THIS PAST WEDNESDAY, FOUR JONESIANS (INCLUDING MYSELF) GATHERED IN THE FAR LOUNGE TO THE RIGHT TO PLAY A GAME. A CARD GAME, SPECIFICALLY. BUT THIS ISN’T ANY ORDINARY CARD GAME. IT’S A GAME THAT’S SIMULTANEOUSLY COOPERATIVE AND COERCIVE. IT’S ONE THAT YOU CAN ONLY MASTER, BUT THAT OFTEN REVEALS A WILL OF ITS OWN. IT’S BOHNANZA.
ALL FOUR OF US COME FROM JONES HALL, ALTHOUGH I’M THE ONLY ONE THAT DOESN’T LIVE ON THE FOURTH FLOOR.
THIS WAS NOT OUR FIRST RODEO. OUR FIRST TIME PLAYING THE GAME WAS WEEKS AGO, BACK ON EASTER DAY. IT CAME TOGETHER ON A WHIM, AFTER THE JONES HALL FOURTH FLOOR EASTER EGG HUNT HAD CONCLUDED.
I WANTED PLAY AGAIN, PARTIALLY BECAUSE OF MY EMBARRASSING FIRST PERFORMANCE. BUT I ALSO WANTED TO UNDERSTAND HOW THIS GAME WORKS, PERHAPS TO SEE HOW DEEP IT GOES.
CREATED BY GERMAN GAME DESIGNER UWE ROSENBERG IN 1997, THE GOAL OF EACH PLAYER IS RELATIVELY STRAIGHTFORWARD: YOU MUST HARVEST AND SELL BEANS, IN ORDER TO MAXIMIZE YOUR OWN PROFITS. THE ORIGINAL GAME SET CONTAINS A DECK OF 104 CARDS, THAT EACH REPRESENT ONE OF ELEVEN BEAN VARIETIES. SOME BEANS(LIKE COFFEE BEANS OR WAX BEANS) ARE VERY COMMON, AND HAVE LITTLE SELLING VALUE. OTHERS(LIKE GARDEN BEANS AND ESPECIALLY COCOA BEANS) ARE RARE. THEY APPEAR IN THE DECK ONLY A FEW TIMES, BUT SELL FOR A LOT.
EACH PLAYER HAS TWO BEAN PLOTS. ALTHOUGH YOU CAN TRADE WITH OTHER PLAYERS FOR BEANS YOU MIGHT WANT TO GROW, YOU NEVER HAVE MUCH CONTROL OVER WHICH TYPES OF BEANS YOU CAN GROW. WHEN THINKING ABOUT WHETHER YOU SHOULD SELL A PLOT, YOU HAVE TO BE THINKING ABOUT WHICH VARIETIES YOU CAN REALISTICALLY GROW. THIS WAS SOMETHING I DIDN’T REALLY GRASP MY FIRST TIME PLAYING.
BUT ONE OF THE MOST STRIKING FEATURES OF THE GAME ARE THE CARDS THEMSELVES. THEY HAVE A KIND OF ZANY ARTISTIC STYLE, NOT WITHOUT THEIR OWN SENSE OF HUMOR.
Jeff: [You know, the artwork is kind of crazy, right? But I think a lot of the art is these puns, these being puns and German that but don’t exactly translate them like the the Green Bean is you know, the green bean is throwing up. If you look at the artwork. And I guess that’s because. Like the literal translation in German it is breaking because of the way they snap off the vines. But Frank, I guess, is also German slang for vomiting. So that’s why the green bean is vomiting. Yeah. Yeah. I forget the exact German word is obviously not quite broken, but it’s the same root word. And the blue bean is like a cowboy. And I guess I guess blue beans is like slang.]
THAT WAS JARED BRONSKI, ISABEL’S FATHER. THE SET WE PLAYED WITH BELONGS TO HER FAMILY, WHICH SHE TOOK WHEN GOING OFF TO COLLEGE.
Jeff: [I believe I bought it when we were on sabbatical. So that was 2013, I believe. And. I’m 90% sure of the place I bought it. So, you know, I mentioned we used to play these games when I was in junior high and high school. And, you know, I used to, you know, I was from the suburbs, but I used to have to go into Boston to buy like, you know, games and stuff because there was no place sort of locally that had a good selection. So I would go to this place in Cambridge called Games People Play. Mm. And the person who was working the counter, I’m pretty sure she was the owner, so she was always behind the counter and she always had these, these two little dogs. I think they were Pomeranians. So I went, you know. You know, in 2013, when we were there for a sabbatical, I went back to love. You know, to pick up a copy of this game. And so that was, you know, like. I don’t know, it has been several decades since I have been in that store. But, you know, I walked in and it’s the same lady sitting at the you know, sitting behind the counter. And she had presumably two new Pomeranians, but two of the exact same breed of dog.]
UNFORTUNATELY, THAT CAMBRIDGE GAME STORE CLOSED IN 2019. BUT ACCORDING TO JEFF ZWIREK, THESE TYPES OF STORES AREN’T GOING AWAY. JEFF ZWIREK WORKS FOR PIRATE LAB, A LOCAL EVANSTON BUSINESS THAT SPECIALIZES IN PRESERVING VALUABLE OR VINTAGE CARDS OR GAME SETS.
Jeff: [Well, some one thing that we really noticed was that there was, you know, spikes in popularity, particularly around card games, um, over the last decade. And I you know, the theory that I’ve heard bandied about in that regard is that, you know, a lot of younger people in the workforce, um, are working in a completely digital environment. They’re sitting behind a desk all day. You had a computer screen all day. And so in the home you are those professionals. Younger people are wanting to spend more time staring at a screen. So, um, card games in particular for games as an extension of that, um, gives them that tactile interaction with other people and with a pastime that’s separate individual digital, like a conscious choice for people to, to do something that’s more analog, to kind of help their mental health perspective staring at a screen.]
BACK TO THE GAME. IT STARTED PREDICTABLY, WITH ISABEL QUICKLY ACCUMULATING RICH PLOTS OF BEANS. HOWEVER, IT WAS ALAINA THAT MADE THE MOST OFFENSIVE FIRST MOVES, QUICKLY POSITIONING HERSELF TO BUY THE CONTROVERSIAL THIRD BEAN PLOT.
IT BECAME CLEAR QUICKLY THAT THESE TYPES OF PLAYS WERE PAYING OFF.
IT WASN’T LONG BEFORE ACCUSATIONS STARTED FLYING.
AS THE FINAL RESULTS BEGAN TO TAKE SHAPE, REALITY BEGAN TO SET IN.
AND BY THE END OF THE GAME, EACH PLAYER HAD THEIR OWN REFLECTIONS TO SHARE.
FOR A GAME AS DOWN-TO-EARTH AS BOHNANZA, IT OFFERS AMPLE OPPORTUNITIES TO THINK ABOUT THE NATURE OF LIFE AND FATE. WITH THE MOTTO, “TO BEAN OR NOT TO BEAN,” HOW COULD IT NOT?
PERHAPS, SUCCESS IN THE BEAN GAME ISN’T TOO DISSIMILAR FROM SUCCESS IN LIFE. YOU CAN BE AS SKILLED AND ASSERTIVE AS YOU WANT, BUT SOMETIMES, THERE’S NO AVOIDING THE DICTATE OF FATE.
FOR WNUR NEWS, I’M PAUL O’CONNOR.
