Buffalo (card game)

Last updated
Buffalo game components Buffalo product picture.jpg
Buffalo game components

Buffalo is a card game that requires players to think of people or characters who match combinations of descriptions. It was developed by the Tiltfactor Laboratory as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project called "Transforming Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) For Women and Girls: Reworking Stereotypes & Bias." [1] [2] The game was runner-up for Best Digital Game in the 2012 Meaningful Play Awards. [3]

Card game game using playing cards as the primary device

A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games. A small number of card games played with traditional decks have formally standardized rules, but most are folk games whose rules vary by region, culture, and person. Games using playing cards exploit the fact that cards are individually identifiable from one side only, so that each player knows only the cards he holds and not those held by anyone else. For this reason card games are often characterized as games of chance or “imperfect information”—as distinct from games of strategy or “perfect information,” where the current position is fully visible to all players throughout the game.

The Tiltfactor Laboratory is a serious game research center located at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Its work is centered on critical play an approach that uses games and play to investigate and explain ideas. Outcomes from the lab's work range from scholarly papers and conference presentations to video games, urban games, board games, and performances. Tiltfactor's motto is "Game Design for Social Change."

National Science Foundation United States government agency

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health. With an annual budget of about US$7.0 billion, the NSF funds approximately 24% of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States' colleges and universities. In some fields, such as mathematics, computer science, economics, and the social sciences, the NSF is the major source of federal backing.

Contents

Gameplay

In each round, players race to make matches using cards listing noun and adjective descriptors. The first to shout out the name of a real person or fictional character who matches the descriptors on two or more word cards, claims the matched cards, and flips over a new noun/adjective pair. When the deck runs out, the player who collected the most cards wins. Whenever players are unable to make a match, someone adds another card from both decks to the table. [4]

Research

Initial data suggests that Buffalo reduces prejudice and encourages greater inclusiveness in players’ representations of social identity groups. [5] [6] The research study showed that thinking about stereotypical and nonstereotypical trait pairings increases social identity complexity, a psychological construct linked to tolerance of members outside one's group. [7]

Prejudice is an affective feeling towards a person or group member based solely on that person's group membership. The word is often used to refer to preconceived, usually unfavourable, feelings towards people or a person because of their political affiliation, sex, gender, beliefs, values, social class, age, disability, religion, sexuality, race/ethnicity, language, nationality, beauty, occupation, education, criminality, sport team affiliation or other personal characteristics. In this case, it refers to a positive or negative evaluation of another person based on that person's perceived group membership.

Related Research Articles

Blackjack gambling card game

Blackjack is the American variant of a globally popular banking game known as Twenty-One, whose cousins include Pontoon and Vingt-et-Un. It is a comparing card game between usually several players and a dealer, where each player in turn competes against the dealer, but players do not play against each other. It is played with one or more decks of 52 cards, and is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. The objective of the game is to beat the dealer in one of the following ways:

<i>Magic: The Gathering</i> Collectible card game

Magic: The Gathering is both a collectible and digital collectible card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game and has approximately twenty million players as of 2015, and over twenty billion Magic cards produced in the period from 2008 to 2016 alone.

Crazy Eights

Crazy Eights is a shedding-type card game for two to seven players. The object of the game is to be the first to get rid of all the player's cards to a discard pile. The game is similar to Switch and Mau Mau.

Concentration (game) A memory based card game

Concentration, also known as Match Match, Match Up, Memory, Pelmanism, Shinkei-suijaku, Pexeso or simply Pairs, is a card game in which all of the cards are laid face down on a surface and two cards are flipped face up over each turn. The object of the game is to turn over pairs of matching cards. Concentration can be played with any number of players or as solitaire. It is a particularly good game for young children, though adults may find it challenging and stimulating as well. The scheme is often used in quiz shows and can be employed as an educational game.

<i>Apples to Apples</i>

Apples to Apples is a party game originally published by Hasbro, and now published by Mattel. The object of the game is to win the most rounds by playing a "red apple" card from one's hand to best "match" that round's communal "green apple" card as chosen by that round's judging player. The game is designed for four to ten players and played for 30–75 minutes.

Old Maid is a Victorian card game for two or more players probably deriving from an ancient gambling game in which the loser pays for the drinks. It is known in Germany as Schwarzer Peter or Schwarze Dame, in Sweden as Svarte Petter, in Norway as Svarteper, in Denmark as Sorteper, in Croatia as Crni Petar, in Slovenia as Črni Peter, in Hungary as Fekete Péter, in Czech Republic as Černý Petr, in Slovakia as Čierny Peter, in Finland as Musta Pekka, in Italy as Asino, in France as Le Pouilleux or Vieux Garçon, or Mistigri, and in Japan as ババ抜き　(Babanuki). The game spawns an element of bluffing, commonly used in poker.

Golf is a card game where players try to earn the lowest number of points over the course of nine deals. It is a game for four or more players using a double-deck of 108 cards, and has little in common with its solitaire cousin.

Pyramid (card game) solitaire game

Pyramid is a solitaire game where the object is to get all the cards from the pyramid to the foundation.

Tute

Tute is a trick-taking card game of the Ace-Ten family for two to four players. Originating in Italy, where it was known as Tutti, during the 19th century the game spread in Spain, becoming one of the most popular card games in the country. The name of the game was later modified by Spanish speakers, who started calling the game Tute. The game is played with a deck of traditional Spanish playing cards, or naipes, that is very similar to the Italian 40-card deck.

<i>Dominion</i> (card game) designer card game created by Donald X. Vaccarino

Dominion is a deck-building card game created by Donald X. Vaccarino and published by Rio Grande Games. Each player uses a separate deck of cards and draw their hands from their own decks, not others'. Players use the cards in their hands to either perform actions or buy select cards from a common pool of card stacks. The player with the most victory points at the end wins. The game has a "light" medieval theme, with card names that reference pre-industrial, monarchical, and feudal social structures.

Glossary of card game terms

The following is a glossary of terms used in card games. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon slang terms. This list does not encompass terms that are specific to one game.

Booleo is a strategy card game using boolean logic gates. It was developed by Jonathan Brandt and Chris Kampf with Sean P. Dennis in 2008, and it was first published by Tessera Games LLC in 2009.

Awkward Moment

Awkward Moment® is a party game that puts 3-8 players in awkward social situations. It was developed by the Tiltfactor Lab as part of a National Science Foundation-funded project called “Transforming Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) For Women and Girls: Reworking Stereotypes & Bias.” It is a 20 minute game for middle and high school students. The game won Meaningful Play's best non-digital game award in 2012.

<i>Zombiepox</i>

Zombiepox is a cooperative board game in which players fight the spread of zombies that threaten to take over the town. It was developed by Tiltfactor Laboratory, a game research center located at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, focusing on games and play that investigate and explain ideas.

<i>My Little Pony Collectible Card Game</i>

The My Little Pony Collectible Card Game is a two-player collectible card game based on the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The game is produced by Enterplay LLC under license from Hasbro, and follows from Enterplay's previous work to produce a trading card series based on the same show.

<i>The Elder Scrolls: Legends</i> video game

The Elder Scrolls: Legends is a free-to-play digital collectible card video game, published by Bethesda Softworks for Microsoft Windows, iOS, macOS and Android in 2017.

Gameplay of Hearthstone Wikimedia list article

Hearthstone is a digital collectible card game released by Blizzard Entertainment in 2014, available for Microsoft Windows and macOS PCs and iOS and Android smartphones. The game is free-to-play, with players gaining in-game currency and card packs via winning matches and completing quests, while real-world money can be spent to acquire additional card packs and cosmetic items. The game has been critically well-received and financially successful, estimated to generate over $20 million per month as of 2015. As of November 2018, Blizzard has reported more than 100 million Hearthstone players. Blizzard has continued to expand the game with the addition of multiple expansions, adventures and game modes.

<i>Eternal</i> (card game) card game

Eternal is a free-to-play online collectible card video game developed and published by Dire Wolf Digital. Eternal is available for iOS devices, Android, Xbox One and PCs using Steam. The game features cross-platform play, allowing players to use any of the supported platforms to compete with each other. The game takes place in a Weird West fantasy setting. The game was in Steam early access in November 2016 and then had its official wide release in November 2018 that includes support for the Xbox One. In Q2 2019, Eternal will be available for the Nintendo Switch.

References

  1. ↑ "Tiltfactor "Pox," "Buffalo," and "Awkward Moment"". Different Games Conference. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  2. ↑ Barber, Bonnie. "Professor Mary Flanagan Participates in White House Consortium". Dartmouth Now. Archived from the original on 4 September 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  3. ↑ "2012 Meaningful Play Awards". Meaningful Play 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  4. ↑ Tan, Phillip. "Friday Games: Tiltfactor's Buffalo". MIT Game Lab. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  5. ↑ Leigh, Alexander. "How can games contain and convey values?". Gamasutra. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  6. ↑ "Creating Values from Play - Tiltfactor". Classroom Aid. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  7. ↑ Recchia, Gabriel. "Can games change minds?". Gamasutra. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.