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The Rise of German Board Games

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#41

Post by jimktrains2 »

chx wrote: post #31

Since the article mentions Monopoly in passing: it is NOT fine for children; it was created to teach about inequality; it is a horrible game even for children (or especially for children). If you are forced to play it, use this https://imgur.com/gallery/vX3zm tactic, it won't happen again.

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.

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#42

Post by frabbit »

shitloadofbooks wrote: post #25
5_minutes wrote: post #9

I love playing board games with my kids, gets them away from anything digital: nintendo’s, ipads or tv stuff. And hey having a 8 year old thinking about his Stratego setup, is a good thing!

I got started with Stratego around age 7-8 after my dad taught me. I showed my friend group and we got bored of the base game very quickly, so we started modifying it and making custom versions. We had a double-wide version (just a hand drawn grid hanging off the side and custom pieces made out of cardboard and stickytape), rivers, boulders, tanks (2x1 pieces), 1v1v1, custom scenarios, etc. We eventually moved on to…

It would be interesting to hear your experiences in publishing.

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#43

Post by StephanTLavavej »

quink wrote: post #11
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…

Assuming that you really consider the destination to be the goal rather than the journey, Splendor and Patchwork are two highly rated cheap games that while they don't eliminate players early have no hidden information and transparent scoring as you go, with quality iOS apps if you want to try that first. I think the downvotes you're getting are unjustified, yours is a valid opinion to have. Player elimination games…

Splendor has a small bit of hidden info - when you blind reserve a card, you get to look at it, but it stays secret from other players. However, blind reserves are very rare, so you’re basically accurate.

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#44

Post by knowaveragejoe »

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...

It's great, but if your group is used to something like Catan, it's much more time consuming. Great at ending friendships, however.

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#45

Post by sirclueless »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #38
tnzn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that meaningless ? Do you also consider races meaningless ? Do you consider most sports meaningless ? You probably don't like it because that's not how you learned to enjoy games, not because it's inherently worse than Ameritrash

Sports don't stop the race randomly because somebody has found 'victory points' under their chair. Payers' efforts are rewarded with clearly recognized progress (down the field/on the scoreboard). There are time limits and buzzers and some sense of tension. Not just grind along and then, randomly, 'its over, and you lost'.

It sounds like you just haven't properly learned to account for the strategy of the game, or are not correctly tracking win conditions and using them to inform decisions.

If you just blithely play out a self-centered strategy and are somehow surprised when Charlie claims the Longest Road card and declares himself the winner, then sure it might feel disappointing to lose.

Instead try to be aware that for the last two turns Amanda has been 2 ore away from completing her last city and winning, but someone would need to roll exactly a 9 to do it on her own, while Bob has already completed all his cities but is unable to build more roads and Caroline is staying one Knight ahead of his army size through the help of Amanda giving her resources for the greater good. Maybe your win-con is going to have to be to steal Amanda's longest-road card and build another settlement which is gonna be a long shot but maybe given Amanda's desperation for ore and everyone-but-you's unwillingness to trade with Bob, you can do it. Maybe you can beat the odds and come from behind, maybe you can't, but either way an abrupt "it's over you lost" can never happen -- only someone executing their win-con better than you did, with the table unable to stop them.

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#46

Post by j_s »

shitloadofbooks wrote: post #25
5_minutes wrote: post #9

I love playing board games with my kids, gets them away from anything digital: nintendo’s, ipads or tv stuff. And hey having a 8 year old thinking about his Stratego setup, is a good thing!

I got started with Stratego around age 7-8 after my dad taught me. I showed my friend group and we got bored of the base game very quickly, so we started modifying it and making custom versions. We had a double-wide version (just a hand drawn grid hanging off the side and custom pieces made out of cardboard and stickytape), rivers, boulders, tanks (2x1 pieces), 1v1v1, custom scenarios, etc. We eventually moved on to…

>I also have a published board game

Link that stuff up! (Assuming you don't mind being associated with it here.)

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#47

Post by mynameishere »

jimktrains2 wrote: post #41
chx wrote: post #31

Since the article mentions Monopoly in passing: it is NOT fine for children; it was created to teach about inequality; it is a horrible game even for children (or especially for children). If you are forced to play it, use this https://imgur.com/gallery/vX3zm tactic, it won't happen again.

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".)

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#48

Post by TylerE »

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).

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#49

Post by shitloadofbooks »

j_s wrote: post #46
shitloadofbooks wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got started with Stratego around age 7-8 after my dad taught me. I showed my friend group and we got bored of the base game very quickly, so we started modifying it and making custom versions. We had a double-wide version (just a hand drawn grid hanging off the side and custom pieces made out of cardboard and stickytape), rivers, boulders, tanks (2x1 pieces), 1v1v1, custom scenarios, etc. We eventually moved on to…

> I also have a published board game Link that stuff up! (Assuming you don't mind being associated with it here.)

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/186701/burger

Re: The Rise of German Board Games

#50

Post by gbhn »

lostlogin wrote: post #24
a_e_k wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heck, I've played a few games of Catan where it's tested marriages.

Bet the damn robber was the crux of it.

We play a variant without the robber where a 7 means you just draw a resource of your choice. Much preferred if you aren't looking for a competitively enhanced game. :-)
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