Play Experiment 3 - Modern Art
Modern Art
Formal Elements
Tre, Dave, Herb, and Eric played Modern Art. The game is played in rounds. each player is given $100,000 at the beginning of the game. The amount of money a player has in total is meant to be hidden from other players, so everyone is given an art galler (cardboard cutout) to hide their money. The game is meant to be played with three or more players. In the first round each player is dealt 9 artwork cards. None of the cards are owned by any player, but each player can enter a card into auction at each turn.
Auctioning is the main mechanic f the game. There are several types of auctions available to the players. Open auctions are just that, open to all the players and the art card goes to the highest bidder. There are single bid auctions where each player makes a single bid, in turn, and the highest bidder wins. Closed bids require each player to select a certain amount of money from their pile and present it to all other players at the same time. the highest bidder wins. Set price auctions happen when the player holding the art card sets a price, and in turn other players can buy or pass. each card is stamped with the type of auction required for that card. All players have a chance to purchase paintings, even the player presenting to auction.
The objective of the game is to acquire the most money buy owning paintings that are more valuable and selling them to the bank at the end of each round. Painting Cards become valuable the more of them are bought in each round. there are only five available artists and several paintings from each. the nore paintings of a single artist are sold in a round the more valuable that artists paintings become. If that artist contnues to sell well in subsequent rounds, his paintings appreciate in value. After 5 paintings of a single artist are played the round ends and values for eachartist are determined. The painter with the most cards sold in the round gains $30,000 in value for his paintings for that round. Second place gets $20,000, 3rd place gets $10,000, and the other painters get nothing.
After four rounds, whoever has the most money wins.
Dramatic Elements
The drama in the games comes form the auctions. Each player is angleig to buy certain paintingsin each round. Because the turns are specific, ther are advantages to being the 1st turn in a certain auction and advantaged to being the last turn in a different auction. If u played well in earlier rounds then u might have a monetary advantage that allows u to drive up the cost of paintings, but even then a different player might have a lot of a valuable artist in his hand that he can play strategically to increase the value of an artst. the game becomes a continual cat and mouse game in this way.
Dynaminc Elements
The dynamic elements in this game revolved around the auction types tied to each card. Because the type of auction is determined by the player presenting the card,there was a lot f strategy invloved in trying to over price or under price certain artist and forcing other players to commit large sums of money to a single artist. In the end it seemed smart to focus on previously established artists, because prices in later rounds were so high that trying to increse value in a lesser artist cost more than it was worth.