Monday I had four play tests of Comic Auction. It incorporated a lot of the feedback from Metatopia and most of it went over very well. We used the once around auction that I’ve been using for the last several versions. One problem this group had was the disadvantage the first player has in a once around auction.
I had another play test night scheduled for Thursday and I managed to implement some changes based on Monday’s feedback. One change was using a blind bid auction.
Thursday I played 2 games with one group. Once with blind bidding and once with the once around auction. The 4 players were split on which they liked better. What it came down to was wether or not the player enjoyed blind bidding and not much to do with which method fit the game better. This also fits in with a lot of feedback I’ve gotten from players that want a continuous auction. They like continuous auctions. I’ve used continuous auctions in Comic Auction and it ends up just being tedious. Players only add $1 each time and it takes a while to finish each auction.
I played 2 more games Thursday with a different group. We only used the once around auction but discussed the other methods. In the end it seems like any auction type will work with Comic Auction and it depends entirely on what type of auction the players prefer.
It seems in game design, sometimes, there is no right answer. There is player preference and you just have to make a decision on what feeling you want your game to have or who your target audience is.