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> What I learned is that the board game scene is ridiculous and obtuse. That's what you took away from your brief encounter, but I'm not sure it's something yo

by Jedd 5y ago

> What I learned is that the board game scene is ridiculous and obtuse. That's what you took away from your brief encounter, but I'm not sure it's something you (should) have learned as the general case. > Very different from the time tested Monopoly ... Monopoly is truly awful. It's been around a very long time, and is still a regular in supermarkets and postoffice shops, but nonetheless it's long been eclipsed, and to people who've played basically any other half-way decent board games it's a sadly regrettable mystery why it's still cited as an archetypal board game. > Now everything has phases, multi-variable resources, multi-variable point systems dependent on the phase, etc. This is why I think your experience into the 'board game scene' was a little skewy. Not everything has all that stuff. There's myriad games with comparable complexity to Monpoly, but far superior mechanics and replayability. And go just a little upwards in the complexity scale (Monopoly has a complexity rating of 1.64 / 5 on BGG [0], and an overall score of 4.4 / 10) you'll be well rewarded on the boardgame experience front. > Its just hard for me to discern where any of this came from, why people are aware of some of these mechanics, and which games just have really bad designs and bad product market fit - if the whole scene is just indie producers winning a popularity contest once on a crowdfunding site. Your conclusion at the start of that sentence is based on the evidently false premise at the end of it. [0] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1406/monopoly https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1406/monopoly

JoeAltmaier 5y ago
It would be helpful to suggest a couple?
- otachack 5y ago
  Machi Koro is one of my favorites. Easy to learn and play. It's a bit like Monopoly but has some turns mid-game where you can't depend on early game properties and instead make rolls that can compound from them. For a deception-type game, Secret Hitler has a beautiful official boardgame but you can print out the assets for free if you wanted to try it out. Coup is also a good and easy deception game and extremely fast. Illimat was backed by The Decemberists and has a fun, ouji-like theme to it. It uses a modified deck of cards and has 4 quadrants that players "plant" and "harvest" cards from. Your main objective is to collect goal points from clearing these fields, and obtaining tokens/tarot cards. Azul is a very pretty boardgame and has a Spanish/Middle Eastern inspired theme. Players need to pick tiles for their murals strategically and gain points from certain chains. Sushi Go is my go-to (puns) for new comers and is a deck building game. Get the party edition for max replayability and contains the base, but if you want to try it go for the base. Careful playing it with beverages because spilling can occur and there are A LOT of cards. Try to buy boardgames from local shops rather than Amazon or big box stores. Workers there can also help you choose a game if you have ideas! The boardgame field is immensely diverse today and there's something for everyone IMO. We're living in a golden age of options, much like video games in the past 20 years.
vmception 5y ago
Yeah examples would be far more interesting than this lecture. It is absolutely comical to find that there are people passionate enough about board games to respond as if we were talking about geopolitics. There is not really much I can do with your rehash, but if there were examples of pivotal games, their mechanics and offshoots that would be more useful.
- Jedd 5y ago
  Fair enough. In the general case, if you're genuinely interested, hop onto Board Game Geek - they're the definitive community site for all things board game related. They offer an advanced search feature where you plugin your preferred number of players, complexity (based on user evaluations), and other features, and can then sort by whatever. The 'board game rating' is an algorithm, much like HN's, that's mildly secret, but is generally regarded as being pretty good. In the specific case of my experience -- I'd suggest Splendor as a good example of a game that's faster to teach someone than Monopoly, but less frustrating, more fun, usually ends in closer-run games, and can never devolve to a multi-hour battle of who can tolerate the most tedium. There's a bunch of games with similar mechanics that I'd happily recommend eg. Century Spice Road, which is a less abstract than Splendor. If you or the kids like the pretty, then either Sagrada or Azul are about as complex as Monopoly, but a) look gorgeous, and b) don't result in people not talking to each other the rest of the weekend. For two players, things like Jaipur, or (a bit heftier, but not onerously so) Seven Wonders Duel. For really easy to learn, fast to play, with sophisticated longer term strategy options, Hive. [0] https://boardgamegeek.com/advsearch/boardgame https://boardgamegeek.com/advsearch/boardgame
  - vmception 5y ago
    I appreciate that! Similar to you noticing my Monopoly example, in some other fields I also point out how certain common understandings are usually the worst examples of those things. It was refreshing to be on the receiving end of that, I didn't have another way of articulating what I experienced.

by Jedd 5y ago

JoeAltmaier 5y ago

It would be helpful to suggest a couple?

otachack 5y ago
Machi Koro is one of my favorites. Easy to learn and play. It's a bit like Monopoly but has some turns mid-game where you can't depend on early game properties and instead make rolls that can compound from them. For a deception-type game, Secret Hitler has a beautiful official boardgame but you can print out the assets for free if you wanted to try it out. Coup is also a good and easy deception game and extremely fast. Illimat was backed by The Decemberists and has a fun, ouji-like theme to it. It uses a modified deck of cards and has 4 quadrants that players "plant" and "harvest" cards from. Your main objective is to collect goal points from clearing these fields, and obtaining tokens/tarot cards. Azul is a very pretty boardgame and has a Spanish/Middle Eastern inspired theme. Players need to pick tiles for their murals strategically and gain points from certain chains. Sushi Go is my go-to (puns) for new comers and is a deck building game. Get the party edition for max replayability and contains the base, but if you want to try it go for the base. Careful playing it with beverages because spilling can occur and there are A LOT of cards. Try to buy boardgames from local shops rather than Amazon or big box stores. Workers there can also help you choose a game if you have ideas! The boardgame field is immensely diverse today and there's something for everyone IMO. We're living in a golden age of options, much like video games in the past 20 years.

vmception 5y ago

Yeah examples would be far more interesting than this lecture. It is absolutely comical to find that there are people passionate enough about board games to respond as if we were talking about geopolitics. There is not really much I can do with your rehash, but if there were examples of pivotal games, their mechanics and offshoots that would be more useful.

Jedd 5y ago
Fair enough. In the general case, if you're genuinely interested, hop onto Board Game Geek - they're the definitive community site for all things board game related. They offer an advanced search feature where you plugin your preferred number of players, complexity (based on user evaluations), and other features, and can then sort by whatever. The 'board game rating' is an algorithm, much like HN's, that's mildly secret, but is generally regarded as being pretty good. In the specific case of my experience -- I'd suggest Splendor as a good example of a game that's faster to teach someone than Monopoly, but less frustrating, more fun, usually ends in closer-run games, and can never devolve to a multi-hour battle of who can tolerate the most tedium. There's a bunch of games with similar mechanics that I'd happily recommend eg. Century Spice Road, which is a less abstract than Splendor. If you or the kids like the pretty, then either Sagrada or Azul are about as complex as Monopoly, but a) look gorgeous, and b) don't result in people not talking to each other the rest of the weekend. For two players, things like Jaipur, or (a bit heftier, but not onerously so) Seven Wonders Duel. For really easy to learn, fast to play, with sophisticated longer term strategy options, Hive. [0] https://boardgamegeek.com/advsearch/boardgame https://boardgamegeek.com/advsearch/boardgame
- vmception 5y ago
  I appreciate that! Similar to you noticing my Monopoly example, in some other fields I also point out how certain common understandings are usually the worst examples of those things. It was refreshing to be on the receiving end of that, I didn't have another way of articulating what I experienced.