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        Arimaa >> General Discussion >> A Mythological Theme for Arimaa
        
(Message started by: Meneldor on Dec 7^th, 2009, 2:19pm)

Title: A Mythological Theme for Arimaa
Post by Meneldor on Dec 7^th, 2009, 2:19pm

I took a look at the slide show given by Omar at BGG con, at one point Omar discussed the theme for Arimaa, and confessed that he did not give much thought to it, except to pick animals to make it appealing to children. Robots were apparently considered, and so were Sumo wrestlers.

Abstract players wont care about theme, but as Omar himself said, inventing a game is half the battle. Much time and effort must go into promoting it.

In my previous post, although I think the gameplay is good, the deficiency of Arimaa is that it lacks a consistent theme. Chess, Go, and Checkers have a consistent theme: two armies battle to capture each other. But rabbits scoring a goal, who can not go backwards? So I compared it to football, where there is a line of scrimmage. In which case, I considered we can have rabbits carrying eggs who must bring an egg to score a goal and win. So we have a theme here: kill the Easter bunny.

That theme is just not good for children. So I did some research on rabbits. I actually came across this very interesting myth on the rabbit, I will just quote it in full from Wikipedia:

The Moon rabbit, also called the Jade Rabbit, is a rabbit that lives on the moon in East Asian folklore. The legends about the moon rabbit are based on the traditional pareidolia that identifies the markings of the moon as a rabbit pounding in a mortar. In Chinese folklore, it is often portrayed as a companion of the moon goddess Chang'e, constantly pounding the elixir of life for her; but in Japanese and Korean versions it is just pounding mochi or tteok.

The earliest records suggesting that there is a rabbit on the moon appears in the Warring States period in ancient China. The Chu Ci, a Western Han anthology of Chinese poems from the Warring States period, notes that along with a toad, there is a rabbit on the moon who constantly pounds herbs for the immortals. This notion is supported by later texts, including the Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era encyclopedia of the Song Dynasty. Han Dynasty poets call the rabbit on the moon the Jade Rabbit or the Gold Rabbit, so in the days of old people also use the words "Jade Rabbit" and "Gold Rabbit" to refer to the moon.

In the Buddhist story "Sasajâtaka", a monkey, an otter, a jackal, and a rabbit resolved to practice charity on the Uposatha, believing a demonstration of great virtue would earn a great reward.

When an old man begged for food, the monkey gathered fruits from the trees and the otter collected dead fish from the river bank, while the jackal wrongfully pilfered a lizard and a pot of milk-curd. The rabbit, who knew only how to gather grass, instead offered its own body, throwing itself into a fire the man had built. The rabbit, however, was not burnt. The old man revealed himself to be Sakra, and touched by the rabbit's virtue, drew the likeness of the rabbit on the moon for all to see. It is said the lunar image is still draped in the smoke that rose when the rabbit cast itself into the fire.

A version of this story can be found in the Japanese anthology Konjaku Monogatarishu, where the rabbit's companions are a fox and a monkey.

Interestingly, similar legends occur in Mexican folklore, where people also identified the markings on the moon as a rabbit. According to an Aztec legend, when the god Quetzalcoatl lived in Earth as a man, he started a journey. After walking for a long time, he became hungry and tired. With no food or water around, he thought he would die. Then, a rabbit grazing nearby offered himself as food to save his life. Quetzalcoatl, moved by the rabbit's noble offering, elevated the rabbit to the moon, then lowered him back to Earth, and told him, "You may be just a rabbit, but everyone will remember you; there is your image in light, for all men and for all times."

Another Mesoamerican legend tells of the brave and noble sacrifice of Nanahuatzin during the creation of the fifth sun. Humble Nanahuatzin sacrificed himself in fire to become the new sun, but the wealthy god Tecciztecatl hesitated four times before he finally set himself alight to become the moon. Due to Tecciztecatl's cowardice, the gods felt that the moon should not be as bright as the sun, so one of the gods threw a rabbit at his face to diminish his light. It is also said that Tecciztecatl was in the form of a rabbit when he sacrificed himself to become the moon, casting the shadow of a rabbit.

As for the Easter bunny, no one knows the origin of how it got to be associated with an egg, but from earlier times it was closely associated with the Moon. So the theme of Arimaa could be to be the first to send the rabbit to the Moon. In which case, instead of Gold and Silver, we should have a Gold and Jade Arimaa set.

Title: Re: A Mythological Theme for Arimaa
Post by Fritzlein on Dec 7^th, 2009, 6:01pm

I grew up hearing about the man in the moon. I never saw the rabbit in the moon until someone pointed it out to me in college. Since then I see only a rabbit, and I can't find the face any more.

Title: Re: A Mythological Theme for Arimaa
Post by omar on Dec 9^th, 2009, 9:41pm

Wow, Doug you are really into this Theme thing :-) For me the theme doesn't matter much. I only care that is helps to easily distinguish the strength of the pieces, and appeals to kids. As such I have no hesitation in adopting a theme which meets both of these criteria but also adds a story line to the game. If I have any hesitation it's only because it would mean a lot of work for me to change the theme now.

But I do encourage you to dream up of a good theme and keep it handy, because someday Z-Man might want to make Arimaa sets with different themes.

Title: Re: A Mythological Theme for Arimaa
Post by Meneldor on Dec 10^th, 2009, 5:59am

on 12/09/09 at 21:41:52, omar wrote:

But I do encourage you to dream up of a good theme and keep it handy, because someday Z-Man might want to make Arimaa sets with different themes.

Actually I came up with a darn good one a couple of days ago. You and Z-man games should definitely consider it. I know you are concentrating on tournaments and beating the computer AI, but if you want to market this game to the general masses you need a different theme - and this one does not use rabbits.

The odd thing about this theme is that someone who does not know better will think that the game was designed to fit the theme, rather than the other way around. It is quite funny how specific Arimaa tactics and strategy fit in perfectly with it. You will need to time the release of it correctly. I dont want to spoil it, message me if you and Z-man games would be interested.

Title: Re: A Mythological Theme for Arimaa
Post by omar on Dec 24^th, 2009, 4:47pm

I've always wanted to add a theme option to the game client and allow selecting the theme. But, it's one of those things that never makes it to the top of the stack since there's usually other more pressing things to be done.

When I get around to adding more themes, I'll definitely contact you. Hope you write it down and don't forget it by then :-)

Title: Re: A Mythological Theme for Arimaa
Post by Meneldor on Mar 10^th, 2010, 7:26pm

on 12/24/09 at 16:47:48, omar wrote:

Hello Omar,
With a job switch and now increasing responsibilities, I have lost spare time to play Arimaa. But I did mention the game to my former boss, Aamir, who has 2 sons who play chess. Its been a while since I visited here, but before I forget, I need to write this theme down.

So in Arimaa, we have the following hierarchy of animals: Elephant, Camel, Horse, Dog, Cat, Rabbit. I was unsatisfied with this since you need animals that push each other. After watching the "Last Unicorn" with my daughter, I came up with this hierarchy of animals: Elephant, Bull, Unicorn, Deer, Goat, Rabbit. This has the advantage of minimal changes, and animals are changed to the ones that will push others with their horns.

So I was happy with that, but then I came up with something very cool: use Lord of the Rings as a theme for Arimaa. So we can change Arimaa pieces to look like this:

(Arimaa) = (Gold) = (Jade) = (Chess piece)
Elephant = King = Sauron = King
Camel = Gandalf = Saruman = Queen
Horse = Knight = Nazgul = Knight
Dog = Elf = Troll = Bishop
Cat = Dwarf = Uruk-Hai = Rook
Rabbit = Hobbit = Orc = Pawn

So, why is this a perfect theme? Well if you know Arimaa, and you are familiar with Lord of the Rings, you know perfectly well why this fits Arimaa. In Arimaa, one of the first strategies discovered was "Holding a Camel Hostage". Which is odd and makes no sense. But now its not a camel, its a wizard. If you hold the wizard hostage, you have the advantage. And thus Saruman first holds Gandalf as prisoner and holds the advantage, later Saruman becomes a prisoner in his own tower.

The horse piece is the most mobile, and useful for attacks. Thus it makes sense to map that to a knight, and the Nazgul - the ring wraiths who rode on black horses.

The Elephant never dies, and is the center of power. Thus it makes sense to map that to the King (Aragorn) and Sauron (the bodiless eye that never dies).

But the real threat in Arimaa comes from the rabbits. If they reach the end goal, the game ends with no more fighting. So, it makes perfect sense to map that to the small hobbits. If one of them reaches the end goal, behind the enemy lines, he drops the ring in Mount Doom and its game over. For the opposite side, the goal of the orcs is to overrun the Shire.

And as a strange coincidence, there were four main hobbits selected for the quest: Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin. And as we all know, certain Arimaa games can end with FOUR rabbits that reach the end goal on the same turn. Rare, but possible. But no more than four can reach the end goal at a time.

And what about those holes on the Arimaa board? Well here is where it gets stranger: for those of you who know Tolkien's books well, the hobbits and orcs once got into a battle, and the leader of the hobbits cut off the head of an orc and the orc's head flew 100 yards AND FELL DOWN A RABBIT HOLE.

And thus, according to Tolkien, the Hobbit game of Golfimbul was invented. Which of course would be the new name for Arimaa. My apologies to your son, Omar.

And considering that there is a new movie coming out, The Hobbit, I suggest you get ready and retheme Arimaa before the movie is released in 2011 or 2012. I guarantee you the game will gather a new set of followers.

Title: Re: A Mythological Theme for Arimaa
Post by omar on Mar 11^th, 2010, 8:46am

Wow, that's awesome. You've definitely put a lot of thought into mapping what happens in Arimaa to what happens in Lord of the Rings. I never would have thought there was any connection. But your explanation makes it clear.

I'll pass this by Zev and see if he might be interested in making such a set; using the complete Lord of the Ring theme and even calling it Golfimbul. But I am sure he will have to get a license from the Lord of the Ring folks before he could do this.

However, I would not change the Arimaa pieces to use LotR characters (even if I was given a free license :-) ) because it requires a lot of very specific knowledge to understand the theme. For someone who does not know about LotR it would not make sense; and there are people around the world who don't know about LotR. One of the reasons for using well known animals for the pieces was so that anyone around the world would know what they are and could tell which is stronger than which.

But a consistency can be maintained so that when the game is called Golfimbul it implies the LotR characters and when it is called Arimaa it implies the animal pieces. Two names for the same game :-)

Recently I was thinking that a theme of sumo wrestling would be the best theme to apply to Arimaa and it could be done in a way that it still maintains the animal names. So basically Arimaa is a new sport called "Team Sumo". Unlike regular sumo wrestling which is a one-to-one sport, Team Sumo is played between teams of 16 players having various different positions or roles. The names of the positions are the animal names due to their strength and sumo style used in playing that position. So the captains of the teams are called elephants and the guys who try to reach the opponents goal are called rabbits. Of course the stronger players can push or pull the players of the opposing team who are weaker than them. But they can also grab on to the weaker opposing players adjacent to them and prevent them from moving. A weaker player under the grip of a stronger opponent player can call on any one of his team mates to yank him out and break free of the grip. There are four very slippery mud puddles on the field and any sumo wrestler that steps into it is guaranteed to slip and fall and get himself all muddy. A dirty sumo wrestler can't continue playing since he would get the other players all dirty, so he has to go off to the sidelines. But if a team mate is nearby the sumo wrestler can hold the team mate's hand and stay balanced while standing or walking through the mud puddle. Only his feet would get dirty and that is allowed since sumo wrestlers never touch their opponents with their feet :-)

Title: Re: Sumo arimaa (was: A Mythological Theme)
Post by knarl on Mar 23^rd, 2010, 9:15pm

Awesome... I can just imagine playing arimaa with a Sumo figurines of various sizes, that pack up inside one another like matryoshkas! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_doll).

They'd be wearing their fancy silver and gold loin cloths ;-)

Cheers,
knarl.