Critical Response Essay One

Legacy Game Analysis

A paper on a legacy game named, Bazaar.

By

 Ryan Harvey

Monday, February 16^th, 2009

Legacy Game Analysis

Bazaar - a marketplace or shopping quarter, especially one in the Middle East.

For years Bazaars have been shopping centers and places to share information, a sort of social ground for Southern Asia and the Middle East (Yang 1-24). Bazaar is the name of the multilateral competition game that is analyzed in this paper. It is a game of skill, luck and colorful pieces. The game play can get very complex very quickly. The object of the game is to have the most, highest scoring cards, with the least number of tokens left over after the player have purchased this card. The original version of this game was made in 1968 by 3M and there appears to have been only one remake of this game. In 1987, Discovery toys began marketing Bazaar making only minor esthetical changes. Bazaar mirrored a lot of things that were happening at the time it was made as well as things happening today in basic economics. This game speaks to the people who play it, not just in a transcendental way of shopping smart but in a way that teaches people young and old, life lessons (1987 ed. 1).  

Bazaars in the Middle East run on a similar basis as the game Bazaar does with its “money” system and process of exchanging goods. The game comes with multiple tokens and signs including five groups of different colored gems (tokens), several exchange boards (symbolizing the randomness of economic values) and around 40 wares (cards that symbolize material possession). Each exchange board has different exchange rates on them. In a bazaar the value of certain objects and services fluctuate due to the availability of the items in the area. For instance, a spice vendor had a fungus come and kill the majority of his crops then, the price of spices is going raise. Once the player acquires the necessary gems to purchase a ware he/she may buy it and score points. Much like in the game of Bazaar in real bazaars people who need certain products save up for it, trade products that they grow or offer services they provide and the vendor might require. Players score when they buy a ware with the least amount of gems left over, for every gem left over that’s a point off of how much the ware is worth. Players must use strategy and all the luck of the dice roll to win this game. When someone lives in a third world country they need luck just to make ends meet and provide for their family. Smart shopping is taken to the max in these countries as well as recycling items they already own. In the game players need to be a smart shoppers, whether to save up for the ware worth more points or buy lots of smaller wares. Players also need to be a smart traders in both situations always trying to trade something worth less to them for something worth more. In real bazaars this is common knowledge and people must be proficient, or they might not get something they require or get something that is not a necessity (Yang 221-260). An instance of how this game makes it difficult to make decisions is players might save up for the highest face value ware showing while other players might have purchased cards of lesser value that were easier to get. This is also an example of negative and positive feedback; the better ware a player takes time to earn the more time your opponents have to get multiple lesser value wares, this helps the people who would be behind because of their opponent’s powerful wares to catch up (1987 ed. 1-4).

The game Bazaar uses a system that is self centered and this makes it well rounded to a variety of age groups. The greed in the game for material gain (wares) makes it marketable to children but the skills that are required to win take time and in essence age thus, making it liked by adults as well. The games structure is an Agon style, because the player chooses their path and it is in a structured environment with rules limiting the efficiency so it also qualifies under Ludus style. Making this type of game takes what was happening at the time and reflects it in the game quite well. The fact that the game lets the player chose their path is quite like the events taking place around the world. The U.S. chose to feud with Iraq about oil and chose to enter the war in Vietnam, both of which led to Americans hating other race groups. Fighting over resources is common in third world countries, people who start coos and such try to take resources that might be sold at bazaars. There might be stealing and sabotage to competing crop growers in order to make the most profit in a bazaar. The term Ludus can apply in all of these real life scenarios such as when the U.S. needed oil, the military could have just taken it but, it was unethical and morally wrong (COM-222 Notes). The U.S. continues fighting with Iraq and other countries to get their oil which is unethical. At the same time the military completes tasks according to structured military directions/rules which are also not the most efficient way to go about business. Quantifiable outcomes would state that there are different outcomes to the choices made and there is almost always a winner or loser even if the game doesn’t state it. The game Bazaar states that the winner is chosen based on points, which in turn come from both the amount of wares and the strategy which bought them. In war and battles for resources it could be said that there are no winners because in real life, where real people die, there is no gain. This is a key determining fact between a game and real life. In the game Bazaar no backyard wars over food and fights between competitors take place. Another way of describing this system is as an open system because the players agree to the rules and have a say in what they contribute to making the game move towards its end, in actuality the only thing left to chance is the roll of the die. Most of the time in war, people do not have a say/choice in what they do, who they fight or for what reasons. Some people would say “war has no rules”, even though it does have plenty (at least in the U.S.) and that most of the fighting is a gamble, whether or not life will be lost. Although this game mirrors real life in many ways, but it is still artificial and creates its own conflict. The conflict includes, but is not limited to, die rolling, choices in which wares to go after and trading in one gems for other gems which a player may not ultimately need in the end. This integrated system of conflict could reward a player immediately, somewhere down the road or hurt your opponent. When people in bazaars do not have enough “money” to buy what they need, they may save up to buy that thing; this is a gamble because it could be bought by someone else in the meantime (Fullerton 77).

In 1968 the U.S. was involved in the Iraqi government, the U.S. tried to encourage their government to become democratic. Oil defines the Middle East and the U.S. needed oil to fuel the war in Vietnam. The Middle East was unwilling to cooperate thus, began the Middle East’s quarrel with the U.S. The Middle East did not like the U.S. and when the American people found out they started hating back. When the game was made it mimicked Middle Eastern consumer life. Bazaar gave players insight into trading and bartering that people in the Middle East participated in every day. This game was made a year after ARPA Net was put into action so at this time the world was really concentrated on security and war (COM-222 Notes). This game was a nice step backward that took attention away from current affairs. I believe this was a way for the game industry to provide a looking glass opportunity, by showing Americans an aspect of Middle Eastern culture and to inform us of how people live in other countries. This Game tried to make people feel sorry for other countries that cannot just drive to the store and buy food. They have to walk to street vendors and barter with what little “money” or items they owned. So this game, in short, tried to draw people away from the fact that the U.S. is fighting Middle Easterners for resources and show us how every country is different. Most countries are not as well off as the U.S. Bazaar incorporates social symbolism of bartering in the game for wares as equivalent to bartering in real life for cloths and food.

Bibliography

Yang, Anand A. Bazaar India. University of California Press, 1999.

Sackson, Sid. Bazaar Special Edition. California: Discovery Toys, 1987.

Fullerton, Tracy. Games Design Workshop. Burlington, Ma: Elsevier inc, 2008.

Dr. Voorhees, Gerald. COM-222 Notes. High Point NC, 2009.