Well you could do the same shit they do in a lot of sci fi films,
where you have a big board apparently displaying the positions of friendly and enemy fleets in some futuristic abstract way, and just make it so when the the good guys do well it all gets a bit bluer, and when the enemy is doing well it all gets a bit redder.
If you need more detail than that, then early on in the story you show a weird graphical element that is easily distinguishable from everything else and which causes a big red/blue shift and makes the audience gasp (and with ensuing discussion which roughly explains what it represents)... then later you drop that element in at the key moment it is needed, so the viewer can now gasp.
The last thing you'd want to do with the game in The Player of Games is make it actually understandable, I think, since it is basically not understandable in the book.
(, Wed 26 Aug 2020, 15:31, Reply)
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, sorry
but I like your idea - I think it would absolutely be possible to give visual cues about the progress of the game, without actually spelling out what's meant to be happening.
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IHaveABadFeelingAboutThis most likely working from home on, Wed 26 Aug 2020, 15:53,
Reply)
No I'm really not!
Basically "the game" in this case is the same as "the war" in so many films. The actual positions and movements of all units on the board doesn't usually matter for the story, only a few bits do for a few scenes.
If you want to make a situation look bad in a WW2 film, you get a guy with a croupier's rake to push a handful of swastikas towards a lone Union Jack. You can do the same here.
(, Wed 26 Aug 2020, 15:55, Reply)
(, Wed 26 Aug 2020, 16:14, Reply)
106 votes so far today on /links
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Wed 26 Aug 2020, 16:21,
Reply)
Nah, only 4 at the moment.
I got 11 for the Dutchie joke I posted a month or two back, that seems to be the most popular thing I've ever posted with this account.
(, Thu 27 Aug 2020, 0:00, Reply)
Coming back to this because I've got the ability to concentrate on it at last - you make a good point. You don't have to have all the rules fleshed out and so on. However there's enough in the book that talked about gaining and losing territory and strategic moves that pay off later that make me concerned for how it would work visually. If you have someone stand there and explain it to us, then that's a huge cop-out.
But I suppose you could do it like Cricket highlights, where you don't have to watch all five days to get a feel for how it went.
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Wed 26 Aug 2020, 17:52,
Reply)