A game I love playing is Taboo! The premise of the game is to provide verbal clues to get your team to guess the word in your hand without using the word itself or “tabooed” or obviously associated words e.g. “core” for “apple”.
The core types of aesthetics that I most resonate with and that the game dynamics most contribute to are:
Challenge
- Mechanics: The restriction of not using the word itself or the five additional taboo words (or parts of the words), no abbreviations, no gestures or sound clues, no “sounds like” or “rhymes with” clues.
- Dynamics: The word restrictions lead to the clue-giver developing creative strategies to communicate the word to their teammates. The fact that (unlike Charades) you can’t signal with your hands when your teammates are close in a guess results in unique strategies to adapt clues maintain the correct thread of guessing. Depending on how well the clue-giver has knows their teammates, they can craft clues that cater to knowledge they are likely to have (e.g. song lyrics, pop culture, etc).
- Aesthetic: The enjoyment is two-fold. There’s an intellectual challenge for both the clue-giver (providing meaningful clues under the restrictions) and for their teammates (guessing the word).
Fellowship
- Mechanics: Team members work together to guess the word that their clue-giver has on their card. There is also no penalty for wrong guesses.
- Dynamics: the clue giver must give hints in a way that his team members are most likely to guess; this is far easier if they are familiar with the fellow players and the knowledge they possess. Their teammates must also listen closely to what guesses the others make in the case that one of them gets close and they can share the guessing load by making similar guesses. The lack of penalty for wrong guesses results in a rapid-fire back and forth dialogue with teammates bouncing ideas off each other and putting forth as many guesses as possible.
- Aesthetic: The elements above fosters a sense of camaraderie and teamwork, as players work together towards a common goal of guessing the right word and are motivated to listen to each other.
Sensation
- Mechanics: The physical components of the game including the buzzer, the timer, and the cards; the verbal back-and-forth between the clue-giver and their teammates.
- Dynamics: The awareness of the timer (could be visual or sound based) causes clue-givers to be motivated to pass on a difficult card to avoid wasting time on a card that their team cannot guess. If the other team is controlling the timer, sometimes they may be incentivized to not give verbal updates on the time remaining making it easier for the clue-giver to lose track of time. The buzzer is a jarring sound to hear and also fun to press for the opposing team, so opposing team members are motivated to listen closely to what clues are being given. Long moments of silence or pauses in between guesses also signal to the clue giver that their team is perhaps lost and needs new kinds of clues.
- Aesthetic: All of the above elements stimulate the senses, creating a lively atmosphere that heightens the players’ sense of urgency and engagement. Getting buzzed for violating the rules can also change internal stress and emotional responses.
Competition
- Mechanic: the team with highest number of correctly guessed words wins. There is no penalty for passing on cards. The competing team also has the ability to hit the buzzer to signal that a tabooed word was spoken, after which the card is discarded and the competing team gains a point.
- Dynamics: clue givers will avoid spending too much time on a single card if it proves to be too challenging, the clue giver is motivated to give as many clues possible within a time frame, clues must be informational but not too complex, the competing team is motivated to listen closely to what clues are being given, in the event that they could earn points from taboo cases,
- Aesthetic: competition emphasized through the desire to outscore the opposing team, driving players to improve their communication and guessing strategies.
