Paper 2 Topic Ideas
I've been brainstorming ideas for paper topics for the Board Games and Culture assignment, and I wanted to share them here. Feel free to take one of these ideas and make it your own:
- Research/investigate a specific board game community and make a point about them -- perhaps the community of Magic: The Gathering players in Tallahassee, or an online community of gamers.
- Board game Stores (there are at least 2 in town): investigate and discuss their community purpose.
- Board games and Alzheimer's (I'm thinking Bridge, specifically, but other games may fit here too).
- The economics of a trading card game -- cost evaluation, card money value vs. value in the game, etc.
- Board games in a specific television show or movies (different representations of Scrabble or Chess or Monopoly, for example; or pick a specific show where board games are played a lot -- like Seinfeld, for example, or the use of Othello in A Beautiful Mind).
- Representations of a specific culture in a board game (think Puerto Rico, Stone Age, The Castles of Burgundy, etc.) -- are they historically accurate? Are they racially sensitive or insensitive? Are they stereotypical?
- Gender representations in a board game (or a comparison among board games).
- Art in board game -- representations of people, objects, or ideas in games.
- Space and spatial relations in board games and board game designers.
- The process of designing a board game -- who does it, how does it happen, where do ideas come from?
- Use of a particular mechanic in games -- perhaps singing, movement, music, tv (integrated games), the checkerboard, pawns/meeples, social deduction.
- Artificial intelligence of games (the way games function, especially in co-op or solo games where you are "playing against" the game, such as Pandemic, Lord of the Rings, or Forbidden Island).
- The experience of playing board games on a computer.
- Are board games a "waste of time" or are they not -- what happens when we step into board games?
- Board games and social class -- do the rich value or play different games than the poor? Do certain games reflect the values of a certain class?
- Board games and urban myths (I'm thinking Dungeons and Dragons, Pokemon, Ouija [is that a board game?]).
- Board game conventions (probably pick a specific one -- there are many).
- Chance or mathematics in board games (get more specific than that).
- Board game culture in another country. Germany would be easiest choice -- look at the newspaper reviews of games and the awards. Although other countries would definitely work, too.
- Sports adapted into board games or the use/influence of sports rules on games.
- Competition in board games (pick a specific game and investigate).
- Board games in bars or board games in coffee shops.