Catan
Target Audience: 3-4 players aged 10+
Game Creator: Klaus Teuber
Platform: Board game
Tiger Moms
Target Audience: 4-6 players aged 10+
Game Creator: 247G Group 7!
Platform: Cards
While the core mechanics of Catan and Tiger Moms generate similar dynamics centered around negotiation, collaboration, and competition, their contrasting gameplay lengths significantly impact the qualities and feel of these social interactions. Catan’s design, with its modular board setup, probabilistic production mechanics, and sessions often exceeding 60 minutes, cultivates an immersive, strategic experience where alliances gradually ebb and flow over an extended timeframe. Conversely, Tiger Moms’ hectic, turn-based structure encapsulates its gameplay within a short 15-20 minute window, accentuating more chaotic player dynamics in this compressed session.
Both games show fellowship through their negotiation systems requiring players to barter resources to progress. Yet this cooperative element is balanced by zero-sum, competitive objectives that pit players against each other, akin to Monopoly’s dynamic of collaboration amidst rivalry. However, the games diverge in the dramatic pacing differences arising from their procedural differences that affect gameplay duration.
Catan’s design creates an environment with substantive strategizing and commitment to shifting partnerships over its playtime. Players invest time into carefully cultivating relationships and optimizing board positionings, being conscious that gains can be unexpectedly uprooted by future betrayals. This extended investment exacerbates the emotional impact of triumphs and losses. In my gameplay with three players, the game lasted over 90 minutes, and a serious rivalry brewed between the other players, James and Chloe. Both consistently fought to have the longest road, and were very hesitant to negotiate and trade with each other in fear of helping the other person win.
In contrast, Tiger Moms’ accelerated turn-based pace, where players race to assemble specific visible resource sets representing different career goals for their child, concentrates its entire experience within a 15-20 minute span. The visible nature of each player’s end-goal adds constant tension, as opponents can directly impede one another’s progress. However, this brevity prevents the cultivation of intricate alliances. Instead, Tiger Moms emulates chaotic, roiling negotiation dynamics as players trade off resources in a reactive manner, creating a cathartic experience with fleeting moments of triumph or anguish. Our four-player playtest achieved this intended energy and atmosphere of chaotic negotiation with celebratory (and angry) outbursts within its brief 15 minute runtime. We often playfully yelled at each other, saying things like “THAT’S WHY YOUR KID SUCKS”, which also emphasizes the fantasy element of Tiger Moms that is not as salient in Catan. For example, I also had short-term vendettas against certain players (mainly Sherry) after they used an action card against me.
Catan’s setup prevents situations from feeling repetitive or formulaic, while Tiger Moms’ visible, asymmetric goals add a dimension where players can directly undermine others’ paths to victory. However, there are also areas for potential improvement in each design. Catan’s extended playtimes may alienate casual players seeking a more condensed gameplay session. In my gameplay, the game’s length also became very salient to me, as I quickly fell behind in the game and I knew there was no viable opportunity for me to win. This caused me to feel disengaged and a little jaded by the game’s halfway point, which was already 45 minutes in. In games such as Monopoly, which has similar dynamics to Catan, bankrupt players can exit the game and leave the remaining players to compete. However, in Catan, I was a part of the game the entire time despite being starkly behind, which had a negative impact on my experience. Catan could be improved by further involving trailing players by giving them chances to either exit the game or team up with another player. However, this may also just be due to the nature of the dynamics between me and the other two players; they did not want to continue trading with or helping me after I was behind. Conversely, while Tiger Moms’ energy is refreshing, introducing more layers of strategy could enhance its longevity without compromising its spirit. I fear that the game may not be replayable.
Ultimately, the contrast between the pacing of Catan and Tiger Moms demonstrates how adjusting specific formal elements like target gameplay duration and victory conditions can alter the aesthetics that emerge from a game’s mechanics, ranging from Catan’s tense strategizing and dramatic power shifts to Tiger Moms’ banter. Catan’s extended playtimes, while allowing for more dimensionality in relationships between players, run the risk of disengaging those falling irreversibly behind as evidenced by my experience in our 90-minute playtest, but also encouraging deeper fellowship and strategy. Conversely, Tiger Moms avoids this pitfall by condensing its dynamics into a 15-minute burst thoughtfully avoiding the potential for overstaying its welcome, but has more fleeting interactions and less strategizing.
