2 ms·

I know people recommend board games a lot, but I just find them really exhausting and ponderous. I don't want to memorize a new booklet of rules every night, I

I know people recommend board games a lot, but I just find them really exhausting and ponderous. I don't want to memorize a new booklet of rules every night, I don't want to min/max my corn production or power grid generation. In other areas of my life, this is the kind of busywork that I strive to automate. And it's not for lack of trying. I threw myself into an active board-gaming group for almost 2 years a few years ago. And it just wasn't going anywhere. Over time, I started really dreading Friday nights. I wish people played simpler, more socially revealing games that build intimacy between people. You can play Agricola with someone all night long and not learn one thing about them. Those people I spent two years with all remained strangers to me.

cableshaft 4y ago
I can see your perspective on that, and you're certainly not alone there, I know several people who don't want to learn new rules all the time (I'm not one of those people, I love a new game teach unless I'm really tired, but I know several people like that). There are groups that stick to the same games or more social/party games and play those. The group I went to last week is kind of like that, it was all Skull and Codenames and Just One and King of Tokyo, the latter being the most complicated game played. And before they moved away, I had a couple friends who we just played Catan once a week, every single week (for months). And another group I met up with regularly for a while only played Cards Against Humanity or Exploding Kittens. And when I worked for a video game publisher we used to play a 15 minute game of Carcassonne every morning (the video game, so it did a lot of upkeep for you) to see who would go pick up the coffee (lowest score got the coffee). The game I played most last year, actually, was Memoir '44. I played 35 games of it. One of the things I like about it, actually, is once you pick up the rules there's pretty much nothing else to learn, just different scenarios with a couple minor tweaks to the rules and different map layouts to keep things fresh (you can change things up more with expansions if you want, but it's not necessary). It's worked out a lot better for me than your standard crunchy euro game where the only differences are 'what order the conversions from resource A to B will come out in' or 'which of the 3 different victory paths will you do this game'. I automate things too in my day job, but don't mind not automating board games. Or when I do, I make video games out of it :). But yeah, it's quite possible that it's just not your hobby, and that's cool too.

cableshaft 4y ago

I can see your perspective on that, and you're certainly not alone there, I know several people who don't want to learn new rules all the time (I'm not one of those people, I love a new game teach unless I'm really tired, but I know several people like that). There are groups that stick to the same games or more social/party games and play those. The group I went to last week is kind of like that, it was all Skull and Codenames and Just One and King of Tokyo, the latter being the most complicated game played. And before they moved away, I had a couple friends who we just played Catan once a week, every single week (for months). And another group I met up with regularly for a while only played Cards Against Humanity or Exploding Kittens. And when I worked for a video game publisher we used to play a 15 minute game of Carcassonne every morning (the video game, so it did a lot of upkeep for you) to see who would go pick up the coffee (lowest score got the coffee). The game I played most last year, actually, was Memoir '44. I played 35 games of it. One of the things I like about it, actually, is once you pick up the rules there's pretty much nothing else to learn, just different scenarios with a couple minor tweaks to the rules and different map layouts to keep things fresh (you can change things up more with expansions if you want, but it's not necessary). It's worked out a lot better for me than your standard crunchy euro game where the only differences are 'what order the conversions from resource A to B will come out in' or 'which of the 3 different victory paths will you do this game'. I automate things too in my day job, but don't mind not automating board games. Or when I do, I make video games out of it :). But yeah, it's quite possible that it's just not your hobby, and that's cool too.