It’s funny that I’ve been finding that these older games like OGRE, with their Spartan production values and near-lack of executive theme have much stronger conceptual themes than a lot of modern titles. There’s almost a minimalism in the execution of some of these older games that demands more from the player’s imagination, but in that primitivism is also a purer emphasis on concept. OGRE is a great example because it is a very, very simple game that has the most basic wargame mechanics possible outside of TACTICS yet it contains those critical, conceptual points where the game’s man-versus-technology theme, a dystopian futurism, and a nihilistic commentary on warfare are innately connected to its mechanics. It does have some executive theme- the Winchell Chung artwork and the evocative stories from SPACE GAMER magazine for example- but its mechanics are so completely grounded in its concept that the game is singularly OGRE and could be nothing else.

Back in the late 1990s, when hobbyists were flocking to Eurogames, I remember a general drift in the hobby away from the importance of theme, particularly conceptual theme. In contrast to the “adventure game” era of the 1970s and 1980s, when gamers wanted to play games about specific subject matter, this new generation didn’t really care what games were about. I recall playing games where someone asked what the game was about and someone invariably said “it doesn’t really matter.” Formerly hardcore fantasy and science fiction gamers were suddenly cool with playing games ostensibly about walking dogs, buying art, trading oregano, or filing paperwork. The theme was completely executive with no level of concept at all- sometimes, in the case of TIGRIS & EUPHRATES for example, that was OK because the games had great gameplay even if they were dressed-up abstracts. But in other cases the result was that the “pasted on” themes completely devalued the subject matter of games and the idea of games that were specifically designed to describe themes at a conceptual level was practically waylaid. What mattered was mechanics, not subject or concept.

Fortunately, that has changed a lot even over the last five years. Theme is more important to gamers now than it was in 2000-2003. Even the Eurogame publishing firms are playing up thematic elements of games and titles like AGRICOLA and GALAXY TRUCKER are getting back to that conceptual level where you play the game and see those finer points of connectivity that games with purely executive theme do not have. This is making games like DOMINION, which barely even has an executive level of theme at all and could very well have been about anything in the world, even more egregious in their lack of conceptual subject matter. I think it is also making Ameritrash games like TOMB and A TOUCH OF EVIL less satisfactory to many gamers as their total lack of conceptual connection to anything other than canonical mechanics and stock themes is wearing out welcomes and causing audiences to look elsewhere for more individual, creative fare.

In a Cracked LCD article last year, I wrote about a general sense I was feeling that there weren’t any new concepts in gaming and that I was getting sort of burned out by playing through the same handful of design templates with new window dressing- the adventure game and the RISK-descendant wargame for example. I really believe that my sense of ennui and dissatisfaction with a lot of recent designs has a lot to do with the fact that many of these superfluously thematic games today are hitting on that executive thematic level but not the conceptual.

Titles like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and THE WORLD CUP GAME, games I loved from last year that have that solid and inalienable conceptual foundation, are the ones that I think are offering gamers with the kinds of rich, holistic and conceptual theming like you used to only be able to get in older games like LEGEND OF ROBIN HOOD – and it’s something to which today’s modern designers must not lose sight.

Questions or comments for Michael? Send them along to gameshark.feedback@yahoo.com .

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