Archive for Dan
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Dan
United States
Burlington
Vermont
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Wow. It's been a while, huh? Over a year between posts? Sheesh!
I recently had a discussion with a coworker about movies. There were a few specific ones that we were discussing, but the general topic of discussion wound up being the fact that I'm not all that picky when it comes to movies. As long as I am reasonably entertained or laugh a few times, I will give a movie a favorable rating. Hell, Goldmember still makes me laugh like a little kid every time I see it.
This got me thinking about my game collection and how I rate games. When I look at my average ratings, I see that I am a very lenient rater. With a total of 206 games and expansions rated, my average sits at 7.98. I don't have any hard and fast stats about what the average user's average rating is, but I'm willing to bet it's a lot lower than that. So this made me ask myself a question: what is it that makes me rate a game the way I do? More importantly, if I am a lenient rater, what makes a 10 in my book? How many factors go into my rating of a game?
To answer this question I did a few things. The first thing was to look at the games I've rated the most highly, the ones that are a natural 10, and see why they are ranked this way. There are eight games that hold a rating of 10 with me, but for the sake of brevity I will touch upon three of them:
Dominion - I have rated this, and all the other members of the family a solid 10. I was on the fence about getting this game and may not ever have picked it up had a friend not given it to me as a birthday gift. As we started playing with the base set, I soon developed a love for this game. It was a new concept to me and the replayability offered by having over three million combinations was staggering. My friends all liked it, and we played the hell out of it for a long time. In fact, there were nights that this was the only game that hit the table...sometimes six or seven times a night.
So what made this a 10, and kept it there, was the fact that a lot of gaming group enjoyed this game and there was a high replayability factor. I mean, what are we up to now? Over five quadrillion possible combinations?
Battlestar Galactica - This game blew me out of the water when I first played it. I think part of my fascination with it stemmed from my love of the TV series, but the game really delivered. I had played a game or two with hidden roles before, but not one that was so....devious. Plus, how many times have you been playing as a human just to find out later on that you're actually a cylon? Excellent.
This was made a 10 based partly on my love of the series, my love of the mechanics, and the fact that this drips with theme. And, you know, it helps that I will throw on the soundtrack from the show when we're playing and ratchet it up a notch thematically.
Cosmic Encounter - Along with the expansions, this game is another 10 in my book. Hell, I would rate it an 11 if I could. It struck a chord with me from a game design standpoint, and offers a large degree of replayability. Such a simple base concept, one that most people can understand, but it is made so different by the various alien power.
There were a few things that made this a 10 for me, but I think the largest factor was that the alien powers and quite a few of the cards all say the same thing: "OK, you know those rules? Here's a way you can break them."
Those are a few of my games that have earned a rating of 10. So the next step was to look at the other games I've rated to see if a pattern emerged as to what made me rate a game the way I do. I think I've boiled it down to the following concepts:
Replayability: This one has always been a huge factor for me. Most of the games that get a high rating from me can be played a dozen times and have a dozen different setups: Small World has the race/power combos that change with every game. Cosmic Encounter has a ton of aliens, which all interact with the game (and each other) in unique ways and change the whole game. Dominion and Thunderstone offer a huge selection of cards, only a few of which are used in each game.
Willingness to Play: Not mine, other people's willingness. I've mentioned this in previous posts, but if no one you know wants to play a game you own it takes the fun out of owning it. A good example here is Agricola. I love this game, but have a hell of a time getting people to play. So, for as much as I love this game, I had to rate it a 9 instead of a 10. Fast Flowing Forest Fellers has the same rating of 9, but this is a game that would be a 7.5 boosted by the fact that I can play this with ANYONE. And they typically like it enough to play again.
Expandability: So I know this one has a couple of different camps around here, but I like it when a game has expansions or at least the possibility for one. To me, more of a good thing is a great thing. Now, I know that some of the expansions for Carcassonne aren't going to win any awards anytime soon. But, boy the options are plentiful, aren't they? And I guess this goes back to my first point of replayability. Many of the expansions breathe new life into a game and open up new and different ways to play.
All of this means that the game won't get stale for me anytime soon. In fact, I think this can be a difference between a 9 and a 10 for me. I love Survive: Escape from Atlantis!, but I can't play it more than once in a session, and only a couple times a month. Great game, but it's a similar game each time I play.
So, in a nutshell, that is how I rate games. And you know what? I like most of the game I play. There are a few that have fallen flat for me, but most of the games I play I enjoy to one degree or another. And if I have a good time, and the people I play with have a good time, well, I'm going to slap a 7 or higher on it. Or, you know, a couple of good ole' thumbs up from our buddy Borat.
Your turn: Are you a difficult rater? What sort of things play a factor in why you rate games the way you do?
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Dan
United States
Burlington
Vermont
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As the primary game supplier (why when I wrote that was the term "primary care giver" floating through my head??) for about 90% of the gaming that I do, I tend to have a large collection of games. Obviously, this is a nice problem to have as it gives me a large degree of variety at my fingertips. But I always face one problem: bringing something to the table that people will like.
Browsing this site on any given day, you can see posts from any number of people discussing their problems with gaming. Or, to be more precise, the problem centers around finding people to play these games with. This is a problem that many of us will face over the course of our gaming lives to one degree or another. So how do you make it all come together? How do you go from having a bunch of unplayed (and unplayable) games to a collection that gets some use?
Well, I don't know. But I can tell you what I have done and maybe some of it will make sense...
If I was to look at my gaming partners, I find that I have quite a few small groups that game with frequency ranging from once a week to once every two or three months. I guess I'm a little bit lucky there, because I shudder when I read of geeks that can find NO ONE to play games with. That, to me, would be torture. So while I find that I am blessed with a variety of people to play games with, I am doubly blessed in that their interests are not all the same. Let's talk a little about the people I tend to play with.
Aaron
First off I have one of my oldest friends and gaming partners, Aaron.
Aaron Hartman
United States
Cumberland
Rhode Island
While I'm sure we played Clue or something else when growing up together, the first gaming experience I feel that we truly shared was BattleTech. My brother had taught me how to play and had left me a few things to get us started. I taught Aaron how to play and away we went! After he graduated from college, Aaron moved out west and we didn't get to see each other that often. But, as fate would have it, he is now a right-coaster again and we've been able to get together a lot more frequently over the last two years.
This is someone I can play just about anything with. When he comes up for my game nights he crashes here so that when everyone else leaves he and I can break out something we've always wanted to try and give it a shot. He is the type of gamer that Fantasy Flight Games just loves, as he enjoys games with a lot of bits.
The Northern Gamers
Next up, we have what I will refer to as the "Northern Gamers". This is a small group that is hosted by a couple about 45 minutes north of here. There are typically anywhere from six to fifteen people that will show up at their game nights. I would make it up there more often, but that drive can be a killer, especially in the winter.
This group is an interesting mix. For a long time a portion of them got stuck in the rut (and I'm not knocking these games, I'm just saying that they got played EVERY time) of playing The Settlers of Catan and Dominion...and playing just those games. It was tough to get them to move out of their comfort zones.
The saving grace for me up there was the host, Josh.
Josh Lareau
United States
Vermont
He lives up north with his wife and child and they are able to get behind some meatier games. They would always tackle a new game and Josh loves to get into a deeper thinkfest of a game than most of the people we play with.
The Family Gamers
Then we have a small group which is the "Family Gamers". This consists of a couple of sisters and their significant others...and me. Pretty small group, but we have some fun when we get together. We started gaming together when I was seeing one of the sisters and even though that relationship ended, our gaming together did not.
This group likes it a lot lighter, with very little forced confrontation. Games like Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride and even the dreaded Fluxx are typically what gets played here. Good company, and some nice light gaming.
The Weekly Group
Finally, there is the weekly game night which I attend at another very close friend's house. We try to get together at least once a week and it's anywhere from four to six people in size.
We play a lot of different games. Sometimes it will be a night of lighter fare: Fast Flowing Forest Fellers, Survive: Escape from Atlantis!, or something from the Gryphon Games bookshelf series. Some nights, we kick it up a notch and break out Power Grid and tonight they are going to learn Railways of the World...they just don't know it yet.
Now that, apart from the game night that I will host once every two or three months at my place, is pretty much a complete list of my gaming partners. All of this adds up to the fact that there's quite a few people here, at least involved or on the periphery. As a result, I need to make my collection as effective as possible to avoid games that just become paperweights.
So how do I do that? There are a few things that I try to do, each with several aspects:
Know your gaming partners:
• Don't Overwhelm: If your gaming partners regularly get vexed by the wealth of decisions in Ticket to Ride, you may not want to break out Agricola. Now this isn't to say that you can't try to teach something new, but if it goes badly, throw it back on the shelf. But try to make smart decisions with what to bring.
• Listen to Their Comments: People will tell you what they like, if you give them a chance. If there's a game that gets more requests than others, you may have a good starting point for opening up more choices. If they like Coloretto, maybe it is time to try Zooloretto.
• Avoid the Problems: I have more than one group within which direct confrontation is a problem in games. From a few nasty looks and snide remarks to the time that someone almost burst into tears while playing Carcassonne: The Tower, it is good to recognize potential ignition points and avoid them.
Make smart purchases:
• Avoid the Paperweight Games: Look, I would love to buy Descent: Journeys in the Dark and sink hours into the game. I've played Runebound (second edition) and loved it. They seem to be my cup of tea. But there is no one for me to play these games with. Aaron would, but he lives four hours away. Josh might, but he's typically with others who won't. Don't buy it if there's not a chance it will get played. So, conversely...
• Buy What Will Get Played: If you've got one primary gaming group, and they LOVE lighter weight euros, well, you should plan on those getting the most table time. Do some research on here. There's a metric ton of reviews and write ups that will help you find something that will fit for everyone in your group.
• Consider Expandability & Alternatives: Sometimes you will get lucky and have a hit with something like Power Grid or Ticket to Ride. The luck here is that you have a good amount of options with some slightly different gameplay. There's a few different games in the Ticket to Ride family and Power Grid offers up a large number of maps. After some research and conversations with Nate Straight, I recently ordered Decktet. This is a whole game system which will lead to a large number of playable games with a variety of the people I play with.
Trim the fat:
• Learn to Say Goodbye: This is the hard part. Look, I really, really, really wish I could have found someone to play War of the Ring with me. But no one would. And no matter how long I hang onto it, no one will. So I had to let it go. You really need to sit down in front of your shelves and make the hard cuts. If it isn't going to get played EVER, let it go. It will find a good home with someone who will give it the attention you never could.
• Trade Away: Utilize the trade tool on here. That game collecting dust on your shelf can be traded for something your group will love. You may think that no one wants your copy of Fantasy Forest, but someone does! And, actually, that someone is me. So if you DO have a copy to unload, well, GM me.
• Sell It Off: Just like trades, there's a variety of ways to sell your games on here as well. Either make a geeklist with all the games you're looking to unload, or search for specific games and the users that want them. This is how I unloaded my beloved copy of War of the Ring. I found someone local who wanted it, sent him a GM, and we made it work.
Create a new group:
• Mix It Up: This is a concept that I'm toying with right now, but it makes a lot of sense to me. My friend Don and I noticed that our weekly game night had a few games that the guys would love and the ladies would hate. And, well, we really liked these games! So we decided that we were going to do a Guy's Night Gaming Night every few weeks or so. This would be a group that could break out Small World and Cosmic Encounter (two games we loved but they hated) without blinking. So far it has been a great success! This is helping to make some of those games that would normally sit around see some table time.
So there you have it. These are the things that I have done to make my collection a little less like a decoration and a lot more like games. Don't be afraid to try something new, but don't go and buy Advanced Squad Leader if you know it won't get played. Talk to your group. Make a new group. Trim the fat. Do what works for you. Get out there and play!
Your turn: What challenges do you face with your gaming group vis-a-vis your games? Do you have those games you just can't bear to part with even though they just sit there?
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Dan
United States
Burlington
Vermont
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In my previous post, I spoke about some of the lengths that I will go to in an effort to create better storage solutions for some of my games. Most of this is from a need to free up more shelf space, and all those big Dominion boxes sure do take up a lot of room.
But, if we dig deeper, we can see that this is just indicative of a larger problem. I am, at heart, a completionist. When I find a game I love, and there are expansions or a different version based on the same game, it becomes like a sickness: I HAVE to have it.
I think that this has probably been a trait of mine from a very young age, and if I was to point at the original culprit, I would be shaking my finger at baseball cards. I would chew stick after stick after stale, pink stick of Topps bubblegum just hoping and praying that I wouldn't get yet another Marty Barrett card and might finally snag that Steve Carlton card that was on the front of the box but I just couldn't find. My parents would oblige me on more than one occasion and pick up a pack of cards whenever they happened to be at the store. Sometimes I would be lucky and get what I need, but other times not.
As I got more heavily into gaming, this manifested itself through one of the largest money pits I have ever been involved in: Magic: The Gathering. What I spent on those cards was unreal. Always searching for those rare cards, that little boost that would help me to finally win a couple games...it was ridiculous. I know that what I spent may be tiny compared to some of the more serious players, but it was enough to make me realize that I had to stop. And I did. And I was good. For a while.
We'll fast forward about 10 years. Magic is no longer on my radar, as I had successfully kicked the habit years ago. I was living a rather blissful, non-completionist life. Then I was given a copy of Carcassonne for Christmas. And you know what? It was fun. A lot of fun! My thought process went a little something like this: "Huh...maybe I should Google this and see what other people have to say about this little game. What's this? BoardGameGeek? Heh. Hmm...'Inns and Cathedrals'?? What is THAT?"
The rest, as they say, is history. I wound up buying every expansion for Carcassonne that I could find and I still do, to this day. Then Ticket to Ride came along for me. Great game...and there's more just like it?? I have to have them! More cards for Dominion? Must buy...
And so it goes, on and on. I do have to say that the one thing I have learned is to stay right away from anything remotely close to a CCG. I don't want to get involved in that sort of business again. Not even close. Unfortunately, I think that attitude is turning me away from some of the newer games simply because they sound too close to a CCG. Any living card game? Not for me. In fact, though I think I would like the game, Summoner Wars scares the hell out of me with all the factions and other add-ons that I keep seeing. I want to try it, I do. But I'm mortified about what might happen.
Some of you will say "Well, you don't HAVE to buy it all" but you don't have it like I do. It's a curse. Thank god I never got into Pokemon...but I DID finally nab that Steve Carlton card.
Your turn: What are some of the games or other things that you have to collect? What's the most ridiculous length you've gone to in search of that last item? When will it end? 
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Dan
United States
Burlington
Vermont
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As my game collection grows, I find myself drawn to new and interesting ways to store my games. Sometimes the box provided is good enough to hold everything and life is grand. Then an expansion comes out and you're carrying two boxes. Another and we're up to three. One more and all hell will break loose.
Now I'm not above throwing out a box insert and doing a little combining. When I picked up Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic Incursion, I tossed the insert for the base game and popped everything right in the box. It works well. I did something similar when I purchased Ticket to Ride: Switzerland...the insert from Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries was chucked and the two were put in the same box. They both play two to three players, so it seemed logical.
But sometimes that just won't work. Sometimes you need a little something more to make everything fit in one place. Is this always necessary? No. I find that there are three reasons that I will find myself searching for storage solutions.
PORTABILITY: The first big problem I encountered was how much of a pain it is to lug all of this stuff around. I game with the same four or five people every week and two of them are a married couple with kids. As the kiddies are two and four we always meet at their place so that they don't need to get a sitter just to play a few games. I am the one that owns 99% of the games in our group, so I'm the one tasked with bringing our choices for the evening.
Needless to say, when my gaming group wanted to play Dominion it had become more than a little bit of a chore to throw five boxes in a bag and hit the road. It's a lot to carry around and limits our choices for the rest of the evening as my game bag is only so big. This has led to our group having to plan nights where this is the only game we play. As a result, we tend to play it less than we used to...it's become a chore to tote around.
SHELF SPACE: As my collection grows, I find that I have fewer and fewer places to put my games. When I first moved into my apartment, my games fit nicely into a closet off the living room and everything worked fine. I even had a little room to grow. After some time, I picked up a few more games and things became tight in the closet. Then it was just too much. So I moved some stuff around, condensed the books from one of my bookcases onto another one and put my games there.
I'm sure you know where the story goes from here. Things were good with my bookshelf system for a little while. And then Dominion: Seaside came out. Game over. I went from plenty of room to overflow status again. I fought with this for a little while until I finally broke down and went to Lowe's and bought some shelves. Not the most aesthetically pleasing shelves, as it is the wire rack style, but it works and is adjustable. Plenty of room to grow!
Well, as fate would have it, I'm now facing the very real possibility of running out of space even on this monster set of shelves. I have a feeling that this problem will keep getting worse and worse. I will eventually have to sell everything just to have room for my games.
CONVENIENCE: The problem with being the person who brings the games is that you have to prepare for every situation with the games you bring. Now I could bring Carcassonne and we might play it once with the base set and all is fine. But maybe someone really enjoys the base game and then learns that there are expansions. "Do you have any expansions for this game?" Well, sure I do...but...you know, not with me. This just won't do. I need to be prepared for anything.
These were the motivating factors behind me seeking out new storage solutions for some of my games. There was only one big problem with this whole scenario: well, some of them just seemed like too much work. I had these grand plans for building a box for Carcassonne, and printing out another set of plans to build one for each Dominion expansion...but it all just seemed overwhelming. Between picking up the materials to complete each project and then teaching myself how to assemble these things, it was just too much.
This is where the magic of BGG came in to play. The other day I noticed that a brilliant man by the name of Jason McLean posted a picture of his storage solution for Carcassonne. It was a simple craft box that you could find at almost any craft store, and it had plenty of space for current expansions with some growth as well. Best of all, one of my local craft stores had one in stock. So now? I've got everything from the Carcassonne family tucked into a nice little box that I can tote along anywhere. The whole transition took me about 15 minutes to complete.
Then we come to my other shelf hog, Dominion. With all the expansions, this game was taking up way too much room for a card game. I had seen solutions involving everything from foam core to cannibalizing another game box to reinforce the original to hold the weight of almost 2,000 cards. Too. Much. Work.
Enter Typhon. In his thread Another Dominion storage solution: FINALLY a use for that old Trivial Pursuit set.... he shows how easy it is to take the card holders from an old game of Trivial Pursuit and put your Dominion cards right in there. Make up some dividers and viola! There's a whole new, smaller way to store the game. And talk about portability! This is really what I've been looking for. Cheap, easy, and very little fuss. Here you can see an image of someone else using this brilliant idea.
Now, I don't have all that many games which are crying out for an overhaul like these two were, but there are always improvements that can be made. I have found that Indigo Potter's Creative Organization and Storage Solutions is a great place to go look for solutions to any storage issue that you may have, great or small. For right now, I have opened up a good chunk of space on those shelves. Two shelf hogs are now accounted for in much smaller containers.
That means I can go buy more now, right??
Your Turn: So let's hear from you. What are some games that you've done some storage magic with? Maybe you've got a Plano box for your Memoir '44 stuff. Any games you're having trouble getting into one place?
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Dan
United States
Burlington
Vermont
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I had a blog once.
It wasn't a flashy affair, and I rarely updated it...not that anyone was actually reading it. But looking back, I think the reason I never updated it was that I found most of my thoughts to center around the same thing: games. Board, card, or otherwise, I love to play games. More than that, I love to think about playing games.
So here it is...the blog that should have been a few years ago. A new start. This will be my musings, ramblings and thoughts about games and the people that play them.
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