Analog Game Studies

One of the most significant yet overlooked elements of contemporary tabletop games is the “poison” mechanism, which can be traced back to the June 1994 release of Magic: The Gathering (MTG)’s expansion set “Legends.” This article explores the life-draining effects of using gradual, “damage-over-time” (DoT) attacks in modern board games and card games, including those that were designed and published in the wake of recent public health crises, when the need to socially isolate amidst a global pandemic has intensified anxieties about infection. Although MTG along with several of its successors have incorporated other DoT effects, poisoning a competitor brings various cultural associations to bear on ludic texts that are themselves sometimes stereotypically portrayed as being either harmful to the emotional and psychological wellbeing of young players or conducive to toxic forms of behavior (aggression, bullying, verbal abuse) among older ones. As both a conspicuous mechanism and recurring theme of contemporary board games, poison proves useful to identifying what makes this previously ignored media form different from, if also similar to, other types of cultural production. Whether it is deployed by players sneakily plotting the downfall of their opponents (in competitive games) or manifests through embedded processes of randomization (whereby the game itself takes aim at the soon-to-be-infected), poison reveals much about the social dynamics and mechanical operations of this medium. As such, it highlight latent elements of modern game design as well as the broader culture of tabletop gaming that are endowed with additional meanings by virtue of the symbol-laden physical components which distinguish this ludic form from other pleasurable yet poison-filled experiences.