Grokkable Moment

I have been thinking a bit about good games to introduce people to Eurogames. Settles of Catan was my introduction to them and was my go to for sharing Eurogames with others. Recently, I acquired 7 Wonders and feel I have had more success with it. My friends ask to play 7 Wonders more often than any other game. In thinking over the differences between the games a few things pop out, namely the length of the game and the complexity of the rules. These features end up combining in such that new players grok 7 Wonders just as it ends, so they are ready to play again and use their new found understanding. Whereas in Catan, new players tend to grok the game when it becomes obvious they are going to lose. This usually leaves a good 15-30 minutes of them playing a game where they know they are completely irrelevant, which is a decidedly un-fun experience.This leads me to believe that the best games to teach people about Euorgames are shorter games where the moment of grokking occurs just as the game ends.

I am sure that not everyone is familiar with the word grok. It loosely means "to intuitively understand." That light bulb that just went off in your head where you "got" what grok means is what if feels like to first grok a new concept. It is that experience that helps draw people into a game. When a person learns something new, they immediately want to apply it. The moment when a player sees a new strategy or how the rules interact clicks is one of the times when that player will be most engaged with the game. They will want to both test their knowledge and show off their new understanding.

Capitalizing on the desire to try new knowledge is one way to draw people into a game. One way a game can use this feature of human psychology is through presenting players with same situation repeatedly. This way players can immediately make use of knowledge gained in the previous iteration. Another use, and the point of this post, is to structure the game so new players grok the rules right at the end of the game. This way the players will immediately ask to play again to use the new knowledge from the first play.
 
7 Wonders does this by having most of the points scored in Age III. Most new players are confused in Ages I & II because they mostly setup Age III. Once the player sees the value of the Age III cards and how expensive they are everything falls into place for them on how the game should flow. The rest of Age III tends to be spend gathering more information by reading up on what different cards do so the new players have a more complete picture of what to anticipate in Age III next game. Luckily each age is fairly quick so new players don't have time to get bored or discouraged about losing as they are still actively learning. Add in that each play of 7 Wonders is about 30 minutes and you have a perfect receipt for how to make new players want to play again.

In contrast, Catan has a much longer end game. It could easily be 15-30 minutes from the point at which a player is inevitably going to win and the game actually finishing. When this point arrives, most new players realize the large mistakes they made in the early game which constrain them from wining now. Moreover, there is little learning for new players at this point as only extremely tight play can save them, which they are not experienced enough to preform. Combine this with an average game of Catan taking a hour or more and it is easy to see how 7 Wonders provides a nicer new players experience.

I think these differences in the moment of grokking a game plays a large role in new players asking to play again. From my limited sample, everyone immediately asks to play 7 Wonders again, whereas I usually have to prod for the second game of Catan. To me this means that 7 Wonders and other short games with late moments of grokking are the best to teach on. These games will end up in more people asking to play again which results in more long term casual gamers.  So while I do like Catan, I don't think that it will be my go to game for introducing players to the world of Eurogames.