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Jason Farris
United States
Fair Oaks
California
There is a duck in every game. You may not see it, but it's there.
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Considering my last blog entry, it is no surprise that I am writing this one. At first I was tempted to tell you that Fantasy Flight Games jumped the shark recently, As I’ve still been buying their games. But really, they jumped the Shark about two months after I bought Descent: Journeys in the dark.
I was jonesing for that game after going to my first Gencon and seeing what amazing bits it had. I played a demo and it seemed very solid. I was just getting in to board games and only owned 3 euro games at this point: Tikal, Caylus, and I think Antike. The only other games in my closet were Axis and allies (GM edition), Fortress America, and Shogun (GM edition). I was pretty much into the pretty bits, big box thing. Descent was going to be my masterpiece dungeon crawl. They sold out of it while I as demoing it so I had to wait for it to hit my local game store, and wait, and wait.
Finally it arrived and the promise of infinite bits was mine. Board after board of cardboard chits. Enough plastic minis to keep me happy for a long time. I managed to get it to the table a lot during that first two months and several things became quickly apparent.First, the keeper tended to win early, or not at all, and second (tied to the first), there was no climactic battle. If the heroes made it to the final room, the bad guy was dead before it had a chance to act. Bad juju. The errata started coming out fast and heavy. Including the much needed endurance potion nerf. It only took one person writing up a way to beat he first scenario without the keeper getting a single turn to do that. Yes, it required certain abilities to show up and a certain hero, but it was doable and completely broken. Most of us had already figured out that the entire key to the game from the hero perspective was to get as many endurance potions as possible to create hideously long chains of actions. Who is going to turn down a time walk (a magic card for those in the know) that you can buy over and over. How did the designers miss this? Pages and pages of errata followed along with seemingly endless expansions with pages more of errata. My fun dungeon crawl really sucked. I refused to acknowledge this and justified how great it was by its beautiful bits and expandability.
But really, let’s be honest, the mechanics aren’t that great. And they are kind of unwieldy. The game runs long, but not because you keep encountering new stuff, and are constantly exploring. No, it runs long because of all the bits and mechanics that slow it down. I had FFG denial. They make beautiful games with lots of bits and miniatures. That is a siren’s lure that few, including myself, could avoid.
So I kept Descent and bought a few more FFG games. A pattern began to emerge. FFG games that were created by other designers or games republished with the FFG brand generally were more fun for myself and the people I played with than in house FFG games. There were far fewer rules hassles and the games ran more smoothly. War of the Ring had dense rules but nothing that was too crazy. Fury of Dracula was pretty good. Twilight Imperium sank like a stone for me as did WOW the adventure game. Starcraft seemed exciting but turned out to be generic science fiction with no real flavor of the RTS except names and flavor text.
I know that many think Corey K. is the second coming and his games can do no wrong, but they just don’t impress me. I see some clever mechanics that would make a good 90 minute game being bloated into a 3 hour bonanza of card and bits manipulation. It’s the FFG approach made real time and time again. I see their model as lots of rules for rules sake + plastic bits + more cardboard bits + cool artwork = a rich game experience.
Well I got tired of it eventually. I was tired of spending hours learning rules on the big games, only to find out there was more errata online. I got tired of playing a game whose length was measured more by pushing chits and cards than on the players actually engaging one another in the game.
And the other problem was the euro game. I agree with anyone who talks about many euro games having pasted on themes and being somewhat dry in the art department. But they had a lot of other things going for them like rules requiring little to no errata. Smooth game play. Near constant player engagement and shorter play time. These make FFG games look very bloated. I hate to compare this to Android vs Apple (I am an android phone fan who owns an Ipad), but euro games just work.
The last game I bought from Fantasy Flight Games was Mansions of Madness. I’m a Lovecraft fan and was sorely disappointed with Arkham Horror for being too much board game and not enough Lovecraft. Mansions seemed Ideal. But then the FFG syndrome crept in immediately. Errata, misprinied cards, map pictures that were inaccurate. The sealed room fiasco. Are you kidding me? Years later and FFG has the exact same problems they had with Descent. The company has become the 500 pound gorilla of the specialty board game world. This sort of problem makes evil empires like Hasbro look like saints. Hasbro is producing games that directly compete with FFG and their games are more stable and work better. What's next? Dogs and cats living together?
Meanwhile, the European designers are starting to get more theme into their games, plastic bits, and chits, but are still streamlining rules to make games accessible. Some are even creeping up into the 3 hour mark and longer. And they are enjoyable, engaging experiences.
I know that FFG has nothing to worry about in the short term. They are an established brand and have a following. They even have their supporters convinced that misprints and errata are entirely acceptable to any game. They can fix a broken game with an expansion and will be praised for it. And some of their games do come out relatively whole (I love my FFG Dungeonquest without the terrible combat rules).
However, I think in the long term this problematic. This is a niche market experiencing a bubble of sorts. There are more games coming out than ever before and people are consuming them increasingly despite a down economy. This means that people have more choices and the cream will rise to the top. A pretty box with cool bits may make you a single sale, but terrible rules and unwinnable scenarios may lose you a repeat buy. Not everyone is part of the cult of FFG. With smarter, more thematic euros, who really needs FFG?
Let me offer an alternative to the equation noted earlier. Bad rules + broken games+ cheaper components (anyone else notice this on newer games?) + redundant artwork = recycled crap.
If anyone from FFG is reading this, why can’t get your house in order? You’ve had years to do this. I don’t care if the problem is the rules writers, playtesters, computer jockeys, artists, or the kid that brings you coffee. Fix it. We all know there is human error and other publishers deal with it. Why haven’t you? Just for emphasis, THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR YEARS. Whose head is in the sand that this cannot change? Even if you are making money hand over fist, why wouldn’t you want to improve customer experience and brand loyalty?
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There is a duck in every game. You may not see it, but it's there.
I don't want to read long rule sets and never find an answer to a question, play scenarios that don't appear play tested, etc. I want a finished, streamlined product. I don't mind chrome, but that chrome had better work!
Hooray for pasted on themes!
