Showing victory points

[willcrichton]

Given that seven wonders is now run via computer, it's a simple task to show each player how many victory points they currently have--and by extension, how many points each other player has. It's been a point of great contention among my floormates and others as to whether this sort of information should be available to the players or whether it takes too much skill out of the game.

Do y'all have any thoughts on the matter?

[albrown]

I very much disagree with this. This will make for spiteful play and ruins the part of the game where people have to notice when people are getting ahead.

[bubblesadam]

I don't think you should be able to see victory points. I think that would lead to players ganging up on those who are winning (i.e. going out of their way to burn cards that they know the winning player needs).

[alexcrichton]

I think you should be able to see it.

That being said, I don't think that this should be a yes/no question. The game could be created with this as a parameter and people can choose whichever they see fit.

[albrown]

I feel like it would only take one, maybe two, games for people to understand how much this will change the way the game is played.

[bubblesadam]

I agree with Alex that it would be a good option; I think it would change the game drastically, but people can feel free to turn it off or on at their leisure.

This might work well as three options: no VP display, only displaying your own VP, or displaying everyone's VP.

[tbroman]

I agree with Alex. For comparison, online Dominion has a point tracker, but most games are played without it.