You know you are playing in a Megagame when...

I present this as conceptual tool to enable the befuddled masses to know if the game they are playing really is a proper megagame.

These tools do not require any definition and even a social media debate. You just need to ask yourself a few "yes" or "no" questions, and if enough of them are yes then you can be mostly certain you are indeed "playing in a megagame".

1. Are there a lot of players?

We might need to nail down "a lot of players" but really megagames involve more players than say a wedding, or a family party, but much less than a football crowd. But in general many more players are playing in one game at the same time than anything you have every experienced. Megagames are quite the biggest multiplayer games you will every play in.

Perhaps I should define what I mean multiplayer. I suppose this could get tricky, but if I said there have to be more than 2 players this will eliminate games like Chess, and most SPI boardgames. (There is a whole debate about if megagames are really just big boardgames, I just prefer to say there are a lot more players in a megagames than the typical boardgame.) 

However I think I can stick my neck out and say that if there are more than 25 players (I include Control in this too) then it is more likely to be a megagame than another type of game. 

2. Do some of the players refer to themselves as "Control"?

All megagames have a proportion of the players who call themselves Control. The Designer has taken a lot of time over "the ratio". The ratio, in this context, refers to how many Players there are to Control. Some like a low ratio, others like a high ratio. There is something of a debate about this. However, for our purposes - finding out if we are playing a megagame - just knowing that there are Control will suffice.

Control like to consider themselves as wise, self-sacrificing, and very worthy. This is mostly true. However they don't like to admit that they are really playing in a megagame. Don't be fooled, they are playing really, its just that they pay less and still feel morally superior.

3. Are there any breaks in play?

This can be quite difficult. For example when I play boardgames - like Puerto Rico, Carcassone or Settlers of Catan - my game group frequently has breaks in play. We generally forget about the game and throw insults at each other, go to the toilet or just chat shit about irrelevant things.

Now all the above things also occur in megagames, but they usually happen - apart from the toilet breaks -  and the megagame does not just stop! If a player indulges in a tea break, the game keeps going - though some argue that the tea queue is a great place to talk to players you shouldn't otherwise talk to. If you live vlog yourself, the game goes on. There are no breaks in megagames! This is quite a distinguishing feature.

4. Are there any ad hoc rulings?

This is very simple. If you play a game like Chess, or Settlers of Catan, there are occasionally disputes about the interpretation of rules. In non-megagames these are eventually settled by player consensus (or sometimes just throwing the board over and storming off). In megagames any disputes about the rules are taken to "Control" who quickly, and usually with no attempt to check the rules, tell you what the rule "really" means and to do that, and that you are just trying to "get away with it" and not to try it on again, and don't go and ask another Control for a second ruling, and just suck it up and get on with it.

Sometimes in really serious ad hoc rulings, the Control will secretly talk to the Game Designer and then there will be a quiet promulgation amongst the other Controls of what the Designer really intended by that rule. It's all a little confusing, and very ad hoc!

5. Are there any inconsistent applications of rules, from table to table or from Control to Control?

If this does not happen or if players don't whinge about "damned inconsistent rules "you know you are not in a megagame. Simples. Experienced megagame players expect inconsistent rules; they even take great joy in pointing them out to other players and control, sometimes during the game, but more often afterwards in some blog or vlog or social media post.

Some are a little disgruntled by this, others are more phlegmatic. But you cannot deny that it is part of one of the defining features of a megagame - inconsistent application of the rules.

6. Does emergent play occur?

Most players are not sure what emergent play is; its a little bit theoretical. In simple terms it's when something happens within the structure of the game that was not anticipated by the designer. By structure I mean the rules, the maps, the counters etc. I don't mean player behaviour, players are just downright unpredictable. A wise and experienced Game Designer will often mutter about "emergent play"; it makes them seem more in control if they expected the unexpected.

Anyway that's the theory. In a megagame you usually meet emergent play when a player or Control says they are "doing a wizard wheeze". I would go so far to say that if you do not encounter this at least once then you are not in a real megagame.

7. Are there rules about where the players can and cannot be?

Think about it. In most games the rules do not tell you that for 10 minutes you have to sit with a group of other gamers or that only a certain type of player can go to the map table etc. OK, in some boardgames there is an order of play thing going on, which more a seating order thing.

Anyway, you know when you are playing in a megagame if somewhere in the rules there is a section that stipulates where the players have to be at certain times or cannot be at other times. OK, games like Rugby Union have extremely complex offside rules which might be mistaken for megagame rules about player placement, but in Rugby the rules on cover temporary incidents. Megagame Offside rules have rules that require players to be present for regular recurring periods of times, so they're not much like Rugby Union offside rules.

8. Are the players organised into teams by the designer pre-game?

Let's face it why else would you be required to sit at the same table with a bunch of strangers if you weren't in a team. Megagame Designers reckon they can cast a bunch of strangers as a team to create that great megagame narrative experience. How many other games does such "casting" take place. Yes casting is central to films and theatre, in fact I think this is why some people like to think megagames are a sort of improv theatre for gamers, and there might be something in that.

9. Do some of the players dress up?

This is probably the most controversial thing I'm going to say. Perhaps it's because I played my first megagame in 1991 and count myself as a bit of an old grognard, but I remember the days when no megagamers dressed up or even wore hats.

These days, if somebody is not wearing something swashy or buckling then it's not really a megagame. But a good point is that many players don't dress up; perhaps this is how you can distinguish between megagames and theatre - in theatre all the cast dresses up, in megagames only a few really enthusiastic types do.

Conclusion

I hope this simple conceptual tool will be of use to all gamers who might be a little concerned that they might or might not be playing in a real megagame. Just ask and answer the above 9 questions and I would suggest that if you get 9 affirmatives, then you are playing in a megagame. If you get between 6 - 8 then it's probably just a messy gaming experience, like a club game at CLWG, which is not really here nor there. Less than 6 then I would suggest you should think about asking for your money back, as it is almost certainly not a megagame.

Final word

Actually.... this all started as a serious attempt to define a megagame by writing a set of necessary conditions. Yeah! I bet you wouldn't have read an article about fuzzy sets and crisp sets - well I know at least one person who would - but they've left the country now, so I'm safe.

I have a few other conditions - that upon further reflection - are less likely to always be found in a megagame but quite likely to occur... A simple list will suffice.

• Roleplaying
• Hierarchical teams
• Friction between players
• Players have personal roles
• Player interaction drives the gameplay

10. Reading the rules

There is, of course, the final and very cynical definition of a megagame - you know when you are playing in a megagame when most of the players have not read the rules, sometimes, even Control haven't!