfully very little such content makes it to the shelves (there are truly horrible games out there, although I will provide citations for this claim so that they gain no more exposure than they need to), but there is one example that I would like to discuss (without taking to strong of an opinion on it) of a game handling a controversial topic. Hearts of Iron IV is a game made by Paradox Development Studios, whom I have discussed a significant amount in the past (including my discussions on DLC policy through the examples of their games Europa Universalis IV and Stellaris). In the vein of their other historical games, it's a World War II simulation game that focuses primarily on the military strategy and diplomatic actions of the various great powers...