Day 63: FotLC through the 113 lenses from The Art of Game Design

Day 63 - Lens 17: The Lens of the Toy
To use this lens, stop thinking about whether your game is fun to play, and start thinking about whether it is fun to play WITH. Ask yourself these questions:

If my game had no goal, would it be fun at all? If not, how can I change that?
Ok, so I started the game by having the core mechanic and no goal. It was compelling if not 'fun'. Now the core gameplay is fun, but I haven't tested it without a goal again. That would be an interesting thing to do. But I am comfortable that it would be fun, though perhaps not as much fun as the complete game.

An interesting question would be whether the base mechanic could be used in any other game structure. I would like to play with trying to apply the real time path/base/challenge mechanic in some differently shaped games.

When people see my game do they want to start interacting with it, even before they know what to do? If not, how can I change that?
Yes, I think that the visual presentation and pieces make people want to start laying them down on the board and putting tokens on them. The act is pleasurable and the result is visually appealing.