What I don’t like about your categories is that you’re focusing on the buying and owning games part.
My process used to be:
Now that I have kids I don’t always have the luxury of reading the rules the same day we play the game, so what I usually do is I read the rules a few days in advance, which means I won’t remember as much when the time comes to play, so then I end up complementing that with a rules explanation video.
If some random dude comes in and opens a new instance, and then it comes out that this dude willingly associates with white supremacists, is a known creep, and even had a hand in an actual real life genocide, everybody would defederate without a second thought.
But suddenly that dude is Facebook and has a shit ton of money and everybody is just wait and see.
TtR first journey is great because it’s easy to transition to the “full” game after they outgrow it. Catan junior is similar in this. That’s also my main complaint about Stone Age kids, it’s not really the same game.
The problem with this is chatgpt is shit at facts. You ask it a question and it might just give you bullshit, and you tell it to provide a citation and it will happily invent one. There’s no easy way to verify whatever it says to you, other than going to the source, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of this exercise.
Because nobody has windows user as a core part of their identity.
Through the Ages is probably the best example of a boardgame that works better in digital form. Asynchronous in particular.
This looks incredibly shady.
The problem with a single spirit is that the different spirits have different strengths and with just one you’ll be missing something. Like, for example, there’s the storm thing that is super powerful and destroys buildings, but it doesn’t do much against single explorers, and if you don’t have a way to contain those somehow even with your superior building destroying powers you won’t be able to keep up.
That is, it’s actually harder with one than with two.
Seconded Flashpoint. I’ve had success with that game with people from 8 to like 80.
Saturday was our twice a month large meetup. Went with the kids for the first couple of hours, and we played:
Then the kids went home with mom and I got to play a couple of heavier titles:
So ultimately I sold it (to another person in that same group ;-) )
That sounds like an ideal outcome, since you still get to play it.
If I want to play it with a different group, one the people who have it are not part of, then I consider buying it.
I’ve also bought some games that I just had to have because they were just that awesome. And then never played, because other people already have a copy, and sometimes they have more content or whatever. Terraforming Mars, for example, I ended up only playing it a handful of times solo, and then the app came out, and I haven’t opened my copy since. I try to avoid doing this now, because it really doesn’t work out that well.
Although I am considering buying Brass: Birmingham so I can decide when I want it to be available in a meetup. Also Spirit Island, but that’s because I think I can get my kids to play with me.
I don’t even think it’s a difference with Reddit. Reddit also has community duplication. Sure, maybe not as bad, but it’s there. Compare /r/meirl to /r/me_irl. The only difference is that in Fediverse you’ll see the same community name in different instances, but is it really that much more confusing than the meirl case?
There is, yes, a lack of discoverability for communities. Maybe we need a “recommend me a community” community. Like “I’m looking for a Spanish speaking science fiction community”, and people can say “oh, yeah, try this one”.
Other than that, the main advantage Reddit has in this area is that it has had a more or less stable population for a very long time, so which community wins out out of an initial set has already been resolved, while this is younger (yes, it’s been around for a couple of years, but most people here haven’t) and therefore that process is just starting to play out.
Werewords is twenty questions mixed with werewolf. If you played werewolf, you understand the rules immediately. The app takes care of dealing with the hidden information. So it’s really simple. And every time somebody says “we’ll play a couple of rounds before going home” I know I’m staying for a couple of hours, because two rounds turns into twenty really easily.
I’ve had four player meets turn into five players a few times. I’d say Hansa Teutonica does great in that situation. It’s a game that doesn’t do as well at lower player counts anyway, so it all works out.
That could be it. Something like Catapult Feud but Worms themed.
Thanks! :)
It was my birthday on Saturday, so I was able to get a few friends to come home and play a few games with me. We got these to the table:
Cross Clues: Fun warmup game. Easy to integrate people midgame, which happened because a couple of people were running late. Also, my kids (8 and 5) got to play too, even if the 5 year old couldn’t think of a clue (and one of my friends had to bite his tongue and not say the very nsfw clue he was thinking of).
Scape Goat: This game shouldn’t work as well as it does. It’s too simple, but still manages to get you paranoid. Also, you need to make sure you read the grid correctly, or you might target the wrong goat, which two of us did. Still, it was fun.
Derby: Simple horse betting game. Not a lot of depth to it, but it was fun. I like the illustrations Maldón (the publisher) usually does, but I think they could have made a better job of differentiating the colors. I wouldn’t play this with bad lighting.
Codenames: Pictures: A classic. Also could involve the kids, so that was fun.
Article 27: I hadn’t played this in ages. It’s a fun negotiation game.
In all, we had fun. Next time I hope I can get something more meaty, but it was still fun.
I feel like part of the problem is that the people participating in and boosting the consumerist aspect are the ones with the shiniest toys to show. Like, sure, 1830 is an awesome game (even if I still can’t get a regular group to play it), but you won’t get more upvotes for showing off your 100th game of 1830 than your first game of <insert the newest game>.
An look, I like having new games. I enjoy the feel of new puzzles to try. But in the end, it’s as you say, the best part of the games is getting together with friends and doing soemthing fun for a few hours. Having a collection as a backdrop in my video calls is not the point of buying games.