OBG 587: Action
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In this episode of Onboard Games, host Eric Dewey welcomes filmmaker and board game enthusiast Mark Elias to explore the deep parallels between game logic and cinematic storytelling. The conversation begins with Mark sharing his personal journey through games like Werewolf, Ito, and Turing Machine, highlighting how these experiences foster critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and social insight. He draws strong connections between the mechanics of board games—such as incomplete information, strategic decision-making under pressure, and the psychological dynamics of trust and deception—and the narrative structures of films, particularly in crime comedies and mystery genres. Mark discusses his current film project, *We Could Be Heroes*, a comedy about a teen gamer and her reclusive neighbor solving a mystery, which he frames as a real-world simulation of game logic. The episode delves into how games train players to read people, anticipate behavior, and adapt to evolving systems—skills directly transferable to filmmaking and real-life problem-solving. The discussion also touches on the role of randomness, narrative guardrails, and the unpredictability of human behavior, using examples from *Fiasco*, *Jumanji*, *Black Mirror*, and *Stranger Things* to illustrate how games and stories both thrive on tension, pattern recognition, and emotional stakes.
Board games simulate real-world decision-making under uncertainty, training players to read people and manage emotions under pressure.
Games like Werewolf and Ito reveal character traits—risk-taking, deception, empathy—quickly and authentically, much like character arcs in film.
The structure of games provides 'guardrails' for storytelling, allowing for creative freedom within defined systems, similar to genre conventions in movies.
Filmmaking and game design both rely on incomplete information and escalating consequences, creating suspense and narrative momentum.
Games help build subconscious decision-making frameworks that transfer to real-life situations, improving speed and quality of judgment.
…and 3 more takeaways available in PodZeus
Introduction & Guest Welcome
Eric Dewey introduces the episode and welcomes Mark Elias, a filmmaker and board game enthusiast, to discuss the intersection of games and storytelling. The hosts highlight Patreon support, merch, and community engagement channels.
Games as Social and Psychological Laboratories
“There's like this interesting mix of like logic and emotion that happen at the same time, which to me is like literally what drama is.”
Game Logic in Film: The Case of 'We Could Be Heroes'
“The biggest thing is especially in like a crime movie like this, it makes me think so much of board games because like you're trying to figure things out when they don't have complete information available.”
From Games to Real-World Skills
“You can learn who people are pretty quickly through games. I feel like you can figure out who's the risk taker, like who's the chaos agent...”
Narrative Systems, Randomness, and Unpredictability
“It's never that you're playing the rules like you're playing people and like people are the driving machine to get that to be to go to that point.”
“The biggest thing is especially in like a crime movie like this, it makes me think so much of board games because like you're trying to figure things out when they don't have complete information available.”
“There's like this interesting mix of like logic and emotion that happen at the same time, which to me is like literally what drama is.”
“It's never that you're playing the rules like you're playing people and like people are the driving machine to get that to be to go to that point.”
Host
Guest
Mark Elias
person
Eric Dewey
person
We Could Be Heroes
media
Werewolf
other
Ito
other
Turing Machine
other
Inverse Genius
organization
Fiasco
other
other
Jumanji
media
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