Board gaming is a versatile and educational hobby that fosters social connections and cognitive growth. It caters to a diverse audience, providing entertainment and cognitive benefits such as improved cognitive abilities. Board games can be classified into two options: acquiring games and playing games, or altering games. Risk, Monopoly, and Settlers are some examples of board games.
Board games are tabletop games that use pieces, cards, dice, or other materials. They are age-neutral yet beneficial, making them an ideal choice for those looking for a cheap game that can double as a family hobby. With an estimated billions of players worldwide, board games offer a variety of experiences, from classic card games to modern favorites.
Playing video games can also be considered a hobby, as it can be entertaining and a source of learning. Some academics, like Erica Price and Marco Arnaudo, differentiate between “hobby” board games and gamers from other board games and gamers. Thousands of board games are released yearly, with some staff favorites requiring more strategy and deeper narratives.
While most people play video games for fun, some may find gaming unhealthy due to negative repercussions. Balancing the board game hobby with other hobbies can help individuals find a balance that works best for them. As more hobbyists and modern board games become available, the hobby can spread to communities without access to a FLGS.
📹 10 Board Games That Got Us Into The Hobby
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Can anything be considered a hobby?
A hobby is an activity pursued for enjoyment without the intention of making a profit. On the other hand, businesses are operated with the intention of making a profit. Often, hobby activities turn into sources of income, but determining whether they have grown into a business can be confusing. The IRS has established factors that taxpayers must consider when determining whether their activity is a business or a hobby.
These factors include whether the taxpayer conducts the activity in a businesslike manner, invests time and effort to make it profitable, depends on income from the activity for their livelihood, has personal motives for the activity, has enough income from other sources to fund it, faces losses due to circumstances beyond their control, changes in methods of operation to improve profitability, has the necessary knowledge to carry out the activity as a successful business, has made a profit in similar activities in the past, and can expect future profits from asset appreciation.
Are board games luck or skill?
Most adults believe that winning board games like Chess, Checkers, Scrabble, Connect Four, Clue, Backgammon, and Battleship requires good decision-making. However, Cards Against Humanity, a party game where players use cards to build sentences, is more popular among younger Americans (Generation Z and Millennials) than older Americans (Gen X and Baby Boomers). Three in 10 young Americans consider Cards Against Humanity a game of luck, while two-thirds of Americans are not familiar with Settlers of Catan, a multiplayer board game. Younger Americans, who are more familiar with Settlers of Catan, categorize it as skill-based over luck-dependent. These games highlight the importance of decision-making in playing board games.
What is the oldest board game ever?
The Royal Game of Ur, the oldest complete tabletop game ever discovered, was crafted between 2600 and 2400 BCE on highly decorated boards made of wood, inlaid shell, and lapis lazuli, according to analysts.
Is board gaming an expensive hobby?
The financial commitment required for board gaming can be considerable, due to the high production costs of components sourced from a multitude of factories. This is particularly evident in the case of basic games, which can present a significant barrier to entry for many potential enthusiasts.
Is watching anime a hobby?
The author enjoys watching anime, listening to music, and traveling. They watch over ten anime shows a week, focusing on late night anime for adults. The high quality and wide range of genres make late night anime appealing. The author’s favorite works include Love Live! Series and Laid-Back Camp.
Late night anime has become accessible worldwide through satellite broadcasts, streaming services, and terrestrial broadcasting networks. They attend AnimeJapan, held annually at Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center, to gather information about upcoming anime broadcasts and attend various anime-related stage events.
Music is another hobby, with the author mainly listening to anime songs and voice actors’ songs. They have started attending AnimeJapan, one of the world’s largest anime exhibitions, and attending various anime-related stage events.
In summary, the author enjoys watching anime, listening to music, and traveling. They enjoy late night anime, J-POP, and music sung by voice actors.
Is board games a recreational activity?
The Board Games Club is a recreational activity that promotes strategic thinking and social interaction among students. It provides a platform for students to build relationships and learn new skills through board games. The club encourages students to play different games with friends and visit schools with Board Games CCA to share their knowledge and experience. The teachers-in-charge are Mdm Woo Siok Hwee, Ms Rachael Pereira, and Ms Mariam.
What are board games considered?
Board games are games that require a board and playing pieces, with dice and other accessories. They differ from tile games like dominoes or Mah-Jongg, and cribbage and other card games. The oldest board games are backgammon, checkers, and chess, which were likely played on the ground using stones, bones, or shells as pieces. These games likely imitated the everyday activities of players, such as hunters, warriors, merchants, or gamblers. This article describes the board games of backgammon, checkers, Monopoly®, and Scrabble®, while a separate article discusses chess.
What percentage of people like board games?
Board games are generally equally popular among men and women, with 74% of women and 70% of men reporting enjoyment in a survey by the Statistica Research Department. These games not only provide entertainment but also serve as a social activity, helping to form friendships and lasting bonds. Most hobbyist gamers engage in regular or irregular play sessions with friends, attending conventions, participating in local gaming groups, and teaching games, with only a small fraction playing solo.
Are board games good for mental health?
Monopoly can be a heart-racing game, but a recent study found that it can quell stress and boost serotonin, a hormone that helps against anxiety and depression. It’s time to dust off old family board games or find new ones at thrift stores, Target, or Walmart. Unplugged game nights can provide
more than just an hour of entertainment, and it’s important to enjoy the fun and take advantage of the benefits they offer. Whether you’re with family, friends, or an older family member, board games can provide a variety of entertainment options.
Does playing games count as a hobby?
This article explores the distinction between a gaming hobby and an addiction, comparing gaming to addiction and offering alternative hobbies for kids, teens, and adults. With over three billion gamers worldwide, gaming is the most popular leisure pursuit globally. The article also discusses the potential negative repercussions of gaming addiction and offers alternative hobbies for kids, teens, and adults.
What category do board games fall under?
Board games, including race games, space games, chase games, and games of displacement, have been played, traveled, and evolved in various cultures and societies throughout history. Early board games include Jiroft civilization game boards in Iran, Senet, found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt, and Hounds and Jackals, popular in Mesopotamia and the Caucasus. Backgammon originated in ancient Mesopotamia about 5, 000 years ago, while Ashtapada, chess, pachisi, and chaupar originated in India.
Go (4th century BC) and liubo (1st century BC) originated in China. Patolli, a board game, originated in Mesoamerica and was played by various pre-Columbian cultures like the Toltecs and Aztecs. The royal game of Ur was found in the royal tombs of Ur, dating back 4, 600 years ago. Important historical sites, artifacts, and documents provide insight into early board games, such as Jiroft civilization game boards in Iran, Senet, mehen, Hounds and Jackals, backgammon, Ashtapada, chess, pachisi, and chaupar, and the royal game of Ur.
📹 How New Board Games are Ruining the Board Game Hobby?
New board games. I love getting and playing new board games. However, I think it is killing the hobby for me. Well, not if I can …
as a kid we constantly played Risk and after I left home for the Navy I never played again until 2011 when I came back to the same state my mom and brother live. Every month we would get together for a family event and when my mom started getting sick I came up with the idea to play board games and we jumped into Risk Legacy and then I started to grow my collection to give more variety for our monthly family events. My mom passed away on Easter of this year and still never finished Risk Legacy however it’s my most treasured game in my collection because of all the edits we did as a family and I look forward to getting it put into a shadow box.
This was fun. I appreciate that Naveen mentioned his childhood games as THAT really was my gateway too. My Dad played a market game with us called Stock Ticker. But later Catan (lots of Catan when it was Settlers of Catan) Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride. I have NONE of these games in my collection anymore.
I had the misfortune of being friends with people who already went through their easy game phase before we met. So the first game I played outside of Monopoly/Sequence/Yahtzee was Small World. This doesn’t seem like a difficult game to me now, but at the time I would often shut down during game nights. It was a struggle to understand the very basic rules. But now I’m out here teaching Uwe and Vital games, so I really can’t complain.
Such a solid point brought up- it’s one of those games where someone suggests it and you don’t really get around to playing it yourself….unless you’re kinda thrown in to play the game hahah I think that resonates with a ton of people! loved this article; it definitely brought back a lot of memories!!
I’ve been a subscriber for a while and I just want you to know how great you two are! My wife and I play together most often and so I appreciate your format for that reason. This was a great article for us. My wife’s favorite game, I think, is Splendor. She chooses that one a lot. Our “gateway” games though were Champions of Midgard, which works for two players but is more fun with a larger group, and Ticket to Ride Europe. We love that one because we took our kids to Europe on a month-long vacation a couple of years ago, so we could talk about the places we had actually visited. We are working on learning Pandemic too, but that game is tough! You shared a bit about yourselves here, which was great. You are very personable (and attractive, which doesn’t hurt-can I say that?) and the way you treat each other has put you at the top of my favorite board game websites. There are other websites where the presenters are often contentious and seem to enjoy ridiculing each other as much as they enjoy talking about games. That gets tiresome really quickly, so I find myself gravitating to you and your natural approach. It’s great how you explain each game so well and then play it through, and then conclude with your thoughts on the design. You treat each other with kindness even as you compete and it’s clear that you really enjoy spending time together. Keep up the good work! (I do miss your mega-wall of games! It was fun to see how many we have as well – or want to get.) I hope you will continue “trapping” us with more great games for many years to come.
yep. Pandemic got me into the hobby. My wife does not accept losing well which i learned the hard way a few years ago and that killed any idea of playing games. Then a couple years ago, i picked up pandemic and the whole family loved it. Most of my collection is co-op. I love working together with people and the feeling of camaraderie you get when the group wins.
The games that were introduced to my wife and I that got me into my gaming habit were along the same lines as you two. Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Code Names, Letter Tycoon, Sequence. But the one that really set it off was was when my friends introduced to us to a six player game of Scythe! Scythe blew me away! I was so impressed by the scale (they had the extended board) and how much strategy was involved. Totally hooked. Good article, guys!
Congrats Naveen on winning a Splendor tournament! Several years ago I won the online War of the Ring tournament and it was great to have as a memory of a fun competitive event I can share with others. So many games that I have shared to introduce people to the hobby. Growing up I played RPGs (AD&D, Champions) and board games were Milton Bradley series (Axis and Allies), Avalon Hill games along with TSR (Dungeon!, Knights of Camelot) and Games Workshop (Talisman). I guess early Euros for me were Coop Lord of the Rings, Settlers, Carcassonne, and Transamerica. I taught my nephews Bang!, Werewolf, Masquerade, and The Resistance as they liked to play deduction games together in a big group. Still play TTR, 7 Wonders, Dominion, Splendor and Pandemic as they are light but fun games that everyone can quickly jump into. Appreciate you both sharing your backgrounds a bit on the hobby and how it has been a positive experience for you both. I’ve met so many great people through this hobby and continue to be amazed and the amount of games that come out each year. Thanks and keep up the great articles!
Love coops. The 99 percent of games are competitive and I always felt awkward ‘winning’,,,, in a game. Always felt everyone should win,,, or loss together. Artwork always makes me go for a game. I have games I just purchased, never played, just for the art. So theme for me is central as the Art speaks to me. Being a history nerd has seen me buy games to realise I’m never going to play these games,,, still love them and still have them to this day which is years and years after. I pull them out and just look at them,,, it’s for me an experience enjoyed.
I also got into the hobby in a big way because of MeetUp in 2015! Before that I knew I liked tabletop games and had played some popular gateway games like Catan, Ticket to Ride and Seven Wonders with my friends. But when I moved to the UK for a sabbatical and wanted to meet people, I started attending London on Board meet-ups. I remember signing up for Game of Thrones and prepping for hours beforehand so that I wouldn’t slow things down too much, and then the next day I played my first game of The Resistance: Avalon, which became a focus for my spare time to a ridiculous level. Since then, I’ve attended conventions in the UK and France, started writing my own board game blog, learned hundreds of new games, and made board gaming buddies around the world. I have a question for you two, and maybe you have already answered it in a article or comment elsewhere: how did you make the journey from hobby gamers to highly productive YouTube reviewers/previewers (in addition to your day jobs, I imagine)?
Hi there, I just recently came across your website and really enjoy the content and presentation. I also played a lot of those type of “old school” type of games as a kid, Monopoly (aka Family Fight Night), Life, Payday, Stop Thief, Risk, Battleship, etc.. What got me into the hobby was playing Pandemic and Betrayal at House on the Hill at a buddy’s house. Especially Betrayal at House on the Hill, I didn’t know board games could be like that 🙂
Like most people, I played family games as a kid. Wasn’t until my mid 20s I got back in with Munchkin, Pandemic, Smash Up, and (crazy enough) Charterstone. After that it’s been a spiral (down or up depending on who you are) of game after game after game. But definitely can’t play games my partner doesn’t like. Ugh. No Villainous, no Root, no Roll and Writes. Get me out of this house!!! lol
Oh One Night is like the Killer Game in my country only that the Killer Game doesn’t have a box and isn’t fancy well it’s something for the kids and teens to play it’s fun we only use paper to like symbolize who’s the killer the innocent the witness etc. And we use draw-lats for picking your character. Btw I’m not good with it hahaha
I was like Naveen as a little kid, my parents had a lot of the Milton Bradley games. When I got older I got introduced Settlers of Catan, Carcasonne (which is one of my all time favorites), then Dominion which really sucked me into the world of board gaming. I had no idea there were a ton of board games being published each year. Now my collection has grown to a point where I’m getting more picky on which games I buy. I start to think would this replace game X for me.
My story is pretty typical. I picked up Pandemic a couple of years ago, followed a while later by One Night Ultimate Werewolf. That got things started! We had dozens of board games as a child and I also played a lot of card games growing up (hearts, spades, spit, cribbage, pinochle). I agree with what Naveen said about “foundational childhood memories” of playing games. I’m careful not to go too fast in introducing a game with people who haven’t had those foundational experiences. How about a Friday filler playthrough of the Pompeii game with “The Friend?” : ) Also, I would be very interested in seeing a segment on what steps you took in moving from your introduction to the hobby into heavier games. (You started to talk about this at the end of the article.) Many people do articles on “gateway games,” but I haven’t seen much on this topic. Would also be open to any tips you might have regarding how to make the transition.
Loved hearing your “origin story” and congrats on 3 years of marriage! We’re also a couple in healthcare but much older than you two. My sibs always played games as kids, and I started branching off the beaten track in the late 70’s with WarpWar and Ogre, then AD&D. In college, played Cosmic Encounter (with all the supplements!) and Dune from Eon, Runequest, Traveller, The Fantasy Trip, and GURPS RPGs. After college, met my wife and played a lot of backgammon but also found a few friends for Arkham Horror and Web & Starship. We moved out west to San Diego before 2000, and we would often visit a college roommate near LAX – we’d all play Settlers of Catan and Citadels, until they moved away. We’ve played many games with our kids, but they’ve all gone to college and beyond now. I continue to buy games so I’ve got ~150 all over the house which I’d mostly just look at 🙁 . But now with COVID keeping everyone at home, I have gotten to game again with my college buddies using Tabletop Simulator – recently tried Dune Imperium and thanks to Kickstarter, we’ve also played the Tiny Epic Games, Space Race, and Rocketmen. My wife and I have played Oceans, Catan Starfarers, Alien Frontiers with the kids, and since Xmas have been doing “escape puzzles” – the series from Ravensburger where you complete the puzzle, solve the embedded brainteasers which identify specific puzzle pieces, then reassemble those pieces into a picture solution to the escape question. Lastly, I have Chronicles of Crime 1400 sitting on the shelf and looking forward to trying it with my wife after seeing your review!
Saw you two with Rahdo, really enjoyed the bit and tracked you down to this article. Neat to hear how many good memories are associated with each of the games. For me, similar to Naveen, I was fortunate enough to have been exposed to ‘traditional boardgames’ as a kid: Sorry, Aggravation, Checkers, Uno, Twixt, Chess, Scrabble, Backgammon, etc. We had a lot of family game nights and it really game me a foundational love of the hobby. Through school it was more RPGs like D&D, Star Frontiers, Top Secret, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk 2020, Rifts. We had a core group of friends who would go for exhaustive weekend sessions and it’s a time I look back on fondly. After that there was a period where I was heavy into Avalon Hill’s stuff, along with Bloodbowl and that line of Milton Bradley games like Axis&Allies, Fortress America, Shogun, etc. I was lucky enough to have room mates and coworkers who were heavy into the hobby and we really dove deep into these games for years. After a long hiatus away from the hobby, I rediscovered it while travelling for work. I’d seen that it was alive and well, with games like Catan and Agricola capturing people’s attention, but I hadn’t realized how the whole thing had exploded. Like Monique, MeetUp really got me back into playing boardgames, I was exposed to so many great people and amazing games. Stronghold, GoSu, Robinson Crusoe were some of my first purchases. I’d bring home a new game from every road trip, and it was straight down the rabbit hole after that!
Happy Anniversary & thanks for sharing your story. I love hearing the path gamers took into this hobby. I was inspired by Tom Vasel’s series to do my own reflection articles a few months ago (youtu.be/_VApxjAuEj0) & a few of your games also influenced my path, especially Splendor, 7 Wonders & Pandemic. I always look forward to your articles, keep up the great work!
I love boring covers too! I laughed when you showcased your heavy game Naveen. My son once pulled out all my games where there is a “pilgrim wearing a coffee filter around his neck “. It’s the same with Alea games. I love bling in games…but I want my Alea games to stay bland and drab. If they produced something like Eagle Gryphon Lacerta…I’d lose it 😀
It may sound somewhat atypical, but the game that really got me into the hobby (to the point I actually started buying board games myself) was Innovation, by Carl Chudyk. I doubt many people have this as their gateway game, as it has a steep learning curve and honestly, it won’t appeal to everyone. However, something clicked for me with that game. I had tried some of the popular gateway games before, like Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride (the Europe map) and Dixit, but none of those really drew me into the hobby. I suppose that Terraforming Mars comes a close second, and it was shown to me by the same person who showed me Innovation – he is a colleague of mine and very much a hardcore gamer. What I love the most about Terraforming Mars is how scientifically accurate it is, as what the cards do is something you would actually do in real life. Even the endgame conditions are based on science, as you do need 14% oxygen to breathe freely, 9% of the area to be water so that you have a water cycle or bring the temperature to +8 C to be able to go out without special gear :). I realise not everyone will catch that, but I did want to be an astronomer at some point. Terraforming Mars was also the game that introduced me to BGG’s GameNight, as I was looking for a article to show me how to play it, and by extension, it led me to your website, as Monique has guest starred on GameNight a couple of times 🙂 By the way, it may seem that I have become a heavy gamer, but Terraforming Mars is right at the end if my comfortable level as far as complexity is concerned.
For me, I was pretty obsessed with monopoly and the game of life between like ages 7-11 (not so much the game of life towards the end), and enjoyed playing whist with my family. I can now see why nobody ever wanted to play monopoly with me though 😂. Then when I was twelve, I got risk for my birthday and was like whoooaaah this is awesome, because it was my first game where I actually had to think. Then throughout the next few years I got Cluedo, Ticket to ride Europe and Catan, which are kind of the classic gateway board games I suppose. Then last summer I was visiting a friend in Sweden, and they brought me into a nerd shop to buy some anime. This shop had a whole wall of board games and instantly I was like 😍😍😍. Out of the wall I spied Scythe, which really stood out to me. Then when I returned home the first thing I did was get my hands on a copy of it. It was a bit of a jump from Catan and the like, but it was one that really opened my eyes and made me fall in love with more hardcore board games. Then I proceeded to gobble up every expansion I could find, and am still loving it. Very impressed with Stonemaier games, I have proceeded to get wingspan and it’s European expansion, then very recently Pendulum, and am loving them both! One thing on my bucket list is to find a group of friends at Uni or something that share my interest that I can play Twilight Imperium with, as my parents have unsurprisingly made it very clear that they will not sit through an 8 hour board game 😂
Man… What did I play when I was younger? Hmm… Well FYI I’m still young just turned 18 but wow I feel like all the board games I played are for old people hahahaha Well maybe I was the only one calling then boardgame but hey I won regional contests on some of them in my country. Anyway they’re : chess, scrabble, bakgamon, raiku, poker, black jack, yeah monopoly, Yu-Gi-Oh and the likes.
THE gamechanger (literally) for us was Settlers of Catan. When my gf and I moved in together (late nineties) we started with a collection of (at the time) most played mainstream games: Monopoly, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, Rummikub. Then at some point I was at a session with some colleagues to play Risk, but the host had just recently bought Settlers of Catan, but nobody had played it. So we thought we’d give it a try, plowed through the rules and played it twice, and the next day all the rest of us went to the store to buy it. The gameplay, interaction, variable gameboard, they were a huge eye-opener. We went to boardgame fairs, where you can try out games before you buy them, which is really nice. Our collection grew pretty fast, and I am still learning new mechanisms and still can’t get enough 🙂
What a brilliant article! This really has to be the very best of your articles that I’ve seen… thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining! So how did I get into board games, absolutely nobody has ever asked. Well I’m not trying to be smart or funny here, the first game I can remember playing was Snakes & Ladders (Chutes & Ladders in the US). For what seemed forever, no matter what I was doing, if someone wanted to play, I’d drop everything and toddle over to get a game of “Sakes Yadders” (I was very young and couldn’t say the name properly). Again like Naveen, the first “real” game for me was Monopoly. I liked it a lot, but I found some of the rules a bit stupid. Then we got our own copy and I read the rules, only to discover the stupid rules weren’t in the game instructions and had been added on by the owners of the copy I’d played. To this day I find it very hard to convince people a lot of the nonsense they have added to that game is not correct, but they know I’m wrong and they remember reading it in the rules “somewhere”. Cluedo (Clue to you) lifted my interest to a whole new level! A Christmas present, this one really got me hooked on board games. The fact I win the very first game I ever played of it was a big plus point. And now to embarrass myself… Berwick produced a game called Battle of Britain. Back then when I was young, I can understand why I was so drawn to it, what schoolboy didn’t want to fly a Spitfire, but today there really is no excuse! The game is awkward to play, the mechanics are nothing to write home about, and the fuel gauges were always a real torture to use.
I played more than 300 games in the past 6 or 7 years and still have not ran into a game that would turn me away from hobby if it was one of a first games I tried. there are no bad games, just good great and excellent. anyhow, first games that got me into the hobby are: dominion lords of waterdeep ticket to ride europe five tribes small world resistance avalon splendor (first game I bought) … oddly no catan 🤓
28:00 A friend show me Mysterium and some other coop games, and i was like o this can be a bring people together fun time over crush everyone, or get better. I hate to hard coop games for this reason or too luck based games i want to have good time with friends,.and difficulty as long sane is good as we all can get better together well that is the idea.. ATM my top 5 : Eldrich Horror, Spirit island, Big book of madness (no expansion ever), Mysterium, Dixit
I got into the hobby through Pandemic and all its expansions—I will definitely check out Legacy now. I really enjoy your articles since finding the website a few weeks back via Talisman Kingdom Hearts. My wife and I purchased Lisboa after perusal you two play it, and that has been an amazing experience. Thank you for your quality and family-friendly content!
I’d played other classics like Catan and Ticket to Ride, but my real excitement for the hobby came when I went to a local game shop in Vancouver that hosted a game night on Friday nights and I went alone, found some people to play a game with and the game we grabbed peaked someone else’s interest and he offered to teach it without even joining in!! So nice of him! The game was Puerto Rico. Even though I don’t play it often, I think it will always be in my collection for nostalgic reasons, because as much as I love the game, the way it came into my life, being alone and unsure at a game night, being taught by someone who didn’t mind giving up some of his time to teach it to us and that fact that I didn’t know any of the people I was playing with! The part of the game that I loved the most was the role selection and how the active player gets the extra bonus. Still one of my favourite mechanics, though not seen too often. My first heavy game that had me see the deeper end of gaming I think was Trickerion and then The Gallerist.
Similarly started with Ticket To Ride ~6 years ago and branched into 7 Wonders, Dominion, Power Grid, and Tomorrow in the earlier days. Still play Power Grid on occasion (and would play the others but haven’t gotten them back to the table in awhile). Lords of Waterdeep and Castles of Burgundy were early additions to a collection that has now grown quickly (especially over quarantine). Funnily enough I agree with Naveen on boring-looking euro game box art! I’ve never played Calimala, for instance, yet I’m drawn to it for the look of the game (and the fact it looks like an interesting play). Love your content!
Just subscribed. Liked very much this article. I started with a card game “Exploding kittens” then I got “Unstable Unicorns” and then “Jaipur” then Codenames. And Dixit which I just love. And Splendor and Azul…..etc. I just got trapped into the hobby the past March, this year. I’ve got Wingspan which I really enjoy playing it (and am very happy that it has a nice solo mode which I enjoy). Now my heaviest game is Terraforming Mars which is amazing. And as I don’t have anyone to play with I so much appreciate that this game also has a great solo mode. Now I’m Planning to get Scythe or Viticulture for my birthday next October!! Haha. Great article guys. perusal from Dublin Ireland
I played tons of games as a kid, my grandma loved Mille borne, we played poker, chess, cribbage, backgammon, spoons etc and monopoly, but my favorites were stratego and battleship. Later when I was a young adult Settlers of Catan boom happened and even though I never played that (my mom and brother did) I did play a few really lovely hobby style games including Hera and Zeus (basically stratego with powers) and some fun hobby party games like Wise and Otherwise (like detective club but with old sayings). I then stopped playing games for over a decade until I started looking for good games for my little kids and found peaceable kingdom. I never knew kids games could be so pretty and fun! I ended up stumbling on the dice tower after about 2 years of dipping my toes in the hobby and the rest is history 😁 Glad I found you website, this is a great introduction to you guys👍🏼
I’ve actually played all but one of these! 😀 BANG: Good simple fun. I don’t love the player elimination, but otherwise it’s good! KILLER BUNNIES: I remember finding it really complicated, but that was back when I knew few games. DOMINION: Still a favourite! I’d probably like it less if I had friends that played it but I don’t, so I’m obsessed. 😄 So many good expansions, especially the recent ones! MONOPOLY, SORRY, TROUBLE: Dislike them all now, but as a kid, I played them as something to do, so I’m sure they helped get me into the hobby. MUNCHKIN: Never liked this one (too much take-that), but I think I learned it too late in my board-gaming hobby. SPLENDOR: Good fun. It doesn’t get played anymore because I now have Gizmos, but it’s a good gateway. I taught it at the Norwich Games Festival and everyone loved it. (Congratulations on your championship, Naveen!) 7 WONDERS: Great, accessible card draughting game! Now I prefer Hadara, because, at you mentioned, it doesn’t work with 2 players, but 7 Wonders is still great! TICKET TO RIDE: I played Europe literally over 200 times with my housemate. Loved it. Now I’m bored with it, but I’ll play the quick ones like London or New York. SMASH-UP: I remember playing it in the peak of my Dominion craze, like you! I played it with a friend a few months ago, and we both got so bored with it that we stopped mid-game to play something else (in our hundreds of games we’d never done that). JUST DESSERTS and DOWNFALL OF POMPEII: Never played!
My top 3: Drakborgen – Swedish rogue like crazy difficult and unforgiving game where you pick a character to enter a dungeon, draw random room tiles, have random events and everyone is trying to get to the center of the castle to the treasure chamber and then get back out of the castle with as much treasure as possible before night. Swedish classic game. Truly got me into the whole boardgaming thing Arkham Horror – Played it to pieces. Over and over and over and over. Game that anyone could be taught and with difficult sessions almost every time Runebound 2nd edition – still one of the best boardgames I’ve played. Only that it might drag on a bit too much
I’m on a bingewatch, what a lovely website! My story – aside from popular childhood games (and a super vintage, romanian version of Monopoly that was the light of my life and where my sister and I added our own invented stuff) I was thinking sometimes that ‘man, those games could be made better’ and having ideas hahah. But didn’t really know about ‘modern boardgames’. On New Year’s Eve 2011-2012 my cousin introduced me to Catan. I had a lot of fun! But then I went on this store’s website, dedicated to boardgames and………………… I almost cried, it was one of the most truly dream-level jaw-dropping euphoria-inducing adventure-awakening this-isn’t-real moments of my life :)) when I saw aaaaaaaaaall of those games that I had no idea even existed!!!!! This whole WORLD! Crazy! I still remember the few that caught my attention the most and that I was drooling over: Mystery express (the whole detective thing was killin me, no pun intended), Pirate’s Cove, Shadows over Camelot and Mansions of Madness. I somehow, to this day, didn’t get to play any of them :)) Then I went to this boardgames event (it was held weekly at this restaurant and you’d come in and play with strangers – or friends, sure :)) – and there were people teaching you the games too) We played Carcassonne… I was truly obsessed afterwards, couldn’t take it out of my head, I was in love with the whole map-making, creating something together, different everytime! The artwork was so nice too and the medieval theme spoke to me.
Just curious, so how many board games have you played to this point now? I got into the hobby about 2016ish (in my early 40s). I played board games growing up, but I didn’t realize I was “in the hobby” until about 2016ish and it was Splendor that broadened my interest:) Now, I have probably played over 500+ board games since 2016 🙂 Btw, I would love to see you guys in the Dice Tower network – ya’ll remind me of Randy and Ellen Kirby;)
I’m an “older” guy, but I remember as a teenager in the (GULP) 1960’s. . .During summer vacation my friends and I would start playing baseball in the morning until it got too hot in the afternoon. Then we’d go inside and break out the boardgames. . .Our two favorites back then were Risk and Stratego. . .We played those all the time. Wish I still had those originals we played with because each of those games had wooden pieces instead of plastic. Really enjoy perusal you guys. . .Makes me wish we had the games of today back in those days!
Azul was my gateway game. My wife, who hates games entertained me and we went to our lgs during open game day. I watched a playthrough the night before, and loved how quick it was to set up and play. So much so that we bought a copy that day, and from time to time she would ask to play it. Then pandemic, ticket to ride, and boop entered the collection. Wingspan is one wish I got the table more, but my favorite game has to be marvel Champions. I got it as a gift and bought every expansion there is.
Great top 10!! I also love Downfall of Pompeii. I think it’s kind of similar to Survive: Escape from Atlantis! a 1982 classic, but this one is more luck dependant and it has too much playtime for my taste. Pompeii it has a nice balance of luck and strategy. Keep the good content! Greetings from Chile
My family played a lot of games growing up, so I don’t think I really have traditional gateway game. I remember playing a lot of Scotland Yard, Axis & Allies, Fortress America, Stratego, and chess. As I got into high school and college more German games started being brought over from Mayfair, Rio Grande, and Z-Man and I recall that being an eye opening experience. Settlers of Catan was a big one, but I think when I played Tigris & Euphrates, El Grande, and Lord of The Rings (the cooperative game) is when it really clicked. I was still a bit young to call it a hobby, but it definitely built the foundation for when I got older and became more financially independent.
Villages by Fridgecrisis Games Pandemic (base game as well) The Gnomes of Zavandor Those are the three that got me back into the hobby. Like your husband, I too grew up on similar games. Stopped playing all three but will play Pandemic whenever we realize we still have it lol. Now our collection like most has grown big and we have our own library of games. Roll N writes tend to be a favorite genre of games for my wife. Point Salad is a fun one to play. For a simple game Point Salad allows to score pretty big.
Settlers was technically my 1st, but it only made me want to play Settlers. Then, friends persuaded me to play and we played Ticket to Ride. Didn’t like. It was really Elder Sign that got me into the hobby – blew my mind. Other early games were Pandemic (loved it), Splendor (loved it), Betrayal at the House in the Hill (liked it), Fairytale Gloom (first game I owned)…. only one I’d actually still want to play is Pandemic, but I did appreciate all those. I recently introduced a friend to gaming with Santorini, Cat Lady, Wingspan, and On Tour.
For me it was Zombies!!! 2nd edition, that was the game that made me see that there was other games than oldies like Monopoly etc. Loved the horror and zombie theme. After that i bought Last Night on Earth, still one of my favorites.. Then it just escalated, found games like Arham Horror, Mansion of Madness etc, but also found other games without horror theme like Ticket to Ride, Five Tribes etc.. Now i own like 150 board games, but it all started with Zombies!!!
Really liked this article, it’s important now and then to be personal and share our journeys. Thanks. (My gateways? I don’t know. I had Village, Dominion and Eclipse on the shelf for years, without anyone to play with. Okay, maybe it was Camel Cup, Ticket to Ride Europe and 7 Wonders…, I guess. And Splendor, of course. And Dominion.)
I have really been enjoying your articles. Great topic here. Played games as a kid similar to Naveed. Then when my girls got older I started getting games to play every year at the holidays. We would play these games all year. First one was Talisman and man did we play that one to death. Then was some Zombie survival game from flying frog (can’t remember the name). Then I found Pandemic while searching for games to play, and I was blown away. Never did I realize how amazing games could be. It opened a whole new world for me.
I played games constantly as a kid, my faves were Mouse Trap, then Monopoly, then Risk…. In college, I always struggled to get people to play Trivial Pursuit or Pictionary, yet they always loved them when I got them to the table! Then years later, I found myself randomly at Gencon four or five years ago and discovered Alchemists. Now, I’m obsessed with games all over again. And have been rebuilding my collection with Evolution, Cytosis, Camel Up and many others. I found your articles on the Lacerda series and have fallen in love with CO2 and Kanban! Many thanks!!!!
That was a fun article, thanks for sharing! I started my deep dive after I was invited to play a 6 player game of Arkham Horror (2nd Ed.) WITH two expansions. I was so taken aback that this kind of game could even exist, it was magical. It took almost 4 hours to finish the game in a loss. But I was hooked from there. I still own a modest copy of AH2E, but more to help me remember that great night and how it all started. I do bring it out on Halloween as a tradition.
GOA is AWESOME. Definitely one of the games that sucked me in. I will say I’m a hardcore Euro board gamer and I’ll say for me I have many honorable mentions (Cosmic Encounter, Junta, Talisman), but the number one game that I still love and still play after many years it Tikal. It’s beautiful and the mechanics are great. It’s my wife’s favorite as well. Do yourselves a favor and look it up. From there I learned about my other favorite Powergrid. Great job, love the website and hope to meet you @ the Gateway Cons when we can get back to them again someday.
This is a great article! It makes me recall back all the memories on how me and my partner get into the hobby. All the great memories, great people and great (and not so great) games I played. I did play quite some party games for some business gathering ice breaker like resistance, 6 nimmt and exploding kitten before I really got hook in the hobby. The game the got me interested was Splendor, which me and my partner played at my friend’s house where we even hide our chips from each other (until we realise we can’t do that in the rules after few days). Then me and my partner were in charge of purchasing board games for the business event group, and there’s where we are really impressed on what this hobby is all about. Ticket to Ride, Pandemic and Citadel: the Dark city were also the first few games that keep on surprised us on how each games are totally different from each other. Nice article! It makes me feel nostalgic and remember the passion on how me and my partner got into the hobby. Support you guys for more articles! 👍🏻👍🏻❤️❤️
great article, love the normal content, but this was a pleasant break. My first game that got me into the board game world was Pandemic. I still remember that mind blowing feeling of “holy crap this is way better than monopoly!” Also on a side note, would be really cool to see what y’all have in your collection and if anything is on the chopping block and if so why.
I started with the basic stuff has a kid… and honestly didn’t like board games. I later found out as an adult that the friends I played with actually didn’t know how to play and that is what made those games so boring. A friend then later introduced me to Dead of Winter, then Massive Darkness…. I was hooked. I love to play board games online now. You can use Tabletop Simulator from Steam to play board games with random people. I am currently in love with Disney’s Villainous.
This is a great list, it’s really cool getting to hear your story! I liked hearing about you getting mixed up when learning 7 Wonders. If my wife feels discouraged because of getting confused by a game, I try to reassure her that it’s pretty normal to get a little mixed up. I hear it gets easier to learn new games over time, but I’m still at the point where I struggle while trying to teach myself a new medium game… and I still catch myself making rule mistakes several games in. Getting games that have good solo modes for me has helped me feel more comfortable with purchasing a game that I am not so sure my wife would enjoy. That way I can rest assured that game will still get played even if my wife is less often in the mood to sit down to a board game than I am.
Just found this website. I really like the format. I have a lot of matches with games you listed. Love them at first, then traded them away or sold them (Smash Up, Splendor, Just Desserts) Games that got me into the hobby: Catan (obviously), Ticket to Ride, Chaos in the Old World, and Shogun. I checked out your previous list of articles and it looks like you are more Euro-focused, as am I. Just picked up Maracaibo and am looking forward to playing it with real people soon. Thanks for the articles!
Loved basic board games as a kid, then got into games workshop. Stopped playing for years. Started playing Risk and axis and allies in college……then introduced to catan by a friend. This started everything. Now I have way too many games. I mean way too many. The games that truly got me into moden gaming are: catan, pandemic, agricola and suburbia
Pandemic is definitely the one that kicked off my love for games, as for a while a group of college friends and I would get together once a week after we had all graduated and play board games curated by one friend who was really into them already. Ticket to Ride was another one that came from those gatherings. In terms of timing though, I can trace my “gateway” to one specific night where I played One Night Ultimate Werewolf, King of Tokyo, and Abracadawhaaat? (sp?) in the same night and immediately wanted to buy all of them, which started my desire to start a collection in general. Love your content, love hearing your stories, keep crushing it!
Hi! Thank you very much for your nice articles and specially this one. I registered some of the games you mentioned, I searched in BGG and I will buy some of them (I already bought Star Realms just right now in BGG, I’m waiting for the seller to contact me). I really needed new ideas for new games, to play with my wife. 20 years ago, we started playing board games with The Setlers of Catan and its expansions and for 6 or 7 years we played a lot more, as Puerto Rico, Carcassonne, Alhambra, Tikal, El Grande, Domaine, Risk 2210 AD, the Princes of Florence, Attika, Tigres and Euphratis, etc. Those were some of the top games in those times. Do you remember or do you know some of them? Now, this year, we came back to board games with some nice ones we did not played yet, such as Ticket to Ride Europe and Kingdomino. But I’m antecipating new games bacause I now we will need some more soon. Thanks again and I will for sure continue to watch your nice articles!
My wife bought me a bunch of classics (monopoly, sorry, risk, etc..) from Target one year for Christmas. They were totally inexpensive and still fun to play. I have about 120 games but didn’t have any of those classics you mentioned at the beginning. I think its easier to break those out sometimes as the explanation time is pretty short. Also, binge perusal your website some. The Ohanami article was what brought me to your website.
Oh I know that shucks! The Down Fall of Pompeii is something we play at a classmates house that is half American so they have this American board game collection or maybe board games that are from the US but yeah we were so into it since it’s pretty hahahaha now I’m embarrassed to say that we only played it because it’s pretty
My earliest memory playing modern board games is when, four years ago, my brother brought Above and Below to play after a family dinner. I was so intrigued by how refreshing it was! I only played it once, though, before I moved away for a while. Then, Splendor, Star Realms, and Carcassonne were big hits that I played a lot for about a year. But once I got the Agricola app, I moved onto to preferring more complex games–but I do love to bring out Splendor a few times a year, too. My friends who aren’t big into gaming love it. Dose poker chips doe!!!
From early childhood, I’ve always had a love of board games and card games. My favourites were Megiddo, Othello and Mastermind (when I played them with my young children). Then some years ago, I was introduced to Scotland Yard and Catan. That did it for me. I now have close to 100 games and due to the Pandemic, quite a few of them haven’t been played. My favourites right now are the ones with a solo variant, like Sagrada, Calico and Azul. But I also love Hive, Catan and Carcassonne.
So i played a lot of monopoly and chess growing up, but stopped monopoly when I got bored and read the rule book and realized we never played by the rules and when I inforced them no one else got it, so I will play monopoly but only if the rule book is in the box and we only apply those rules, and then no one ever asks to play it hahaha. but my first entry into modern board games was Terraforming Mars, and feel in love and now I have the board game obsession
Hey guys, don’t know if u remember me but I met you at the con at the Hilton. I didn’t know you lived in Fullerton. I live in HB. You mentioned game stores. Which ones? I go to dice house and shuffle and cut. Am I missing one? Also, you guys went to the Fullerton meetups too I think. Anyway, great job on the vids and you are good teachers thanks.
Congrats on three years of marriage! I think it’s great that you share the love of Board Gaming. I am just getting back into board gaming, since my hubby and I are home a lot more due to COVID, and we don’t want to rot our brains staring at the boob tube. We love Carcassonne, (bought the Big Box and are several expansions in). That is saying a lot since my husband doesn’t really like board games much, with a few exceptions. He especially doesn’t like the quick paced games. We enjoy games that are not a rush to play. I watched you two play Fort, and purchased it and can’t wait to play it. Also have Isle of Cats. Ticket to Ride is also on it’s way after seeing it played a few weeks ago. Bought Cloud City, but it’s too simplistic. I hope that the makers add an expansion with more complexity and more parts, (trees, fountains, perhaps…) We like PG themed games. Do you have any other recommendations for game that allow two or more players? We have played many of the classics, (Monopoly, Risk – still great games ). Thanks for your insight. I am so glad you are willing to play the games for all of us to see. It’s much to watch it played than to read instructions, and you are so thorough and articulate at explaining the rules of play! 👍😊
This is a great article and wonderful topic. Love the story of Naveen and the Splendor tournament. Also enjoyed reading the comments and seeing what games others started with. Brings back a lot of memories to see Dark Tower and some of the other games. I guess the games I associate with me getting into modern gaming are Star Wars CCG, Carcassonne, Blokus, Cityscape, Ticket to Ride, Catan, Puerto Rico, Agricola, Power Grid and Caylus.
If it’s also the shuffling aspect that bothers you in deck Building games you should try Aeon’s End, in case you haven’t already. It’s a cool and very brutal coop deck Building game where you fight off waves of monsters. It lets you get new cards without shuffling your deck, the order stays the same all along
Have you guys tired Aeon’s End yet? (I’d go straight to New Age over the base game if you haven’t) I’ve never been a huge fan of deckbuilders (I hated the shuffling) and I like coops… just like Naveen… so Aeon’s End has been a godsend for me and my girlfriend. Absolutely one of my favourite games of all time! It might be a toss up if you like it, though, Monique, just because it is quite different from traditional deckbuilders. I’d love to hear what you guys think of it – especially coming from someone who loved star/hero realms!
My fiance and I also played Pandemic incorrectly for quite a while. To beat the game, you must cure all four diseases. But the first 10 times we played we thought you had to cure all four diseases AND have 0 disease cubes on the board. Complete eradication. We “won” only 2 games out of the first 10 we played with our incorrect rules. We still play it that way sometimes if we are in for a challenge. It changes movement strategy quite a bit.
Arkham Horror. Teaming up? Travelling through portals and killing monsters? That is not what I thought boardgames were at that time, in 2016. Largely considered to be a poor design, and I agree, but I still have all the expansions and probably will never get rid of it. Or play it again 😃 Edit: Loved Pandemic Legacy 1, stoked for season 0!
Great list of games. Splendor and 7 Wonders were both huge games for our group, as well. Munchkin is another one that didn’t have quite the same impact but we enjoy it and it gets into the rotation every so often. For me the shift occurred with Lords of Waterdeep, which just completely blew my mind that board games could be just that good.
I was a lonely war gamer who got into Warhammer 40k, had no one to play with, so figured it would be easier to find skirmish games! 3 Confrontation 3rd ed armies, 6 Malifaux factions, and 4 Guild ball factions, $100’s in rulebooks, minis, accessories, I gave up. From my war gamer podcasts, knew there was more to board games than Milton Bradley, so my first games were Zombicide & Hex Hex XXL which me and my friends would play for hours! Then Wil Wheaton started TableTop… between that and Cards Against Humanity, I was a victim…
My wife and I started out with Starship Catan as our first hobby game, closely followed by Tsuro and then Forbidden Island. It was these three that sucked us into the gaming vortex, and we’ve been trapped (willingly) ever since! Thanks for sharing part of your story. It’s always fascinating to hear the wildly different influences and experiences that draw folks into gaming. Normally at this time of year, my wife and I would be making plans to head to the LAX convention next weekend. It was a nice surprise to hear your shoutout for Strategicon. The past few years we’ve been going to Gateway and Orccon every 6 months. We usually skip Gamex since I tend to buy too many new games each time we go, so we limit ourselves to once every 6 months! Who knows, maybe one of these days, we’ll run into you there. Looking forward to many more articles. Keep it up!
That was a walk down memory lane. Played games since I was a child. Played games with my kids, a lot fun nights playing Survive! and Clue Master Detective. After my kids went off to college they came home and started bringing the modern board games, like Dominion and Catan. But I really fell down the rabbit hole with Lords of Waterdeep. Glad you mentioned Meetup. It has exposed me to the depth of board gaming, and while I have loads of games, there are plenty of games I like to play but don’t want to own, and Meetup makes that possible. I recently played a COIN game called Gandhi: The Decolonization of British India and was blown away by the experience and can’t wait to play some more in that series. Have you guys tried any of the COIN games?
Wifey got me Catan mid/late 2000s (2nd edition) played loved it. Got the 1st expansions played tons, then cities expansion which made it much better for us, then bought some clearance game and hit some crappy games which lead me to BGG….. then it was over…..(wife doesnt allow me to get rid of settlers.of catan)
For me it was Catan, Pandemic, Lord of the Rings, Lords of Waterdeep, and Terra Mystica… in that order… I think. It’s funny to realize that I actually don’t really remember very well how I got into this amazing hobby. At the time it was just a shot in the dark, y’know? I loved article games. I loved playing games with my brothers and friends. Maybe there is a board game out there that is a good experience from start to finish, unlike Monopoly, Life, or Risk (games that I had played as a kid)? Just maybe? I never really thought to catalog the random 2005-2010 board game YouTube articles that got me into the hobby… because, well, I just wasn’t expecting much. Plus, I grew up playing the same games my parents and their parents played. How many new board game experiences were out there, really? By the time I was playing Waterdeep though, I had already found the Dice Tower and Pennyarcade’s SUSD, Drakkenstrike, tabletop, and others, and was head over heels into the hobby, so that part my journey is very easy to catalog.
Great article. Thanks for sharing your stories about how you get into the board gaming hobby. I have to credit my daughter for rekindling a long lost interest. She knew I had played games as a child. But as the youngest of the family, we quit playing when I started getting competitive 🙂 She also knew that I played the Avalon Hill chits and charts type of war games in high school but quit when we all went different ways to college. A couple of years ago, she was perusal Wil Wheaton’s youtube series about gaming and talked me into Elder Sign. What she didn’t know was that I adored the Lovecraft stories. Elder Sign was a huge success and she rekindled my love of gaming.
I got into the hobby in December last year feeling nostalgic for Hero Quest. I bought descent 2nd edition and gloomhaven after some research, joined a local bird game club and my first night we played Azul summer pavilion and isle of cats and I got hooked! In the short time I’ve been playing, the heavy game that got me in was Vinhos Deluxe, that game is immense
I like N I played lots of old Milton Bradley games. My fist “hobby” game was bought at big box store. X-men Under Seidge. I bought it while in high school because I was comic nerd, got it in 1999. I played lots of Role Playing games, Vampire, D&D, Shadowrun. I didn’t really play other hobby games until Catan in college. I loved it, I still enjoy it. I never played Splendor or Dominion until much later, only a few years ago. I like Spendor. My follow up to Catan was Ticket to Ride and just snowballed from there.
this article is like looking in a mirror. I’m totally that person who gets hyped about a game after binging reviews online, then somehow talks myself into buying it. But here’s the kicker – I’m a single mom with a full-time job and other hobbies, so these games just sit there, unopened and unused. I swear I’m playing Tetris in my tiny apartment, trying to squeeze in one more game box. It’s like I’m hoarding dreams of epic game nights that never happen. The potential for fun and making memories is there, I just can’t seem to make it a reality. Anyone else feel like they need a strategy to break this cycle? This article is somewhat of a relief, knowing that the struggle is shared. It’s comforting to see I’m not alone in this.
New Board Games are not ruining your Board Game Hobby. Mindless consumerism is ruining your decision making. I’m content with the 20-something board games we have, and happy to play them. We get 1 or 2 new ones a year on special occasions, if the stars and reviews align. What you describe is a consumerist addiction, that can be fixed by a little bit of self discipline.
We are living in the golden age of boardgaming. We are spoilt for choice but the problem is also we are getting BGs with sub-par design that is probably flashly, bloated with content etc. Not to forget that we have lots of influencers who are pushing games to the community without providing honest opinions.
I stepped completely out of the hobby of being a “board gamer”. The industry, the hype, the influencers and shills, the never ending trickle of “this new game I got” at games nights, where somebody will invariably mention another game they have “backed/ordered” before the first few rounds of this new one is even over. I stepped out of the machine. I feel so free. I now play the games I did back before being a “board gamer” was ever a thing.
One of my favorite gaming experiences was playing “Dice Masters” every weekend for five to seven hours with a friend. Repeated plays of a game (particularly one you like) is the best way to best know and enjoy the game. Sadly, most people just want to keep trying something different. Different is okay from time to time, but that which is tried and true is more preferable IMO. It also cuts down on play time, as well as having to teach rules for every game played.
I was close to owning 200 games. then I trimm that to less than a 100 and still going lower. the thing is, we are buying a feeling how we expect to feel in this imaginative situation of playing a game. it never happens as we just keep on buying that feeling rather than paying games. and games these days are poorly designed compared to those released 5,10 years ago.
This isn’t a board game issue. It’s an idol issue; this thing will save me, but it doesn’t… Some people are addicted to board games, some to clothes, some to food, some to working out, some to work. But nothing saves and delivers on the promises ‘cept faith, but that’s a whole journey unto itself. Boardgaming can be some people’s crack, and it sort of is to me, but I also keep it in perspective and boundaries and take breaks – no consumer debt. As to promises of fun unfulfilled… Do people not go to local gaming events and build new friendships through the hobby? Do people not evangelize to friends by just giving non gamer friends old games that are a good fit but haven’t been tried by thay friend yet?
That’s why I never have more then 10 games in my collection. For a new game to enter, it must compete for my precious time with the ones I already have. For a new game to enter, it must kick one I already have out, and for that, it must offer something different that none of the others have, and actually make me want to play it over then sometimes.
I genuinely believe I like learning games more than mastering them. I am super interested in new designs and to see what’s in new in a newly released board game. The potential for innovation is great and sometimes new games surprise me with their cleverness. So yeah…for me board gaming IS about dipping into games and moving on. I just need to he honest about. Every 20-30 games I play I do strike gold and meet the game I want to play many many times more. So I know I am capable of loving a game deeply but it takes a lot. Maybe because I have seen so many games my bar for enjoyment has been raised? It’s just rare for me to feel like I want to dedicate my time to exploring a game instead of checking out a new one. The most recent game that had me stay and explore was Slay the Spire but the 10 games I played before it came and went.
I’ve gone through the same thinking process and I love the tips. Here’s some things I’ve been doing recently: 1. Look closely to the people you play often with and learn which mechanics, complexity/weight, themes they enjoy the most. Once you understand it, stop buying games you know (and I know that you know) they won’t play or enjoy. It’s okay to have 1 or 2 to try to explore new things but you don’t need 10 games you’ll never be able to play. 2. Play each game in your collection at least 3-4 times to make a decision whether you like it or not and before looking for new ones. I remember that the first time I played Red Rising, I found it “ok” but after a couple games, I started understanding cards/colors synergies much better which changed how I felt about the game completely. 3. Stop buying expansions before you really exhaust the base game possibilities, unless it’s public knowledge that the expansion makes the base game 10x better.
I’m more of a quality-over-quantity enjoyer. I try to get the best game in the particular niche or theme and pass on all the games that are “just ok”. How I know that the games are the best or just ok? – I usually check if anybody in our playgroup (~50 people) has the game or join online discord group for the game and play the game on Tabletop Simulator once or twice to get a feel for it, or watch somebody play the game online – only if it passed my test I add it to the list of games to play/get – and I only buy it if it was an excellent game or there is some cheap option that popped up and nobody in our group had the game. Then every time the game is played I add some bling to it – paint minis, 3d print some pieces, buy expansion or Etsy add-on. We play a game every ~4 days and on average we play 30 games per year, so every game gets played 3-4 times (not every game is played every year). Haven’t been excited about any game for a couple of years though, they all feel and play samey or not my cup of tea. Only waiting for the Iron Forest as I don’t yet have any dexterity board games yet.
When we moved house I sold a lot of the games I had. Never really missed them. Sometimes I see this awesome new game on BGG or a crowdfunding site. It gets me going but I tell myself, ‘I’ll check it out later!’ Then, a week or two later the game passes by again and I think, ‘Seems familiar, I saw this earlier.’ But there’s none of the buying anxiety. Counter your impulses!