Description
Victory Points (VPs) may be spent as a currency to impact the game state.
Discussion
Economic games, where money represents victory, are the primary examples of this mechanism. Having players spend and invest money to make more money is at the core of the business and finds representation in many business games. This forces players to think about valuation and Return on Investment as key drivers in their decisions. What is the expected payback on the available options? This mechanism is used outside of economic games as well. Small World is a great example, where players must spend VPs to skip over certain options on a Draft Track, creating an auction-like mechanic for valuing the races available (AUC-08). Typically, players will be more cautious about spending VPs when they are not themed as money. In the context of an Economic game, players may not even really think about money as a “Victory Point” currency. We are so used to using it in our everyday lives that we inherently understand the concept of investing for future payout. However, when they are represented as VPs, Honor, or other thematic elements, they take on a different connotation, and players tend to be more emotionally attached to them. Understanding this underlying psychology gives the designer another tool for shaping the player experience.
Sample Games
1830 (Tresham, 1986) Age of Steam (Wallace, 2002) Empire Builder (Bromley and Fawcett, 1982) The Expanse Board Game (Engelstein, 2017) Power Grid (Friese, 2004) Small World (Keyaerts, 2009)
描述
胜利点数（VP）可以作为货币花费以影响游戏状态。
讨论
金钱代表胜利的经济游戏是这种机制（Victory Points as a Resource）的主要例子。让玩家花费和投资金钱来赚更多的钱是商业的核心，并在许多商业游戏中得到体现。这迫使玩家在决策中思考估值和投资回报率作为关键驱动因素。可用选项的预期回报是多少？这种机制也用于经济游戏之外。《小世界》（Small World）是一个很好的例子，其中玩家必须花费VP来跳过轮抽轨道上的某些选项，创建一种类似拍卖的机制来评估可用种族的价值（AUC-08）。通常，当VP不以金钱为主题时，玩家在花费VP时会更加谨慎。在经济游戏的背景下，玩家甚至可能并没有真正将金钱视为“胜利点数”货币。我们非常习惯于在日常生活中使用它，以至于我们本能地理解为未来回报而投资的概念。然而，当它们被表示为VP、荣誉或其他主题元素时，它们具有不同的含义，并且玩家往往在情感上更加依赖它们。了解这种潜在的心理学为设计师提供了塑造玩家体验的另一个工具。
游戏范例
1830 (Tresham, 1986) - 《1830》 Age of Steam (Wallace, 2002) - 《蒸汽时代》 Empire Builder (Bromley and Fawcett, 1982) - 《Empire Builder》 The Expanse Board Game (Engelstein, 2017) - 《苍穹浩瀚》 Power Grid (Friese, 2004) - 《电力公司》 Small World (Keyaerts, 2009) - 《小世界》