Red cards on table

One of the interesting decisions involved with porting any system to a computer for the first time is figuring out whether to completely replicate the old system, down to the finest detail, or to redesign it using the added benefits of a computer. For instance, if you were writing a computer program to call people, you could duplicate the way it's done on a telephone, by entering in the phone number, or you could redesign it specifically for the computer, using an address book or something similar. Do you stick with what people already know and are familiar with, or do you try to correct the flaws in the old design and make something new and better?

I've recently run into this kind of decision for A2A; specifically, I'm looking at what happens when people play red cards. I have a "table" area of the screen where you can see the red cards that have been played, and this is also where the judge picks the winning red card. Now, when anyone plays a red card, it will show up on the table, but what I realized is that, unlike the real Apples to Apples, I can show which red card it is as soon as it gets played. In the real game, you see people as they are playing cards, so revealing a card immediately would also reveal who played it. However, since this is an online game, you do not see people as they play cards, so everyone's identity is protected. This means that I can reveal the exact red cards as soon as they are played. I'm interested in how this change might affect the game play. Will it be amusing to see the cards immediately? Will people rethink their plays if they see what other people have played? Is it worth knowing who has played already? The good news is, it's not that hard to whip up two different versions of the game, one that mimics the original game and doesn't reveal red cards until everyone has played, and one that shows the red cards immediately, so I can test both.

Also, I've renamed the blog to "Dangerous Apples" instead of "Apples to AJAX" since I'm using that name on the current design. I'm heavily leaning towards "Dangerous Apples" for the final project. The blog will stay at the same URL, though.