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Bugs: Recent Topics Paging, Uploading Images & Preview (11 Dec 2020)

Recent Topics paging, uploading images and preview bugs require a patch which has not yet been released.

× Talk about Eurogames here.

Atlantic board game article

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21 Jan 2018 13:08 - 21 Jan 2018 13:40 #261609 by Gary Sax
www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/201...-games-catan/550826/

I have a weird relationship with this article because I think they're underselling the competitiveness of eurogames even though it's an ok article overall. Like, lots of good euros are real competitive, it's a pretty recent phenomenon that eurogame means super passive aggressive semi-cooperative. I think most of those original wave german Knizia games, for example, or El Grande, or Catan... they're very obviously competitive. I tend to agree with the central statement that they aren't about war and eliminating your opponent's pieces, though, I think what euros popularized were the idea that you can compete with other mechanisms beyond board position---auctions, trading, etc and not every action in any given game has to be a zero sum activity.

Also, using Eklund as an example of a popular designer like Knizia or whatever is just fucking wrong and misleading.
Last edit: 21 Jan 2018 13:40 by Gary Sax.
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21 Jan 2018 13:23 #261611 by Michael Barnes
Yes, no other game designer working today better embodies the universal accessibility and mainstreaming of high quality German board games like PHIL EKLUND.

Crazy article. Half of it is 20 years too late.
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21 Jan 2018 13:25 - 21 Jan 2018 13:29 #261612 by Gary Sax
I love how when a fancy newspaper or magazine does a board game thing they can't just, you know, take a good working board game writer and pay them to write about it. Gotta get that outside perspective for no real reason.
Last edit: 21 Jan 2018 13:29 by Gary Sax.
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21 Jan 2018 13:47 #261614 by Msample
Replied by Msample on topic Atlantic board game article
Eklund will nonetheless enjoy a surge in interest. His Kickstarter for Greenland/Neanderthal is closing in on $150,000 which frankly is a lot of money for some pretty esoteric subjects and game mechanics.
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21 Jan 2018 14:07 #261615 by Not Sure

“When I was young, one of my first creations was a Star Trek–type game with humans fighting other races in space,” Eklund says. “I now realize it was more or less a racist concept. It’s been done many times. It’s just not that interesting.” In Germany, by contrast, he’s created games such as Pax Renaissance, in which players take on the role of bankers navigating the vicissitudes of war and religious upheaval in 15th- and 16th-century Europe.


Interesting, both Eklund's take on space war as basically racist, and that the author apparently didn't read the footnotes (understandable) in Pax Ren, which is written as not so much about "navigating" as "orchestrating" those vicissitudes.

Weird article, but I bet there's one in the Atlantic about bird-watching or teacup collectors that's just as baffling to the people on the inside of that little culture.

Also, I can't imagine the frustration of 3000+ customers getting those Kickstarter Eklund rulebooks. I think I can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth already!
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21 Jan 2018 14:29 - 21 Jan 2018 14:30 #261616 by Michael Barnes
LOL at the pretentious horsetwaddle that is “moving to Germany because they take games seriously”...









Last edit: 21 Jan 2018 14:30 by Michael Barnes.
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21 Jan 2018 14:56 - 21 Jan 2018 14:56 #261619 by Gary Sax
lol, Not Sure, I had that in my original post re: how his "notes" on Islam are nice and racist and very imperialist but I didn't want to get sidetracked.
Last edit: 21 Jan 2018 14:56 by Gary Sax.
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21 Jan 2018 15:50 - 21 Jan 2018 15:50 #261622 by Not Sure
It's also bizarre that Eklund is the in-depth interview for an article on how to get along in boardgaming. The Pax games are basically face-punchingly competitive. Even if someone tries to go their own way and just build something, the game effectively creates reasons for the other players to say "let's go fuck up his shit!" (this is obviously not a problem for me...)

I mean, he interviewed Eklund, but then discussed Power Grid. Weird. I guess in something like High Frontier the game itself is so oppressive that you're sort of all up against space instead of each other, but that seems like the outlier to me.
Last edit: 21 Jan 2018 15:50 by Not Sure.
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21 Jan 2018 18:06 #261627 by Sagrilarus
Looks to me that this guy found Eklund and then wrote about games instead of the other way around.
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21 Jan 2018 18:16 - 21 Jan 2018 22:12 #261628 by Gary Sax

Sagrilarus wrote: Looks to me that this guy found Eklund and then wrote about games instead of the other way around.


But like, just the name. Didn't play any of his games/read his rulebooks.
Last edit: 21 Jan 2018 22:12 by Gary Sax.
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21 Jan 2018 20:24 #261632 by SuperflyPete

Gary Sax wrote: I love how when a fancy newspaper or magazine does a board game thing they can't just, you know, take a good working board game writer and pay them to write about it. Gotta get that outside perspective for no real reason.


Matt or Michael or Charlie should write an op-ed or something to correct the record.
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21 Jan 2018 21:20 #261637 by Cranberries

Gary Sax wrote:

Sagrilarus wrote: Looks to me that this guy found Eklund and then wrote about games instead of the other way around.


But like, just the name. Didn't play any of his games read his rulebooks.


I can't wait until he does a game on global climate change.
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21 Jan 2018 21:44 #261639 by dysjunct

cranberries wrote:

Gary Sax wrote:

Sagrilarus wrote: Looks to me that this guy found Eklund and then wrote about games instead of the other way around.


But like, just the name. Didn't play any of his games read his rulebooks.


I can't wait until he does a game on global climate change.


HOAX QUEST
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22 Jan 2018 04:17 #261652 by Matt Thrower

SuperflyTNT wrote: Matt or Michael or Charlie should write an op-ed or something to correct the record.


I'll ask, but I doubt they'll listen to me. That said, my first ever paid work was a response to a dreadful error-filled piece on iOS board game adaptations that appeared on a video game site.

I can't believe we've got this far down the thread and no-one's moaned about him calling the term Ameritrash "dismissive".
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22 Jan 2018 08:28 #261662 by SuperflyPete
It’s typical Atlantic shit. I used to LOVE the Atlantic, but as media consumption changed and politics got more nasty and divisive, they hired a bunch of people to churn out poorly researched articles to be able to remain relevant.

This is just another example.

Everything is becoming their own version of Breitbart. It’s sad.
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