3 ms·
Love this article. I think the end captures it perfectly - there's really nothing else that gets the same social interaction as board games. At work we use boa
by RTigger 14y ago
Love this article. I think the end captures it perfectly - there's really nothing else that gets the same social interaction as board games.
At work we use board games on a daily basis for team building, usually play a 1-hour-or-less game over every lunch. It's amazing how quickly you get to know someone and how those relationships build and blend into your work as well. You can see how someone teaches a new person how to play the game, how they interact with alliances and respond to attacks from other people.
Some 1-hour games we play for reference, if anyone's interested:
Dominion - Already discussed in another post :) (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36218/dominion http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36218/dominion)
7 Wonders - Drafting based card game where you interact with your immediate neighbours (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68448/7-wonders http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68448/7-wonders)
Race for the Galaxy - Card game where action choices enable other players (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28143/race-for-the-galaxy http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28143/race-for-the-galaxy)
Lords of Waterdeep - D&D themed worker placement game (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/110327/lords-of-waterdeep http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/110327/lords-of-waterdeep)
Stone Age - Most "german" game of this list, worker placement and resource gathering with dice (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34635/stone-age http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34635/stone-age)
Space Alert - co-op game where the main game mechanic is "communication" (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/38453/space-alert http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/38453/space-alert)
Galaxy Trucker - fun tile-based spaceship construction game (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31481/galaxy-trucker http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31481/galaxy-trucker)
The Resistance - 2 out of the 5 players are secretly spies (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41114/the-resistance http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41114/the-resistance)
I wrote this list out in a bit more detail on my website: http://rtigger.com/blog/2012/12/14/board-games-are-great/ http://rtigger.com/blog/2012/12/14/board-games-are-great/
- JimWestergren 14y agoWow, sounds like real fun to work there :)
- peapicker 14y agoWe play a lot of those on game-lunch Fridays... also popular at our lunches: Core Worlds ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98351/ http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98351/ ) Quarriors ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/91536/ http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/91536/ ) Infinite City ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46807/ 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 other two will get you 2 to 3 games in in an hour.
- RTigger 14y agoI've been wanting to try Core Worlds, and I haven't heard of the other two - I'll have to check them out!
- jbellis 14y agoI 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.
- RTigger 14y agoThe BGG description makes it sound like an aggressive form of Race for the Galaxy - same concept, but you have to attack worlds instead of just "settle" them.
- peapicker 14y agoWhen you are just learning the game, and if you are prone to Analysis Paralysis, it can be slower. We can play a full 10 rounds with the Galactic Orders Expansion (which adds more paths to win and other variety) in 70 minutes with 3 players. (and in fact, just did over lunch today!) Also, the more you play, the better you get at making good combos. Once everyone is up to speed, if the scores aren't at least in the 30s and 40s (base game) you haven't figured out how to combo well.
- b0rsuk 14y agoDon't get too excited. It strongly depends on the group you're playing with. I like silence and dislike disruptions. I hate people who won't shut up when playing a board game. Playing board games online can dramatically increase the fun factor of a game, especially if the game has a lot of score markers to keep track of (Seasons) or people don't say "end of turn". With many people, playing face to face is just a mess.
- alphaBetaGamma 14y agoCould you suggest a good board game that is playable turn by turn? We are a group of friends in very different time zone, and playing a turn based game, about one turn a day works nicely. We have played Tigris & Euphrates, and it works great, but would be looking for something different. Thanks.
- elemeno 14y agoTake a look at VASSAL (http://www.vassalengine.org/ http://www.vassalengine.org/) and the games it supports - between that and Dropbox, I find that playing turn based games over the internet is made a lot easier. How many of you are there? How much complexity and/or depth do you like? At the deep (deep) end, 18xx and specifically 1830 plays well as PBeM (with a Java app called Rails), or there are games like Here I Stand that play well PBeM, or war games. Pretty much anything which doesn't need much interaction between players during each person's turn works well (especially if you can trust each other to roll dice for each other where needed). If you want some more suggestions, feel free to drop me an e-mail and discuss further.
- RTigger 14y agoThe games in that list that are turn based include Dominion, Lords of Waterdeep, and Stone Age. We stick to 1-hour games mostly because of the lunch hour restriction, if you're spacing the game out over a series of days it might be more interesting to play some of the longer games since it doesn't matter how long you take anyways.
- rpfennig 14y agoSimilar situation where I work with a similar list of games but also including Carcassonne, Carcassonne Discovery, Kingdom Builder, Small World, Last Night on Earth (seasonally) and futile attempts to finish Robo Rally in under an hour. Amusingly enough also in a Vancouver-ish software development office (Richmond area).