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PERSONAL DESIGN ANALYSIS Of 3 WHY OXFORD DILEMMA DESERVES TO BE IN THE 100 BEST GAMES 1&2 SERIES By Robert Gervais Did you know that if you peel an onion to its core, you can replant it in the garden and new burger toppings will sprout? Much like an onion, Oxford Dilemma is a multilayered racetrack board game in which each player strives to pay for an Oxford Education. At the beginning of a match, each student is given a minimum allowance to start college, in this case three thousand dollars. The goal of each round is to be the first student to earn ten thousand dollars to pay for a prestigious Oxford Education. During play, each pupil travels along a classic racetrack where every stop signifies a spelling challenge in subjects such as Science, Geography, General, and Famous. The student is asked to spell a word correctly and on occasion spell words in reverse! Oxford Dilemma deserves to be included in the 100 Best Games 1 & 2 Series because it possesses a certain level of complexity that casual gamers love to hate and budding game designers love to explore. Players who succeed in this game can rest assured that they have what it takes to obtain an Oxford Education, whereas spelling deficiencies can be improved by replaying the game with more frequency. In addition, designers can enjoy exploring the game because it is an onion of mechanics that can be peeled away to reveal a core that works well with the central theme. After peeling the onion, mechanics as varied as territory acquisition and dice can be seen working in perfect harmony. PEELING THE ONION The games husk is a vanilla box with Victorian images speckled throughout the outer layer. At first glance, the box promises, A Challenging And Exciting Game Of Chance! FIRST - THE OUTER HUSK After peeling away the outer husk, youll find a Monopoly4 style game board, some bits, multiple stacks of cards, two white dice, and one black die. The assortment of dice immediately points towards the existence of a racetrack and chance mechanic.

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After inspecting the outer husk, it is apparent that the racetrack mechanic is central to the gameplay. Since the player is restricted to moving along the racetrack in one direction, the player must have a reliable method of moving along the board. FINALLY - THE INNER LAYER After peeling away the inner layer, you will find that the interlocking dice mechanics make this game stand out. The dice mechanic serves two purposes. The two white sixsided (D6) dice determines the number of squares that players can move along the board and a single black 1-2-3 D6 die determines the level of difficulty for the word that needs to be spelled from a Subject Category. Additionally, players have the option of buying Letter Cards throughout the board in order to spell words, which is a basic territory acquisition mechanic that also ties well into the white dice. By spelling words with the acquired letter cards, players can earn significant amounts of money to pay for their Oxford Education. The territory acquisition mechanic is well designed because it ties-in with the games core spelling theme. As an aside, the territory acquisition mechanic allows players who arent great spellers to acquire copious amounts of cash by spelling words with the Letter Cards. The scoring mechanic is built on a tiered system, which means that it takes strategic players some time to build up good cards in order to spell words that will win them lots of money. Given time, strategic players can build up an advantage with their Letter Cards; however, the dice are a great equalizer for players who leave their fate to Lady Luck. After landing on a Subject tile, players must draw the Spelling Card tied to the tile with the most challenging letters set to level three and the least challenging words set to level one. The black die is a natural randomizing layer that integrates well into the card mechanics. If a player rolls a one, they get to spell words as easy as fungus in the Science Category, and if a player rolls a three, they get to spell words as difficult as Popocatepetl in the Geography Category.

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By tying the territory acquisition and card mechanics with dice, the game is layered with challenges that are dictated by the randomizing nature of the dice, which is what makes this game stand out. PEOPLE LIKE THE LOOK OF ONIONS During its heyday, Oxford Dilemma achieved a degree of popularity with the literary crowd. The games similarity with Monopoly allowed casual gamers to be easily introduced to the games basic mechanics. BUT MOST PEOPLE SHY AWAY AT THE TASTE OF RAW ONIONS Unfortunately, the central reason that I believe this game wasnt popular is because of the layered mechanics and its brief shelf life. Most casual gamers dont want to be overburdened with too many mechanics. Although this is a well-designed game that should be studied by every game design student, Oxford Dilemma is not meant for the casual gamer. Also, the publisher that originally developed the game, Rumba Games, has been out of business for several years. The Canadian publishers absence from the marketplace means that the game will most likely never see a revival in the near future, which is a shame because the game can be really fun when you get to spell a lot of cool words and win your Oxford Education. HOW TO MAKE A TASTY ONION One improvement that the publisher could have implemented to make the game more accessible to casual gamers would have been the use of a spinner designed to give players easier words to spell on a more frequent basis. By using a spinner to give players easier words more frequently, the game can be more accessible to casual gamers and perhaps: an Oxford Dilemma revival could happen within my lifetime! Unfortunately, the short shelf life and the inaccessibility to casual gamers made this game less popular than it could have been. ONIONS TASTE REALLY GOOD HONEST! Casual gamers might not appreciate Oxford Dilemma for its complexity;

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however, after analyzing the games key mechanics, Im convinced that the designers intent was to challenge players in many different levels. TASTY ONIONS! If you dig into the games mechanical layers, you can detect the designers vision of wrapping layers of balanced mechanics around a spelling theme. It feels as if this is a game that was designed to appeal to serious gamers, with the multi-layered mechanics and theme allowing gamers to play the role of a young student needing to pay for a prestigious Oxford Education. By introducing a role-playing aspect into the game, the designer is broadcasting that Oxford Dilemma is meant for serious gamers with a penchant for spelling difficult words. Incorporating chance is an effective role-playing technique of introducing the real-world element of luck into the game. Another element of chance that contributes to the role-playing experience is the designers incorporation of Credits and Demerits Cards. If a player happens to land on any of these two tiles, they are assured of a negative or positive consequence depending on the card drawn from the pile. The designer made a balanced element of chance in this respect. THE UNSAVORY BITS Although the designer intended to make a balanced game, there are some unbalanced tiles on the board that should be addressed. Specifically, there is a unique combination of tiles that introduces an instant death mechanic that feels out of place with this game. Diagonally from the Start tile, there is a Detention Hall tile that penalizes players for entering that area. Fortunately, the Detention Hall tile doesnt remove you from the game instantly; however, if players land on the 8-Ball tile after leaving the Detention Hall, they are instantly removed from the game. The instant death mechanic does not make sense from a role-playing and mechanical perspective.

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Specifically, the instant death mechanic adds an unnecessary level of tension to the role-player and it is an unbalanced mechanic in the game. The reason that the mechanic is unbalanced is because the instant death mechanic is tied directly to the dice, which therefore binds the instant death mechanics effect to every other mechanic in the game. In order to balance out the instant death mechanic, an instant win mechanic would also need to be tied into the dice. Unfortunately, there is no instant win mechanic tied to the dice, which makes the Detention Hall and 8-Ball death combination both unbalanced and unnecessary. Ultimately, from a role-playing perspective, the unbalanced instant death mechanic is a cheap way of removing a character from the game. LESSONS FROM THE IRON CHEF 5 Like an Iron Chef, Oxford Dilemmas designer has taught me many lessons on how to incorporate diverse mechanics to make a great game. Oxford Dilemma has influenced me to believe that I can work with several mechanics to make a game layered with balanced gameplay dynamics and thematic depth. HOW TO MAKE A BURGER WITH TASTY ONIONS By layering the dice mechanic with cards and interfacing those mechanics with the racetrack and territory acquisition mechanics, the dynamics of the gameplay reinforce the core mechanics and overall theme of the game. As a fledgling designer, this game has influenced me to consider layering multiple mechanics around a central theme. Additionally, by playing Oxford Dilemma as both a casual gamer and game designer, I have learned that there are ways to make games more accessible to both casual and serious gamers. THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT SIGN IN MY KITCHEN Serious gamers tend to gravitate towards complex mechanics and role-playing games, while casual gamers tend to want a game that is easy and fun to play. When I was a casual gamer, I wasnt a big fan of Oxford

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Dilemma because the game felt too complicated; however, I was always intrigued by the central theme and overall feel of the game. After studying game design, I learned to appreciate the multilayered mechanics of this game. Specifically, I have learned that if I want to design a multilayered game, I need to have a solid core mechanic that serves as an anchor for the rest of the game. Oxford Dilemma has shown me how to use dice as an anchor mechanic for various other gameplay dynamics, such as territory acquisition and cards, which is a lesson that I will use in future game designs. The take away lesson is that if Im designing a board game for the casual marketplace, I should limit the number of mechanical layers to one or two solid mechanics. Versus the alternative market, where I can layer various mechanics around a solid anchor in order to provide serious gamers a role-playing experience full of depth and complexity. PLANTING BURGER TOPPINGS IN MY GARDEN As a casual game, Oxford Dilemma is really difficult to play with people who cant appreciate complex game mechanics. Fortunately, this game has influenced my growing design skills for the same reason that most casual gamers dislike it, which is why I am now playing the game on a frequent basis to understand the various mechanics that interlock to make this an engrossing game. Although this game experienced lackluster popularity among casual gamers, its strong theme and multilayered mechanics make this a wonderful game to be studied and included in the 100 Best Games Series. Now is a good time to go plant my favorite burger topping in the garden.

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WORKS CITED 1. Lowder, James. Hobby Games: the 100 Best. Renton, WA: Green Ronin Pub., 2007. Print. 2. Lowder, James. Family Games: the 100 Best. Seattle, WA: Green Ronin, 2010. Print. 3. "Oxford Dilemma | Board Game | BoardGameGeek." Geekdo! Web. 01 Apr. 2011. <http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5609/oxford-dilemma>. 4. "Monopoly - Official Site for Monopoly." Hasbro Toys, Games, Action Figures and More... Web. 01 Apr. 2011. <http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/>. 5. "Iron Chef America : Alton Brown : Food Network." Food Network - Easy Recipes, Healthy Eating Ideas and Chef Recipe Videos. Web. 01 Apr. 2011. <http://www.foodnetwork.com/iron-chef-america/index.html>.

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