For those acquiring less, unexpected outcomes?

Just curious whether other people have had unexpected outcomes of any moves they might have made toward acquiring fewer games.

I think the thing that's surprised me the most is how much more difficult it's been for me to decide what to suggest gets played. Without the try-it-because-it's-new logic (so often) being in play, I find I have to think hard about which thing or things I already have, and because I like most of the stuff I have and could see playing it, it's often not an easy choice and sometimes, frankly, a stressful one because I have to take my own and other people's interests into consideration. (Humanity 101, I know.)

Same here!

And honestly, while trying to prioritize what kind of game day to set up I will find myself thinking of getting in some BSG and SW Rebellion and Betrayal Legacy before considering TI4. At that point, I think "why play anything other than TI4 when it's such a damn good experience?"

Lately we've been playing games that match genres when something new but similar catches our attention. As an example, we played Tyrants of the Underdark again last night instead of any other deckbuilder. It completely captured our attention and by the end of it we no longer had split interest. When a game is consistently at the top of its class why bother with a different one?

My unexpect outcome is I have had a net increase .... possibly not unexpected but obviously pretty useless effort on my part.

When a game is consistently at the top of its class why bother with a different one?

This is the #1 thing people forget when they go down the game collecting tubes, wallowing in endless acquisitions and always chasing after something that may be slightly better than something they liked previously.

One of my groups pretty much flat out said once, “why do we play anything other than Cosmic, that is the most fun and we all always enjoy it.” Whenever I see that gang, we -always- play Cosmic as the main event.

I thanked you, Barnes, because it is something I think about a bit and I take your point.

But I must say I do see some utility to having multiple great takes within the same favorite genres. They aren't my favorite genres for nothing and I don't completely believe in a world where you can rank all of the best games in a genre in a clear order according to quality.

My unexpected outcome after whittling my collection so drastically was that I like certain genres of games half as much as I'd like, and less than half as much as they deserve.

I will also agree with Gary here. Because the genres I kept seem to involve Take That! brand of schadenfreude in some way. Unfair, from the minor taste in Survive!, to the other extreme found in Gorechosen that brings you to the point of table flipping on occasion. But always fun. Do I need only one game like that? Well, I'd be happy playing Wiz-War a lot more, but not exclusively. Too much of a good thing makes it a bad thing.

Another unexpected outcome, is that I'm quite comfortable with what I chose to keep, and rarely buy anything new.

I thought for sure the collection would grow to 250+ games again, but I have somehow managed to keep it lithe and sleek still. Pretty easy to do when you already own the best games, because you know what you like, and the industry rarely caters to your taste anymore with titles as solid as you own.

I went through a period where I was cutting back by selling, sometimes because I needed the money and sometimes because things simply weren't getting played and I'd rather have had the money. I'm still not buying very often. I think the last thing I bought was a copy of Cthulhu Wars last year when it was at a significant discount at MM. But I have been trading a lot and I've been trading what are, in essence, single games for multiples. If I trade Descent with all its expansions, it's one game. If I get 6 games in return, my collection has grown by 5. This has happened repeatedly in the past few months, such that shelves that once had space on them now don't because I could keep Descent, Arkham Horror, and my X-Wing stuff all in single boxes, but I can't with a bunch of disparate newcomers.

I did just get in on the Kickstarters for the expansions for Spirit Island and Root, so that's money spent, too.

Colorcrayons wrote: My unexpected outcome after whittling my collection so drastically was that I like certain genres of games half as much as I'd like, and less than half as much as they deserve.

I will also agree with Gary here. Because the genres I kept seem to involve Take That! brand of schadenfreude in some way. Unfair, from the minor taste in Survive!, to the other extreme found in Gorechosen that brings you to the point of table flipping on occasion. But always fun. Do I need only one game like that? Well, I'd be happy playing Wiz-War a lot more, but not exclusively. Too much of a good thing makes it a bad thing.

Board games are the only form of entertainment where I've seen people try to cram themselves into boxes they know they don't like. No one who hates JRPGs keeps buying JRPGs, or goes out of their way to see RomComs if they never enjoy them. Why seek out games with qualities you typically dislike? If they're an exception to the rule you can always try them later.

I'm with you on aggressive games, though I will say that if I had my druthers and could play whatever game I wanted I'd pick Zimby Mojo before almost any other game in the category. God I love how mean that game is.

Who decides if a game is the best in class and that's the only one you should own/play ?
What happens when a new best in class shows up ?

Do music fans do this with their favourite band/artist or genre ?
Do book readers follow this way of thinking ?

How will you ever know if there is something more fun out there if you just sit with your tried and tested and safe choice ? This is a big factor for me because I literally am the only person who buys boardgames in the genres I like among the different groups of gamers I'm aware of in my town so if I hear a great review of 'Lords of Hellas' and want to have a play of it I have to buy it.

Don't live in the past, change is good - it enlivens and enlightens you.

But they are just boardgames

With board games, the actual, physical game is more like... 50-60% of the enjoyment. The rest is the people I'm playing with. So, as long as we're having a blast, I don't really care about the most cutting edge mechanism. Top 20 percentile would have been very enough for my purpose.

Often, these "cutting edge" stuff ends up as "is that it". For me it's not worth the hassle.

Maybe if it's my _only_ hobby, but with my many others, it's just not possible.