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The Rise of German Board Games

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#51

Post by jimktrains2 »

mynameishere wrote: post #47
jimktrains2 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was created to teach about the downside of capitalism. I don't see what's so terrible about that. Capitalism isn't perfect nor the Devil. When people don't actually play by the rules it turns into a mess.

It would be an okay game if it taught about the "X of Y" in which X is anything and Y is anything. But really it's just a game of "who can roll the dice best?" where the players influence the outcome of the game as much as in Candyland. (Of course, the players do have to play "correctly", which means "purchase everything you land on".)

> But really it's just a game of "who can roll the dice best?" where the players influence the outcome of the game as much as in Candyland.

That's mostly true, but deciding what to buy, how to bid, and negotiating for properties are all important parts of the game.

Part of the purpose of the game is showing how capitalism is unfair because it exploits people by randomness of birth and circumstances rather than their ability to work.

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#53

Post by adamredwoods »

labster wrote: post #30
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

Wow, this explains so well why I despise Eurogames. Instead of eliminating opponents, everybody plays until the end after some arbitrary score limit is reached (or turn limit or whatever). I play Dominion or Catan and I'm working away and suddenly somebody says "game over! I won!" and I'm thinking, well that was a waste of time. I'm resentful and frustrated - what did I do all that for if it ends at such a meaningles…

Upvoted because everyone is entitled to their own preferences in games. It's wonderful that the world is full of such different people. Also, I'm not definitely inviting you to my gaming group.

He's probably a grognard.

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#54

Post by vkou »

KenoFischer wrote: post #40
Pxtl wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Catan is still friendlier than many of its counterparts. In terms of the old marquee games, Catan is really most similar to Monopoly: buy property, barter with the other players, collect matched sets of things, and hope the dice make your property investments pay out. Obviously the topology of the game is completely different, but compared to the bloodthirsty game of Monopoly, Catan is quite congenial - youre not out…

Catan has significantly more adversarial aspects than Monopoly; Cutting off roads that players need, controlling the placement of the robber, choosing who to steal from, denial of trade of resources. I think one of the things that makes Catan so rage-inciting, is that it's quite common to take actions to deny the other players points, even if it has a negative effect on your overall position.

Also, the random nature of the robber, and the kingmaker moves where a sore loser will decide which other player will win.

Dealing with both of those things is part of the game... But I prefer games with less emphasis on those aspects.

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#55

Post by Tomte »

joshvm wrote: post #32
tonydiv wrote: post #3

Clearly the author has never played Settlers of Catan, it does not make friends. Hence the memes: https://imgur.com/a/tUGcn

Have you ever played Diplomacy? It makes Catan look like a picnic. https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/11/diplomacy-the-most-evi...

I am probably the only one playing Britain in the history of the game who never made it off the damn island. The game is really hard.

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#57

Post by vkou »

detaro wrote: post #5
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

Wow, this explains so well why I despise Eurogames. Instead of eliminating opponents, everybody plays until the end after some arbitrary score limit is reached (or turn limit or whatever). I play Dominion or Catan and I'm working away and suddenly somebody says "game over! I won!" and I'm thinking, well that was a waste of time. I'm resentful and frustrated - what did I do all that for if it ends at such a meaningles…

At least with Dominion, I'd say that predicting when the game is ending and adjusting your play is an important part of the game. And unless it's really one-sided (which sucks, and maybe there is an argument that Dominion lends itself to develop one-sided games without recovery) or whoever you are playing against is keeping mental count of everyone's point (which wouldn't be impossible, but I've never met someone act…

Given that points tend to come from provinces/dutchies/etc, it's pretty easy to keep mental counts. When you've bought half the provinces in a three player game, and are not behind on dutchies, it's often safe to predict that you won the game, before any card counting.

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#58

Post by smallnamespace »

mynameishere wrote: post #47
jimktrains2 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was created to teach about the downside of capitalism. I don't see what's so terrible about that. Capitalism isn't perfect nor the Devil. When people don't actually play by the rules it turns into a mess.

It would be an okay game if it taught about the "X of Y" in which X is anything and Y is anything. But really it's just a game of "who can roll the dice best?" where the players influence the outcome of the game as much as in Candyland. (Of course, the players do have to play "correctly", which means "purchase everything you land on".)

It teaches that property breeds property, and by the laws of compound interest, whoever gets a big lead first usually wins.

Everyone who's played Monopoly more than a few times quickly understands that:

1. If it's early and you have an opportunity to acquire property, you take it

2. If you are out of cash and land on an unbought property, it's usually best to mortgage your other properties. This teaches the lesson of how leverage and debt, judiciously used, is to the capitalists's advantage.

3. If it's getting later in the game, usually nobody should willingly grant someone else a monopoly unless they themselves get one in return.

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#59

Post by yesenadam »

TylerE wrote: post #48
cdelsolar wrote: post #36

Decent article, except for lumping the excellent board game of Scrabble with Monopoly

Monopoly is a perfectly fine game. The problem is no one bothers to actually play it by the rules (auctions, no dumb house rules like fines go to free parking).

I don't think that's the problem! It's (as noted in many online articles) the last 2/3 of every game is the richest person getting more and more so, until too long later they win. Kind of a drag for everyone else. (p.s. I play it by the rules.)

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#60

Post by yesenadam »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

Wow, this explains so well why I despise Eurogames. Instead of eliminating opponents, everybody plays until the end after some arbitrary score limit is reached (or turn limit or whatever). I play Dominion or Catan and I'm working away and suddenly somebody says "game over! I won!" and I'm thinking, well that was a waste of time. I'm resentful and frustrated - what did I do all that for if it ends at such a meaningles…

Couldn't you equally say that about games where everybody plays until the end after some arbitrary time limit is reached? Like uh football (of all kinds), basketball etc etc etc - most games/sports.
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