Everything you need to know about megagame
We all had a phase in our life when we could just play games all day long and watch the sun go down with a popsicle in our hand. No, nostalgia isn’t the point of this article, knowledge of different kinds of games is. Most of us have played board games, card games, video games, console games, etc. and some of us might even have an upper hand in these games. But have you heard of megagame? If you’re a gamer then you must’ve heard of them or even if you haven’t then we’ve got you covered. This article is solely dedicated to megagame, the history of megagame, and their super interesting gameplay.
What is a megagame?
A megagame combines the various game elements that are encountered by players in different places such as LARP (Live Action Role Playing), board games, and social interactions. Megagames are played on a very large scale and often include economical and political aspects in the game. All of these aspects are usually combined into extremely intriguing gameplay. There are also a lot of interlocking games that are blended into the megagame. Players often play a huge role in shaping the narrative of the game through role-playing. So although the structure of each megagame is pretty much the same, each of these has different outcomes based on the role-playing that is done by the players. These games are generally played with 30-80 players but this limit can go up to 300. The popular subjects are science fiction, political situations, war history and other fantasy genres.
History
Now some of you might think that megagames are relatively recent. But that’s not the case because these large-scale games have been around since the 1970s. Their roots can be traced back to the famous British board game designer, Jim Wallman. Initially, mega games were first implemented to grow war gaming to a bigger scale. The first-ever war-game played was called ‘Memphis Manger’ which was a Vietnam war game. Since then, the structure of megagames has undergone a lot of changes and developed itself.
Gameplay
A megagame involves a number of different turns which represent the time period that usually varies from days to months, the range of the time period depends on the scenario that is being played. Every single turn is broken down into different phases which again depends on the theme that is being played. The different phases of the game generally include:
- Team time: This is the phase where the team stays together at their table to talk about the different approaches that can opted through out the later phases. It also includes different players updating their team members about their individual progress.
- Order Phase: In this phase, map players move across the map and place units in an effort to bring about a change on the map state.
- Meeting phase: This involves the meeting of suitable team members with other teams in an effort to influence them.
Usually games can consist of 8-10 turns and the final turn is declared at the end. The games are reviewed by referees or members of control.
