The Genius

i'm a gamer, at heart, in that i love to play games and since i'm an insufferable analyzer of everything i enjoy, i have expanded thoughts on the quality of this show — a korean game show i've long thought that the best games — the ones that are most fun to play — fall into one of three categories games where everyone perfectly understands the rules and the available strategies. these are largely games of execution — sports and esports fall into this category, as do the best competitive board games (simple to understand, hard to master) games where no one knows the rules. everyone hears the rules, gets to strategize on their own, then are let loose on the playing field. no one has an advantage of having seen strategy previously, or having executed the required skills beforehand. most games can be forced into "fairness" by total naivete cooperative games. all players succeed or fail together games that don't fall into these categories are really not that fun — in particular most euro-style board games are pretty chopped imo. they pose as highly strategic games, but unless everyone at the table has played the games enough times to perfectly understand the rules and available strategies (type 1) OR it's everyone at the table's very first game (type 2), the game likely won't be that fun. whoever has more experience will dominate, and that doesn't make for a gripping game of strategy ((aside to say that yes you can condense type 1 and 2 into a single "games where each player has the same amount of understanding of the game", but i find that never happens)) so, with that said the genius is the best execution of a type 2 game i've come across — it expanded my appreciation for the capabilities of type 2 games ... because a hidden benefit of type two games is that they don't have to be balanced! strategies can be broken, pieces can be malformed or missing, players can cheat, if it's allowed by the shared premise of the event this show isn't perfect. i haven't even seen all of it —largely because it's chiefed as hell to watch illegally online (which is your only option if you live in the us) — but it's in my hall of fame, and a touchpoint for me as a work of art i'm so glad exists as a game lover and game designer, this show is an experimental masterpiece. something we should all learn from