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My euro gaming rollor coaster ride
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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Posted Fri Sep 14, 2007 8:45 pm
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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I have always liked playing games, but never the standard, traditional board games. Even as a kid I always searched for the weird or thematic games. That's why I got into SPI, Avalon Hill, and TSR. The 80s were a great time for this type of gaming. The problem? You guessed it: Players. My parents never played games and my older siblings were not interested. I "recruited" my little brothers and sisters into playing with me, and even a few friends along the way, but I was always the guy that searched out and collected the games.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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Even after getting married, I continued to collect games like these. I learned early on that my wife did not like my type of games (just like everyone else, it seemed). As my children grew, my first daughter took after me (her favorite games currently are Antiquity and Civilization), so I was starting to build up a player base. Alas, my second daughter took after my wife. My third child, a son, well, instant gamer.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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I can't remember the year, 1997 maybe, I bought Settlers of Catan. I knew nothing of the game. It was just sitting there on the shelf in a boring box. At first I thought it was just another abstract puzzle type game. It had no aliens, no elves, no armies, yet I was intrigued. On closer inspection, it seemed enticingly different. The guy at the hobby store had never even heard of it. I paid the whopping $30 dollars and knew that I would regret it. Boy was I wrong.
For the first two or three weeks we played it every night. It was insanely addictive and involving. It improved my gaming life in several ways. First of all, my wife Yvette actually played it with me, and liked it! I even got my mom and older sister, neither of whom ever played games, to play it. I still remember my sister in the middle of her first game (in which I had to force her to play), when she paused and said in a surprised voice, "This is really fun." That same event has happened I don't know how many times since.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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The next few years were spent hunting down more of these German designer games. I couldn't get enough. Then, towards the beginning of the 21st century, an amazing event occurred that would deeply impact on my life: Boardgamegeek was born. Between BGG and Funagain, I was able to research and find every game I wanted, many of them German style designs. I was in heaven. I was playing some great games that were heavy on strategy and light on bookkeeping and fiddlyness. My favorite among favorites during this period was Princes of Florence.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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Of course, I was still playing the old American designs, wargames, and RPGs, but when I played the Euro games, I could always find opponents. Then around 2004, I noticed that I was craving the old narrative and thematic designs more and more. Euros were starting to feel a bit samey.
However, I still enjoyed the interesting ways that the Euros meshed familiar mechanics to create a unique whole, until I bought Alhambra. There was no saving grace in this game for me; no unique mechanic or idea. It had all been done before in previous games, and implemented better.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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My Euro game buying took a nose dive, as well as my Euro game playing. I didn't give up even though that old been-there-done-that feeling was starting to get very annoying. I took a chance with Cleopatra. Ugh. That did it. Cleopatra is just a very simplistic set collection game with a tacked on mix of mechanics that add no real choices and that do nothing to lift this game to even mildly engaging. The palace is just an overblown place holder that is the same every game. I have now backed way off from Euros. The new releases that would have pegged my interest meter back in 2002, now barely register a blip.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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Stonehenge seems like the perfect microcosm for the overall state of Euro games today. Take some fantastic designers, give them cool bits, let them mix and mesh familiar mechanics, slap on a theme, and then publish a game. It's like talented musicians experimenting with variations on classical music themes: interesting for a while, but before long it starts to grate.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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Euro designs are pure elegance. Clean and perfect. Every perceived negative is scrutinized. Unbalance? Check. Player elimination? Check. Excessive luck? Check. Downtime, king-making, runaway leader? Check. Check. Check. It seems that the designers are so focused on eliminating every perceived negative that they handicap themselves. They make safe, sanitized games, yet they seem to be scared to take chances.
I missed the risk taking in some of the old designs. They were clunky and rough around the edges, and some ideas completely missed, but I loved the excitement of getting something really different and unique; something with character. I know that when I buy a Euro, I will be getting a fair and balanced game, but rarely do I get the thrill of discovering something new, like I did in the 80s, and like I did with Settlers. Love it or hate it, Magic Realm is Magic Realm and Awful Green Things from Outer Space is Awful Green Things from Outer Space. Nobody mistakes them for variations on a Rummy theme.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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So as not to paint all Euros with the same broad brush, I did find a handful of treasures during my Euro apathy. Not only did I find Lost Valley amazing and fun, it has become one of my very few perfect 10s. The discovery and exploration aspect is so strong it puts many of my old favorites to shame. Resource management, movement, and competition are all incredibly well integrated and seamlessly fit into the theme of a game that plays in about an hour. Great, great game.
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10.
Board Game: Manila
[Average Rating:7.05 Overall Rank:235]
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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Manila is another one that we play frequently. The risk vs. reward mechanism is outstanding. I bought this just after a string of disappointments and it was so fresh and raw that I liked it immediately.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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Antiquity. Well, what can I say about Antiquity? Maybe that it is not a true Euro, but more of a hybrid. I don't know. All I know is that it has become my favorite game. I have always loved empire/civilization games, and this one breezed past all of my favorites. It is absolutely fun and involving the entire way, and the victory conditions are integrated brilliantly.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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The innovations brought to gaming by the Euro designs have improved my gaming life immeasurably. I am grateful for the infusion of Euro-y goodness into the more thematically narrative games. It seems like all categories of games have benefited from Euro game innovations; from adventure games and dungeon crawls to old school war games and multiplayer empire games. You just have to play Twilight Imperium 3rd edition and compare it to the 2nd edition to experience the benefits gained from Euro inspired mechanisms and streamlining.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
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Although I am still experiencing a state of Euro ennui, (I have no desire to rush out and buy Thebes or Pillars like I may have done a few years back), I still find myself extremely happy with my current gaming life. The board gaming world is at a level I never dreamed possible. I can choose Euro elegance, thematic narration, playable war games, old school favorites, a plethera of gritty miniatures games, and amazing hybrids. I am excited about future games that will provide even more thematic experiences wrapped in elegant, Euro stylized game play.
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Posted Fri Sep 14, 2007 7:55 pm
Clemson
South Carolina
But because the other genres only sputter out a few games each year, they seem "fresh." Play enough of any genre and you'll be jaded, I say.
Solution: play fewer games. If we all just stuck with the, oh, hundred or so games we love best, we wouldn't encounter Alhambra and complain that it's too much like (I don't know, because I find Alhambra to be a great game).
So, I guess the choices are 1) keep plugging and play everything, lamenting how "same-y" things have become or 2) stick with Acquire and Settlers and our faves, blissfully content.
Stansbury Park
Utah
I'm interested... what do your middle child and wife do while you and the two "gamer kids" play?
My wife does the dishes and my daughter babysits. It's all good.
Bethesda
MD
I like the diversity of games you've played. But then I started wondering, what happened to your exploration of party games? I'm sure there have been times when you've thought to yourself, "I don't really care what we do, I just want to hang out and have fun with these people."
There are a million social things to do if "these people" don't happen to be gamers, but I'm glad that playing games is also an option. That's the space that party games fills for me - and I've had a tremendously fun time with it.
Stansbury Park
Utah
I like the diversity of games you've played. But then I started wondering, what happened to your exploration of party games? I'm sure there have been times when you've thought to yourself, "I don't really care what we do, I just want to hang out and have fun with these people."
There are a million social things to do if "these people" don't happen to be gamers, but I'm glad that playing games is also an option. That's the space that party games fills for me - and I've had a tremendously fun time with it.
When I am in the middle of playing a party game, I really enjoy it. However, I don't ever find myself looking forward to it. I think a lot of people are like that. When I try to explain to non-hobby gamers why I like gaming so much, they don't get it because to them, gaming is party or traditional Toys-R-Us games. Yeah, fun to play if you are talked into it...
With the games featured here on BGG, I make time to play, organize sessions, and find myself looking forward to the moment.
Bethesda
MD
With the games featured here on BGG, I make time to play, organize sessions, and find myself looking forward to the moment.
I hear you. That's how I've felt during much of my gaming life. Then, back in 1998, when I was testing a heavy Euro game with friends, I got sick of watching my non-gamer friends get nervous about making a "dumb" move. I wanted to make a game that they would look forward to playing.
That was almost ten years ago. Since then, my mission has morphed into trying to design games that both non-gamers and gamers can enjoy together. Why? I guess the reason is that all of my best friends don't seem to be gamers. I have a lot of gamer friends, but they are just that, the friends I game with. Just like I have a lot of soccer friends (the friends I play soccer with). But the people closest to me neither play sports nor games.
...but a fair amount do drink coffee and beer!