riskStewart Woods is a lecturer at Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia, as well as a member of the West Australian Boardgaming Association.

He’s written a number of excellent academic articles on gaming, including this recent one about player elimination in games such as Risk, contrasted with video games and modern Euro games. The abstract:

This paper draws upon elements of contemporary board game design with a view to establishing ways in which crosspollination between game media may foster innovative interpersonal mechanics. The ways in which loss is implemented in board game design are discussed and contrasted with the lack of genuine losing conditions in the majority of contemporary videogames. Examples are drawn of tabletop game mechanics which place a particular emphasis upon the interaction of players in order to bring about conflicts which highlight the antisocial nature of play as it occurs within the confines of Huizinga’s magic circle. Finally, it is argued that the combination of social negotiation and elimination commonly seen in board game design is one that holds particular potential for digital implementation, suggesting that virtual environments laden with a greater degree of social risk might invigorate the field of videogame design.