Scope and Resolution

This post stems from a recent video on Shelf Stories about how history is present in war-games and euro games. The video lightly touches on scope and resolution as topics that I would like to discuss more here. 

Two important concepts within narrative framing are scope and resolution. Scope refers to how focused or wide-ranging the theme is. Scope is largely a function of setting. The types of actions in a wide-scope civ builder and a narrow-scope civ builder are going to be similar, largely because the genre dictates that they must be. It is the thematic details of the setting that establish the scope. 

Resolution refers to how detailed or abstracted the theme is. A low resolution game abstracts most of the theme. A high resolution game models the theme as much as possible with the mechanics. Low resolution games may or may not have complex mechanics, but a high resolution game must have at least a minimum amount of complexity in order to accurately model the theme. The wider the scope, the more complexity is needed for a high resolution game. Long war-games tend to be wide scope and high resolution. Civ games are usually wide scope and low resolution. Euro games are often low resolution regardless of scope. 

Increasing resolution adds complexity, because mechanics have to be added to model the theme. The wider the scope, the more complexity required for high resolution. Greater complexity means not only more rules overhead, but usually longer gameplay time. Narrow scope themes can achieve high resolution without as much added complexity. High resolution also requires greater levels of research when developing non-fiction themes. The wider the scope the more research is required. 

High resolution, regardless of scope, results in more work for designers. Many popular games are 'essentially abstracts,' aka low resolution games. Why, therefore, should designers strive for higher resolutions in their themes? 

• Players like thematic games. They like abstract games, too, but those we already have in abundance.   Higher resolution themes, especially in shorter, more accessible games, can more easily stand out from the crowd of games published each year. 
• Higher resolution themes have better hooks and are easier to market. Trading in the ancient world is a very generic and overdone theme. Petra is a higher resolution version of that theme that is more memorable because of its specificity. 
• Higher resolution themes have more intuitive rules. Again, low resolution mechanics are more abstract. Abstract rules are less intuitive than rules with thematic logic behind them. 

I want to see more high resolution, narrow scope games. I love rich, thematic detail in game mechanisms, and I think that is much easier to achieve in a narrow scope theme. However, adding scope and resolution to your toolkit allows you to adjust the dials of your theme to better achieve your design vision or better connect with your intended audience. 

ShippBoard Games is a board game design blog that updates most Mondays.