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Why we still love board games

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Re: Why we still love board games

#81

Post by jdludlow »

T-hawk wrote: post #75
jdludlow wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Power Grid has a lot of simple arithmetic. You're adding numbers in your head constantly. Barring a runaway leader, the endgame tends to have a slingshot effect where the person who is "leading" is actually behind those who are currently in 2nd or 3rd place. Timing this come-from-behind win is a big part of the fun for me. It's the #6 game on BoardGameGeek [1], and well deserved to be there. Saying that "it's filled…

I found Power Grid to be significantly improved by keeping a calculator on hand for all that addition. How much of my hundred can I bid on this power plant? Well I need four oil this turn at what might be seven cost each, and I want to buy three houses at fifteen, so that means forty five plus twenty eight is seventy three, so I can spend up to twenty seven in this auction. There's no reason to force all that mental…

I carry a stack of calculators around with me, since my gaming preferences lead me toward heavy economic eurogames and titles from the 18XX[1] world. Power Grid isn't bad enough to need a calculator most of the time, but if someone in my group wants to use one no one is going to bat an eye.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18XX

Re: Why we still love board games

#82

Post by jdludlow »

archon wrote: post #61
kriro wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'd do a ROI analysis on all my board games most of them beat out lots of other social activities. If an average game lasts maybe an hour and you play it with an average of 3 players that's 3h of entertainment per play. 10-15 Euros per hour of entertainment seems very reasonable so most games actually tend to pay for themselves after just one play if oyu look at it that way.

And with sites such as boardgamegeek, there isn't as much risk involved unless you're buying just-released games. I've had my copy of Dominion for over three years. I got it on sale for $30. I've played literally hundreds of games since I bought it. Granted, I've added expansions over the years. But let's assume I paid full retail price for the game and four expansions: around $225. I've played at least 300 20-to-60…

BoardGameGeek also has an active secondary market, lowering the risk of new purchases. Unless the game is utterly terrible, you'll be able to recoup some of your money.

The user auctions there fetch high enough prices that I would not hesitate to sell there as opposed to eBay. They also have their own marketplace where users can sell games at fixed prices, but the organic "hey I want to sell these, who wants to give me cash" lists of games[1] are quite successful.

[1] http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/66420/metalist-for-geeklis...

Re: Why we still love board games

#83

Post by bergie »

nosecreek wrote: post #76
bergie wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sort of unrelated: but Ticket to Ride is a great example of how well German-style board games can translate to tablets. You can either play with friends as pass-and-play, or with bots. Different maps are in-app payments. We've killed time on some long train rides in Germany with it: http://www.daysofwonder.com/online/en/t2r/ipad/ Update: seems you could also play it between iPads online. We only have one iOS device s…

Works well on an iPhone too. My friends and I played it a lot on the trains while travelling through Germany.

I saw the iPhone version, but I think board games really benefit from the larger screen sizes that tablets have.

Re: Why we still love board games

#84

Post by eru »

cletus wrote: post #14

Cached: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:QnHbzVY... German-style boardgames are my favourite hobby. I've played probably 300+ different ones now. Perennial favourites include Agricola, Dominion, Ora et Labora (relatively new), Age of Steam and Titan (played this to death in the 90s, not so much now but I still love the game). For me these games are a sweet spot between traditional family games (wh…

> German style boardgames have been around for many years but they saw a renaissance that probably began with Settlers of Catan in the 90s that then exploded in the 2000s with Carcassonne and Puerto Rico and what came after.

I wouldn't call it a renaissance. At least in Germany it was just steady growth.

> It's a great hobby, particularly if you can find people to play with (physically) in your area, which doesn't tend to be a huge issue in urban centers.

Using a few gateway games, you can also recruit your own gamers.

Re: Why we still love board games

#85

Post by msluyter »

luu wrote: post #3

What's interesting to me is new board games aren't just variants on existing games; there's noticable innovation in board game "technology". If you ever play board games from the 80s and 90s, they often feel dated and clunky, even more so than video games from the same era. I recently went back and played some classic Avalon Hill games that were popular when I was a kid. I can't believe me and my friends spent so muc…

Hardcore boardgamer checking in. Some random thoughts...

Our gaming group tends to binge on a given game; if we like it, we'll play it dozens of times and then burnout and never play it again. One game that's stood the test of time is PowerGrid. It's rarely anyone's first choice, but it's the second choice for a lot of us, so it comes out often.

Often, at the end of the evening when we're pretty tired, we'll play cards, usually Mu. Mu is an amazingly deep trick taking game that has the advantage of working really well for 5 or 6 players. Also, it's a partnered game, but your partner is not fixed throughout the course of the game, which gives it an advantage over spades/bridge (which can be a drag if you have a weak partner.) It also has some delicious elements of backstabbing and subterfuge. I highly recommend it if you like games like spades/hearts/bridge.

If you have a regular gaming group, interesting meta-gaming manifests itself. For example, we have one person who's known as the "crazy guy", who'll do something random and destructive just for fun. Or certain vendettas will arise, and someone will sacrifice themselves in order to sabotage someone else. You have accept that sometimes folks will be irrational and be aware of meta-game in order to do well in the long run...

Re: Why we still love board games

#86

Post by jbellis »

msluyter wrote: post #85
luu wrote: post #3

What's interesting to me is new board games aren't just variants on existing games; there's noticable innovation in board game "technology". If you ever play board games from the 80s and 90s, they often feel dated and clunky, even more so than video games from the same era. I recently went back and played some classic Avalon Hill games that were popular when I was a kid. I can't believe me and my friends spent so muc…

Hardcore boardgamer checking in. Some random thoughts... Our gaming group tends to binge on a given game; if we like it, we'll play it dozens of times and then burnout and never play it again. One game that's stood the test of time is PowerGrid. It's rarely anyone's first choice, but it's the second choice for a lot of us, so it comes out often. Often, at the end of the evening when we're pretty tired, we'll play car…

+1 for Power Grid. Like most of the best games, it actually gets more fun once you've figured out optimal play. Weak games just get boring.

Re: Why we still love board games

#87

Post by eru »

endersshadow wrote: post #80
JimWestergren wrote: post #49

I absolutely love board games and card games. And I love to think about game mechanics. If I would not be a web developer I would love to work with this kind of game development. I have developed a version of Magic the Gathering which is played with a normal 52 card deck (one deck per person) with much more simple rules and good strategy (better?) and less luck. I have played it around 100 times and the rules are fin…

I'm very curious--is there a way for me to play this game? I'd love to get the rules from you and try it out. I loved the mechanics in Magic when I was younger, and I'd love to not have to buy all the cards and worry about building a deck, and just be able to play the game with my fiance without telling her it's Magic.

> [...] I'd love to not have to buy all the cards and worry about building a deck [...]

You might also want to try the booster draft format of Magic.

Re: Why we still love board games

#88

Post by jbellis »

RTigger wrote: post #79
peapicker wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We play a lot of those on game-lunch Fridays... also popular at our lunches: Core Worlds ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98351/ ) Quarriors ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/91536/ ) Infinite City ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46807/ ) We occasionally have a Saturday game day among friends for longer games, but these three are great less-than-an-hour games. Core Worlds is about an hour, the…

I've been wanting to try Core Worlds, and I haven't heard of the other two - I'll have to check them out!

I found Core Worlds to be a disappointment. By the time you can start to build up some interesting combos in your deck, the game is over. Fairly slow-moving, too.

Re: Why we still love board games

#89

Post by eru »

lusr wrote: post #13
simonw wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't agree more. German-style games make Monopoly etc look positively archaic. Two great starter games are Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne. I'm a big fan of Ticket to Ride as well. There are a couple of things that make these games so good. Firstly, they're extremely well balanced - unlike Monopoly, it's rare for one player to pull ahead to the point that it's impossible for anyone else to catch up with them. S…

My girlfriend and I saw Monopoly in the store the other day. We both thought it'd be awesome to play because as kids none of the adults around ever wanted to play with us. After about 2 hours of going around the board waiting for one of us to hit the tie-breaker property first we understood why.

You should buy Lost Cities. It's a good couples game.

Re: Why we still love board games

#90

Post by eru »

barbs wrote: post #65
shocks wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? What? Yes you can. I invite friends over for beer, pizza, and video games all the time...

I totally agree, though obviously has to be particular games. I think the whole 4-controllers-1-tv formula works best here. Games like Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Bomberman, Goldeneye, Mashed/Wrecked/Micro Machines make for great times, although they provide a much more energetic vibe than boardgames, which may or may not be a good thing. Also, LAN parties :).

> although they provide a much more energetic vibe than boardgames, which may or may not be a good thing.

Depends on your boardgames. Some can be rather vicious, and since people usually take longer to think about their actions, backstabbing and then turning the dagger, is even more fun and meaningful. (But I guess, I like the American dinosaur of a game, Diplomacy, way too much.)

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