Boardgames are the new Comic Books

The endlessly accelerating consumption cycle brings on a sort of postmodern nausea. I wish games cost as much as books, in fact I think I'll set a goal to a) quit buying new games and b) when I break down and buy one, not spend more than $15 for a game, new or used. I'm really interested in the tiny game space.

First of all I believe you are wrong about Kickstarter games being forgotten. Yes, obviously a lot of the vocal kickstarter backers back lots of game and will always want to play their latest game. But lots of people play the same game again and again. Some of my neighbours are playing through all the scenarios of Mansions of Madness, another is playing a lot of Zombicide or maybe the other zombie game with tons of plastic. Another friend has bought a shitload of Shadows of Brimstone and has been playing that for a couple of years. And I know of several (myself included) who will get a lot of hours out of Gloomhaven. Kickstarter is definitely driven by the cult of the new, but it also gets a lot of games out there to be played.

Secondly I don't bemoan the fact that some games are more like books. I've said this again and again, but for me some of the joy of playing a new game is the same as reading a book. It's about the story and the experience, and while some games do get better with repeat plays, often just playing a game once or twice can be cool. Not because I'm cult of the new, not because of FOMO, but because I'm curious about how this game will tell this story, how this mechanism works, and so on.

Thirdly some of the games Faidutti mentions are not just a way of cashing in, but an entirely new way of making games. I'm specifically talking about the Unlock Games and Time Stories, but Arkham Horror the card game also falls in this category. I think it's pretty damn interesting.

I seldom buy new games, when I do buy games it is usually ones that have been around for a while that I have read a lot of people's experiences with and think 'that's for me' or I played it myself (and said the same thing) - examples in the last six months would be the MtG:AotP minis game (only because I re-bought some Heroscape stuff and my group is so small two-player days are frequent), Star Trek Fleet Captains + expansion, Claustrophobia, Mage Knight and FFG Civ expansions. But even when I buy new games I seldom go in cold, I wait and here reviews (usually here), FFG's Forbidden Stars and SW:Rebellion are examples, I think Star Trek Ascendancy is the old new game in recent years I have gone for straight away (after reading all the lead-up articles on the GF9 site though) .. and probably TMNT:Shadows of the Past because it was hard to get here and I saw it online.

UPDATE: Forgot to say most of the games, well at least half, I have acquired in the last year have been through trades on BGG.

But I have been caught out by the Kickstarter 'only new shit counts' just recently, following my policy of checking out already released games before I buy I decided to get (it was a trade actually that was pretty worthwhile) Secrets of the Lost Tomb as 'Eldritch Horror / Betrayal at House on the Hill / whatever else' hybrid sounded pretty interesting, it was limited in scenarios in the main game but expansions existed. But there my investigation stopped and I WAS CAUGHT OUT.
If I had bothered to look at there website and put one and one together (and hopefully got the right answer) I would have seen that even though it had only been out for a couple of years (from a KS) they had morphed it into a SciFi version for a new KS and all efforts were going into that and no existing expansions were going to be reprinted for the few owners of the game who didn't get the expansions with the original KS - hell, if I had been aware of all this I may even have joined (just before it finished) the KS for the new version myself.
So I have an interesting scenario-driven game that has low re-playability all because there was more money in creating a brand new KS rather than building on a current good game. You guys couldn't have started this thread six months ago .... ?

About 5 years ago, I started having these thoughts and was posting stuff like 'Tapping out in the Golden Age of Board Gaming', and in these sort of discussions, Nate said something that still sticks with me.

It was something along the lines of, "New titles shouldn't be compared against contemporary releases, but be held against every game that came before."
This rings very true to me.

Is this new game better than TITAN? Nexus Ops? Talisman? Catan? Cosmic Encounter? Citadels? Etc..
And if it is better...how much better? Worth a whole new purchase?

Often times, for me,...the answer is 'No'.

Years ago I was doing the 'board game night' thing. Regularly with friends, but sometimes general populace game nights. And as expected, it was the standard 'rotating carousel of new games' we've come to detest. It was unfulfilling. I went back into Blood Bowl several years ago, and regained my gaming spark. It has been a relief to focus on the same handful of games week in and week out. The AoS group here in Austin meet two to three times a week...only to play Warhammer. It's fantastic to go out and play a game I know the rules to and dive deep into the creative narrative.

So, as anyone who's been around here can plainly see, I returned home to GW.

Board Games still have their place though....generally with the family. My wife and son have gotten into Catan in a big way. We've slid into my worn out 90s copy like a comfortable pair of jeans. I'm in love with it all over again. That purchase over two decades ago is still providing great memories and good times.

Why do I need to buy a new board game routinely?

Well said Jeff. I got to play Catan a month ago with three young women for the first time in 15 years. It’s like putting on a warm sweater. I think it will always be like that.

On the flip side...if it weren't for buying and discussing new board games...would sites like this have been around as long as they have? I guess regular consumption was a necessary evil that allowed us to stay connected in talks long enough to form this little clubhouse of misfits.

Ultimately its the party gamer crowd that wins: it's about enjoying the people you're with. Everything else is Chess.

We are approaching a time where everything is a commodity. Buy a game, play it twice, throw it away. Want to play it again? Buy it again. Or don't. Buy something else and treat it the same way.

I struggle , with myself, to find a reason not to live my life that way.

It's too easy to publish a boardgame now. Traditionally, you had to have a compelling idea to get a boardgame published, unless you were already an insider at a game publisher. With editorial oversight, some bad games got killed in development, while others were improved before publication.

Michael Barnes wrote: Keep trumpeting about Rising Sun...ain’t nobody going to be playing that game in a year. CMON will make sure of that. And all those stretch goals will be as dust.

Like Blood Rage, right?

I'm of two minds when it comes to this.

Like I've said elsewhere, I agree that there is indeed a cultural issue here, one that is not limited to boardgames but all hobbies and aspects of society. With more disposable income available we are increasingly choosing easier but perhaps less fulfilling ways of enjoyment, like buying or owning over actually playing.

Regarding the industry, I'm reminded of something I learnt on my marketing classes. What is Zara's main bussiness? At first glance, it might seem like a simple question, they sell clothes, right? But they don't. They sell fashion, clothes are just the way they do it. The "there are too many games" like, to me, is just nonsense. People have been complaining about that since the black and white arcade days and before the "Indiapocalypse" there was the "Famicom Crisis". It's the complaining about the young generation of the gaming world.

--

But, deep down, I don't think any of this matters to us on a personal level. What matters is: What are we gonna do about it?

Like Disgustipater and Mr White, my games group has turned into a carrousel of new games that are played once and then forgotten. Worse, it's a carrousel of boring, poorly playtested games that I can't see the charm in. It's not a stream of Caylus clones, it's a stream of third-rate Zombicide copies. And the host is increasingly more and more focused on his Kickstarter games, to the point we barely play my games. I don't think we have played a game of my choice in months. And it was not a great choice, mind, it was probably something middling that I just like ok.

So I no longer enjoy meeting with them. I seriously don't. I enjoy their company, they are my friends, but the actual act of playing with them has become a chore. I'm so bored that I rudely squint at my phone the mandatory rules explanations, it's that bad.

I think we have to accept that the hobby might no longer reflect our tastes as it once might have and that the more it moves into the mainstream, the less likely it is that it will. We won't get to play Titan by sitting around or complaining, we need to do something about it.

So I've joined a local club. And you know what? Everytime I've gone, I had fun and this is what I played:

1) 1775: Rebellion, Tulip Bubble
2) Dune
3) 1825
4) Terraforming Mars

Perhaps we should all be a bit more like Clearclaw. Yes, the fun murderer. He likes one thing, which are hardcore train games and he has worked hard to make sure he can play them. If he doesn't like the games in offer, he doesn't play them. He doesn't go play he doesn't like and instead brings the games he does and teaches newcomers if necessary. He says that, for a long time, he didn't play much. But now he's playing at least 6 18XX games a week.

Sure, it's harder for us, because we actually care about having fun and who we game with, but man. We cannot go on like this.

In retrospect, I think we should've kept quiet about this board game thing.

repoman wrote: "A periodicals business". That's a great way to put it and it's so very true.

I went up to Total Con in Massachusetts a week or so ago. Just for the day and mainly to hang with a small contingent of ASL guys but I took a few minutes to walk the hall and see what was being played. I swear there wasn't one table playing any game over six months old. Reminded me why I don't care much for conventions anymore.

It is a shame where sitting down to play a game where you already know the rules is a complete rarity.

Part of the reason I've stopped attending cons as well. The only big con I've been to recently was an afternoon trip just to get in on the big Wings of Glory play. I'm telling you all, small cons among friends are the way to go. My group's May-Getaway is always dynamite, because I get the chance to pull out three hour games that don't get played on Monday nights.

As for Monday nights, I am experiencing the same thing, largely because the group has expanded and the new younger players are on the treadmill. But with more people there I'm able to pull one or two guys aside and get something older, more played, more vetted onto the table. I discovered a copy of Core Worlds in my buddy's basement and pulled it out just to try it for a few rounds. Buonocore had told me a couple of years back that it didn't get the recognition it deserved, so I wanted to see for myself. I got two other guys to learn it with me, we played about 3/4 of a game before midnight ended it, and lo and behold but what comes out on a regular basis now when I'm not there? Core Worlds. The other two guys figured out that there's enough game there to explore it more. Bully for them. But the rest of the group is chasing Kickstarters or (even worse in my opinion) "GenCon purchases". Three or four guys come back with six games each and want barging rights for the next four months of game nights.

The industry is fractured as hell right now and it can't be good for business. There's really only a few games (like, maybe ten?) that have any real central conversation in the hobby part of the industry right now.

Sagrilarus wrote: I'm telling you all, small cons among friends are the way to go.

This is also something I've started doing. I noticed when I would go to cons...I would spend the time gaming with friends anyway...so why not save the money and run it at the house?

Every year now I host a 'Pit Con'. Kick the wife and kids out for an extended weekend. I've run this on four occasions now. The first three were sort of haphazard, slap some board games we like on the table affairs, but this past year began something different.

A year and a half out, I put this on everyone's calendar. It would be minis heavy based. Every participant painted up a Dreadball Team, Our Man O War owner sent fleets out to all the 'Con' participants to paint up a fleet to play. I made some commemorative pint glasses. People flew in from out of town for a weekend of: Man O War, OG Warhammer Quest, and Dreadball. We also sprinkled in a Drafthouse movie, BBQ stops, and Buc*ees visits. I try to make it a little more than just gaming.

This year, we've got several people who can't make it (military deployments, family), so with the smaller count, I'm scheduling it around a local BB tourney to still give it an 'event' feel. The plan is for people to fly into Dallas this fall, where we'll check out the Warhammer Cafe, drive to Austin for a Shadespire tourney at my place, then a local BB tournament the next day.

2019 looks like an AoS Firestrom campaign is forming. Also Lord of the Rings Battle Companies and a BB tournament featuring all Hall of Fame teams have been discussed.

Here's the first Pit Con pint glass which was DB focused. This year's glass will probably be Shadespire in theme.

So how many new games did people in this discussion buy in the last 12 months? I think I bought three:

1. Escape from One Million B.C.
2. Saltlands
3. Room 25

I don't regret any of these purchases. None of my friends love Escape, but they also don't mind it and it's also a good solitaire game. All of my friends like Saltlands, so it's getting a good amount of play. We have only played Room 25 once so far, but I have also played it solitaire at least a dozen times.

By contrast, some of the classics are showing their age now. Somebody mentioned Titan upthread, and while that was a good game back in the day, it is now a hopelessly long game that also features player elimination. That's a terrible combination, and one that likely ensures a dusty place on the shelf in most collections.

In the past year, I've bought:

Shadespire - fully painted and sees regular plays.
Space Hulk - on the cheap during black friday. About to start painting and playing.

One new title. One venerable classic.

I have bought several minis though and White Dwarf every month, so it's not like I'm immune to frequent purchases...