First Player Advantages

The advantageous effect of being the first player.

In games where players take turn making moves it is often advantageous to be the first to move.

Examples

Chess and Go are traditional Board Games with perfect information where the presence of First Player Advantages are well-recognized and compensated for by letting players play multiple matches and switch sides - Go has the komi rule to mitigate the advantage but does nonetheless let players play both sides when meeting other players in tournaments. For the game Hex it has been proved that the first player always has a winning strategy although an efficient way of finding this strategy has not yet been developed.

More modern Board Games, e.g. Puerto Rico and Dominant Species, do have First Player Advantages when it comes to choosing actions but balance these by providing other advantages to the players that do not start. Egizia and Ursuppe modulate the effect of the advantages by changing who goes first each turn depending on their scores; Agricola, Caylus, and Dominant Species let players change this by choosing explicit actions.

Using the pattern

Balancing Effects

Back-to-Back Game Sessions

Can Be Instantiated By

Turn Taking

Can Be Modulated By

First Player Tokens, Rotating Starting Players

Consequences

Can Instantiate

Asymmetric Starting Conditions

Potentially Conflicting With

Back-to-Back Game Sessions, Player Balance

Relations

Can Instantiate

Asymmetric Starting Conditions

Can Modulate

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Can Be Instantiated By

Turn Taking

Can Be Modulated By

First Player Tokens, Rotating Starting Players

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Back-to-Back Game Sessions, Player Balance

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

Acknowledgements

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