Cluedo

Cluedo is, objectively, a successful and popular game. I personally have no interest in this game, but I don’t necessarily think they’re horrible games, nor do I wish ill on anyone who plays this game. With that said, let the bile-spewing begin!

Cluedo’s conflict is expressed through two main avenues: the conflict between the player’s pool of information and the contents of an inanimate yellow envelope and the race between all the participants to ‘solve the mystery’. The conceit of solving a murder through investigation and the player’s fantasy of being a detective doesn’t lend itself well to the most efficient way of playing: drawing up a huge logic grid as might suit a particular kind of child’s puzzle book and then huddling over it as you cross off various suspects. There are very clear and concise steps a player can take towards ‘playing to win’.

Each player has access to an equal percentage of the whole truth (represented by the cards in their hand), but the imbalance in this game is derived from the skill ceiling’s gargantuan dimensions. A single talented player at a table full of new and inexperienced players will find the game ridiculously easy to win through superior record-keeping and deductive reasoning, but a single inexperienced player sitting at a table of professional Cluedo players will unintentionally share so much information that the game is ruined for all involved.