Devlog 4 - Making Bo -Taoshi Into a Card Game
This week I chose to research the game bo-taoshi. Bo-taoshi (meaning 'pole fight') is a japanese game that is often compared to Capture the Flag. 300 people are split into two teams of 150 that are then split again into defenders and attackers (75 each). The defenders are tasked with protecting a 4-meter-tall pole that they must hold up and keep the attackers from the other team from pulling it down. The poles are placed in a 27-meter-diameter circle that acts as a 'contact zone'. Players cannot attack each other outside of that circle or it's counted as a foul. The game is won when the attackers are able to get the opposing team's pole down to a 30-degree angle. One thing that I found interesting is that this game is played annually at the National Defense Academy of Japan on the anniversary of the academy. The academy has four battalions that play against each other in a tournament and the winners are awarded with a trophy during a ceremony.
It made me think about what Bennet Foddy said in Making it Matter: Lessons from Real Sports. At around 12:50 in the video, he discusses how real-world sports raise the stakes by not offering do-overs and having a sense of occasion. He also speaks about sports being a form of performance at 5:30. By making the annual playing of this game open to the public to watch (in several videos you can see a crowd watching the events), the National Defense Academy has shifted what could have been a regular training exercise to an important event that has raised stakes.
While my group was playing, I thought of what Bennet Foddy said at 13:20 of Making it Matter: Lessons from Real Sports. Part of the fun of the game was how competitive we got and the rivalry we felt with each other. Trying to psych each other out and celebrating when we won (and rubbing it in each other's faces a little) made the experience feel more important than it would if we just played the game silently.
CMI 3377
Status | In development |
Category | Other |
Author | RGHilliard |
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