P-Kama Seeks to Further Socialize Board Games with Rummikub on Facebook

Board games always seem like a sure bet for Facebook, being social by their very nature. The latest is by developer P-Kama, which just launched Rummikub for both Facebook itself and Facebook Connect, through Rummikub.com. For those not familiar with Rummikub, it's a tile-based board game imported from Israel, in which the object is to use all of their numbered tiles. Anyone who has played the analog version will likely be satisfied by the digital iteration. That said, it does suffer from some scale issues and minor quirks in learning the game. Rummikub, which is also known as Rummy-O, Rummycube, Rummyking, and Rummy Tile, can be thought of as Scrabble with numbers. Each tile has a number associated with it, ranging from one to 13, and consisting of four different colors. In order to play the tiles, you must create one of two types of “Sets” called either a “Group” or a “Run.” A Group consists of three or more tiles of the same number, but in different colors, while a Run is three or more consecutive numbers of the same color. The elements that add strategy to this are the “Initial Meld” (which means the first set the player lays down must equal 30 or more), timed rounds ranging from 30 to 120 seconds, and Joker (wild card) tiles that can be used in lieu of any other number. In addition to these, tiles already on the board can be “Manipulated,” or rearranged to create new Sets, so long as there are no loose tiles left on the table. Obviously, this becomes a more advanced element to the game, but no worries for new users, as they can tailor their search for games based on relative skill level. Of course, that is where part of the problems with Rummikub comes into play. The game relies heavily on the presence of other players to truly be fun. Because the game is new, its monthly active user count is only around 6,000 (though it is steadily growing). Even with its international presence, sometimes a decent game can be hard to find, despite its ability to connect with the stand-alone site. The biggest problem was that most of the games found were empty with not enough joining to actually play, or when there were enough to play, no one would do anything for the full 120 second turn duration (which a surprising number of users were using for their game settings), which eventually just led to people leaving the game all together. Frustratingly enough, even joining a full game as a viewer, we sat there for a rather extended period of time waiting for something to happen. In truth, this is not the fault of P-Kama and is really just a ratio to volume issue. With the currently low number of users, due to its newness to Facebook, episodes such as this can be chalked up to bad luck. It’s really just the nature of online games such as this. The issue, thankfully, is mitigated to some degree by the ability to play against AI. However, it seems that other real players can join as well. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but there should be an option to play solely against AI. At the very least, it would give new users a means to learn about the game a little more before facing off against real opponents. As for Rummikub's social elements, beyond the synchronous multiplayer, these consist of standard leaderboards and gifting. The latter does feel a bit forced for Rummikub, as it really consists of random, animated icons that feel rather irrelevant to the game itself. There is, however, a curious form of virtual currency, called Joker Credits, that is used to not only send these gifts, but also to join tournaments, change room themes (backgrounds), lock the room, and affect other game creation elements. Of course, it’s not only purchasable. It is also earned as a daily bonus for logging in. Overall, Rummikub is not a bad game, and is a pretty strong translation from the analog, tabletop version. It’s a game that is easy enough to learn, but certainly takes a good while to really master, and the only significant issues with the Facebook application are those that stem from the very nature of online play itself. There are a few things the developers could do to mitigate those problems further. All the same, many quirks will likely resolve themselves, in time, as the app continues to increase in popularity.

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P-Kama Seeks to Further Socialize Board Games with Rummikub on Facebook

Christopher Mack

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Christopher Mack