Found out my favorite auction game was based on a real 1840s fish market

I was reading the rulebook for Millennia's Fish Market after a 3 hour game night last Saturday, and there's a designer note I'd never noticed. Apparently the whole bidding mechanic came from a Dutch fish auction in Scheveningen where they use a clock that ticks down, and buyers literally slam buttons to stop it. I looked it up and it's a real thing, they still do it that way today. It blew my mind because I always thought it was just a clever game invention. Has anyone else found a real world origin for a mechanic that totally changed how they see the game?

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allen.amy3d ago

Damn, that's the wildest part about game design, right? Every mechanic somebody thinks is clever usually just stole it from how people already solved a problem in real life. Makes you wonder what other everyday stuff we're ignoring that'd make a killer game.