astroglide wrote:
medievalbanquet wrote:
Interesting. I don't think Agricola is about the card interactions. In fact, if it was I would think Uwe would have put in a mechanic (possibly a draft) to insure that this was the case. Instead, he didn't. That is a LOT of information for you as to his thoughts on the importance of cards, etc.
I don't think any form of creation is about deference to designer intent. When one makes something, they get to make it, but once it's out in the world, they don't get to determine what the response to it is or "should" be, nor do I think people should look back to them to do that.
If counter-examples are your thing, basically all forms of "competitive" Agricola, including the officially-sanctioned world championships, feature drafting. And we've had a bajillion card/deck expansions, compared to a single major game expansion (Farmers of the Moor).
If cards were the game like in Terraforming Mars, I don't think you'd be able to win without them.
If your opponents are playing remotely well, you aren't going to win a game of Agricola without card support.
I have my preferences, and I play by them, but I'm cool with whatever. That has nothing to do what Uwe thinks, despite my immense debt of gratitude to him for the game.
Sure but that is not what I am saying. Artist, designer, author, etc. all do things with determination. They do things with purpose but then the public may take it elsewhere.
You agree that designs and mechanics are developed to provide for a very rewarding, balancing experience, correct? That’s the intent. They may have missed something (A Few Acres of Snow- Halifax Hammer) that the General public found. No kidding.
But, I don’t think Uwe chose to offer 7 random occupations/minors to players in an award winning game about tough choices and thin margins so as to make the point that card interactions and variances are the supreme purpose of the game. I imagine card drafting was talked about and suggested or even play tested during the game’s development.
And the answer we got was the rules as written.
