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Flashback Friday - Pandemic - Do you still play?

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06 Jul 2018 17:32 - 06 Jul 2018 17:56 #277049 by Josh Look
I played Pandemic once and I swore it off after that. I understand it’s importance as a breakthrough in co-op game design, but I don’t really like co-op games and Pandemic is like a greatest hits package as to why that is.

I also can’t really overlook what it inspired, that “Stuff Happens Across the Board and You Deal With It” genre. There’s a couple of good games in there, but most of it is garbage.

I do like Ghostfightin’ Treasure Hunters/Ghostbusters Protect the Barrier, the new Buffy (which is dry, but a rock solid design that I adore) and Defenders of the Realm.

TL;DR - I’d rather read Comic Sans than play Pandemic.
Last edit: 06 Jul 2018 17:56 by Josh Look.
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06 Jul 2018 18:08 #277051 by WadeMonnig
I'm done with pandemic for all of the afore mentioned reasons.However, I would be tempted to play Legacy: Season One if the price was right. Feel like I'm missing an experience when it comes to playing it.

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06 Jul 2018 18:43 #277054 by WadeMonnig
The best and most interesting/interactive part of pandemic is naming the cubes and making up back stories for them.

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06 Jul 2018 21:45 #277058 by san il defanso
For all our griping, I do think there are a couple of really good design flourishes that helped Pandemic be a big hit. The way the diseases spread when there's an outbreak is genuinely cool and thematic, as is the way the diseases keep popping up in the same places.

Those elements are in service of a game that is ultimately simplistic and predictable, but that just means this game exists best as a casual experience. It remains one of the big gaming hits of the past decade, and I do think it deserved that mainstream success.
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07 Jul 2018 10:02 #277070 by Sevej
Like I've said repeatedly, will never request it, but will always play it when asked to. It's just good, fun game, and probably still, in principal, the best co-op in this manner: extremely minimal aspect of player controlling the enemy (enemy phase is short, and totally automated, with no decision on player side) that generates interesting situation during player's phase. The ratio is just unbeatable.

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07 Jul 2018 10:38 #277072 by southernman
I prefer the "Defenders of the " games, and Eldritch Horror.

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07 Jul 2018 10:55 #277074 by Jarvis
I feel like I’m one of the outliers here in that I still play it. It’s a favorite or family and friends, of which these would be considered th casual gamers. It’s not a game I would bring to a board game weekend/convention, but with family it’s guaranteed to be played at least once during the trip.
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07 Jul 2018 11:16 - 07 Jul 2018 11:17 #277076 by ubarose
Pandemic has broken the barrier into mainstream games. When I say I play board games, I’m now as likely to get the response of “You mean like Pandemic,” as I am to get, “You mean like Monopoly.”

I have to agree with Matt’s original assessment in his first review. It’s a solid family game.

I just personally don’t care for it.
Last edit: 07 Jul 2018 11:17 by ubarose.
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07 Jul 2018 11:34 #277078 by repoman
I have somehow managed to avoid ever playing this game. I just never had any desire. Mostly my contrarian nature is to blame. All the screaming adulation it got when it came out and then again with it's legacy iteration pushed me even further away from wishing to experience it.

I do like Defenders of the Realm which I hear tell is the same mechanics but then I'm more drawn to dragons and orcs and flying griffons that you can ride as opposed to "Crotch Rot Blue" or "Lingering Painful Death Orange".
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07 Jul 2018 12:36 #277087 by Josh Look
There’s stuff out there now that is objectively better with the same level of investment. For me, that’s grounds to sweep something under the rug.

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07 Jul 2018 13:57 #277090 by GoTeamVenture
I played original Pandemic two or thee dozen times and all of Pandemic Season 1. I still think it’s a good game but it’s not something I would suggest playing anymore.

The only Pandemic game I still own is Pandemic Iberia. I would rather play it and Pandemic Rising Tide over original Pandemic these days. I think they are both good games for people who still want an experience similar to original Pandemic but feel like they are done with the original game. Iberia and Rising Tide both have some variants/mini expansions you can choose to use that add a little more flavor to both games.

I would also rather play Defenders of the Realm over Pandemic but have not played it in a couple years. My wife likes the art style and a couple we game with sometimes really like the game so I have kept my copy.

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08 Jul 2018 20:56 #277134 by Shellhead

Colorcrayons wrote: I still maintain that 'games' of this ilk are puzzles, not games.

Puzzles are solved.
Games are played.

Much like solitaire, this puzzle can be absolutely not solved if the deck is against you.

And the entire enterprise is further ruined by the alpha gamer dictating to everyone else how to solve this puzzle.

Nope. Not a game.


Years ago, somebody at this site had an important insight about the difference between euros and ameritrash. In a euro game, something random happens (a tile flip, a card draw, etc.) and then the player makes a decision with perfect knowledge of the outcome of that decision, not counting lack of knowledge of future turns. In an ameritrash game, a player makes a decision and then there is a random determination of the success of that decision.

With respect to co-op games, an ameritrash co-op is a game, but euro co-op is more like a puzzle, due to the timing of the randomness. And that automatically puts the euros at a disadvantage in terms of entertainment value, because solving a puzzle as a group is less fun than playing a game, and the perfect information enables both alpha player bossiness and analysis paralysis. Fun murdering, in short. I will even go a step farther and say that the perfect information aspect attracts control freaks.
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08 Jul 2018 21:23 #277137 by ChristopherMD

Shellhead wrote: I will even go a step farther and say that the perfect information aspect attracts control freaks.


And people who like solving puzzles.

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08 Jul 2018 21:45 #277139 by DarthJoJo
Pandemic was my first boardgaming love. I got it for Christmas in my wife’s second year of med school, and we near played it every night for two months during dinner. We haven’t played it since finishing Legacy Season 1 over a year ago as she has even less time these days, but I’m looking forward to our next play, whenever that is.

To those who keep saying it’s not a game but a puzzle and less because of it, I don’t get it. You say there’s near perfect knowledge and thus always optimal plays. Naturally someone sees these plays best and dictates everyone else’s turns to win.

But that assumes the only way to have fun is to win I disagree with that, even in a co-op where everyone can win. I still remember our first game with my brother-in-law. We thought we had the game on lock. With nothing obvious to do on his turn, he moved to Jakarta for a vacation. We lost three turns later when he was too far to stop a cascading outbreak in Seoul.

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08 Jul 2018 22:57 #277143 by Colorcrayons
It's not less of a thing because it's a puzzle.

I personally don't enjoy it, but then again I don't enjoy puzzles in general, though there are exceptions.

For some reason, so called "alpha gamers" are attracted to this game, when they should be playing it solo. But the same could be said for a lot of games. I recall a horrendous experience with Mansions of Madness before the game ever was released with such a gamer.

I think of puzzles as more of a solo experience, and while others could be involved in resolving it, doesn't meant they should.
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