Critical Play: Catan

The Settlers of Catan, or just Catan, is a multiplayer board game developed by Klaus Teuber in which players compete to develop settlements across the small island of Catan. In typical gameplay, the settlers will accumulate resources, trade with other settlers, build using acquired resources, and form alliances and rivalries.

On the surface, Catan has little in common with DupliCITY, the game I’ve been working on for CS247G’s first project; that being said, I chose Catan for comparative analysis precisely to analyze how its game mechanics facilitate complex social interactions such as cooperation and compromise. DupliCITY is supposed to also be a game that promotes such interactions, so taking hints from Catan where we can will surely benefit the project’s social appeal.

Types of Fun & Formal Elements

In this section, I’ll go through several types of fun and analyze which of Catan’s mechanics contribute to those types of fun.

Fantasy

Fantasy seems promised by Catan based off of the idyllic, pastoral images that grace its promotional art. Specifically, the modern cover art of the game features the eponymous settlers and the words “TRADE BUILD SETTLE”, suggesting that players will be taking on the roles of the settlers.

Catan achieves fantastical fun primarily through the cohesion of its colonial theme with its resource-driven gameplay. As mentioned above, players strive to expand their settlers’ land dominance by building new settlements through their use of resources like wood, wool, and wheat. In expanding, players are also given more opportunities for resources, not unlike how colonial expansion works in the real world. Hence, resources are supreme within the world of Catan, and treating them like real-life resources in trades emerges as a possible strategy for the players.

Because of the close relationship between resources and the game’s theme, players are encouraged to embrace the theme and even play their role within it. If Player A has blocked access to a bountiful wheat tile, other players are bound to begin making deals with A, lest they forfeit wheat in their longterm strategy. This sort of behavior seems more likely to specifically emerge because of the theme; the simple existence of an agricultural theme naturally compels players to participate in agrarian economics.

Ideally, in my team’s game, we can leverage a similarly expressive theme to nurture fantasy fun and social interactions unique to said theme.

Fellowship

Catan promises fellowship through its use of the word “TRADE” on its physical cover. Going into the game, players will likely expect to be trading with one another, so there is also a notion that resources will be central to the game’s progression.

Resources are at the heart of the fellowship that Catan provides, but its trading rules and expansion objectives also fuel the game’s social engine. Going further, the players’ goals of expansion require resources that they are unlikely to produce on their own, which are further facilitated by the trading system. Players need to trade to achieve their objectives, so the game’s trading system has the dual tasks of facilitating trade in a fair way while also encouraging healthy player interactions.

The most effective aspect of Catan’s trading mechanics is that players can only trade with the player to whom the current turn belongs. Functionally, this means that each player has a turn in the spotlight, which eliminates an issue that appears in many other social games: the issue of quieter players being dominated in conversation and, subsequently, in play.

My team’s game would benefit greatly from implementing mechanics that allow every player their time to shine, even if they choose to be relatively discreet during the game’s discussions.

Look and Feel

I’ve already touched on a few aspects of Catan’s graphic design, but I’ve largely omitted the design of its functional components. For starters, the game utilizes contrast and color in its hexagonal grid to provide an easy-to-read experience for the players. Given the spatial aspect of the game, it’s exceptionally useful to be able to read quickly where certain resources reside due to their visually distinct colors.

Catan also employs physicality through its use of cards for its resources. Because of this, players don’t have to perform any bookkeeping to maintain resources; they can just trade resources by handing cards to each other, which streamlines the trading process. If trading was a burden, Catan would be a much lesser experience.

Business Model Consideration

Given that Catan is a board game, it is purchased once and can be played infinitely thereafter. While it does have a number of expansion packs that bend its rules and provide unique experiences, they are not required to play the base game in the slightest, and many prefer the base game anyways.

I wouldn’t expect Catan to have any other business model given that it is a relatively standard board game, and it has done exceptionally well using that business model as well.

Conclusion

Catan is a great case study in how to encourage social interaction, and I imagine that I’ll continue to cherry-pick its mechanics for my own projects!