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Transparent or Solid Game Pieces?

3 replies [Last post]
Steve
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Joined: 07/29/2008

I am wondering if people tend to have a psychological preference when it comes to transparent or solid pieces when that trait does not affect the game directly.

I am in the process of making a nice prototype for some of my games & I am curious if anyone here has heard of or has anecdotal evidence that an indifferent player would be more receptive towards playing a board game if that game had transparent or solid pieces.

Currently, I have determined (based upon my own research which is, naturally, open to review) that players prefer bright (but not neon) color pieces over subdued, subdued colors on the game board over bright & heavy pieces over light pieces.

Any assistance would be appreciated. Thank you.

Black Canyon
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Joined: 05/30/2009
Opaque v. transparent

Each person has his or her own preferences, but I don't think there are many more of one faction over the other. The appeal of the playing pieces will be related to whether they "fit" with the design of the board and the overall theme of the game. I think a game based on Tron would do better with transparent pieces, but a game based on Lord of the Rings would do better with subdued, opaque pieces.

What is the theme of your game?

MatthewF
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Joined: 07/22/2008
We have a gamer in our group

We have a gamer in our group who is fairly colorblind, and a few months ago we played Valdora, a new game by Michael Schacht. It uses translucent gems in 5 different colors, and while he can generally see some difference between solid-colored playing pieces, these gems all looked identical to him.

With most translucent pieces there's no difference at all in brightness or, commonly, saturation. The only difference is color, which leaves no cues for the colorblind.

InvisibleJon
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Joined: 07/27/2008
Sci-fi vs... Well, anything else.

Translucent pieces say "science fiction" to me. If you have a sci-fi game, you may want translucent pieces. Otherwise, I'd stick with opaque pieces.

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