Game Industry = Scavenger Type

"Cisco, emptied into the aquarium, the fish all seem to float, the ex-lax lines the dog bowl, the toilet's overflowed" ~Fat Mike

Is it just me, or has a general sense of apathy for new games overcome the scene? I'm genuinely unimpressed with pretty much every new game coming out or that has recently come out. The one thing I was jazzed about was Heroquest, which is dead due to dumb asses not thinking about those pesky copyright marks on things.

It just feels like there's nothing to truly "need" to have of late. There's some stuff that screams "uh, yeah, that might be OK" but nothing like the justified uber-hype that exploded when Space Hulk was announced.

At this point, I'm more excited about playing Skyrim than anything else.

I'm much more excited about ordering a pile of expansions I've been meaning to catch up on than anything new immediately on the horizon. Wiz-War, Mage Knight, Talisman, Star Wars LCG, Firefly...probably another box of Diskwars too. Lately I've just wanted to play favorite titles and not fool with minor/questionable new stuff.

But there have been some good games lately...Theseus for example.

I'm interested in finding out what comes next for Warhammer Diskwars. Battlelore seems interesting to me but I doubt I'd get it to the table.

I'm mainly looking forward to the 3 games I've already bought but not yet received:

Plaid Hat Games' Dead of Winter
Prettiest Princess' Glamazons
Grindhouse's Incursion - kickstarter

PATHFINDER ADVENTURE CARD GAME is pretty awesome. We are totally digging that over here, but that's probably not "new" anymore.

I am also waiting for GLAMAZONS, I like everything about that game.

A few years back when the pace of games was slower and the community smaller I think it was easier for a game to separate from the pack and really capture the attention and excitement of gamers. It was easy to get caught up in this excitement because it was THE GAME everyone was talking about. And I personally find myself easily caught up in a group's excitement and find myself getting excited about a game.

Now, with so many titles coming out and such a large community with games coming out to match anyone's individual tastes, there aren't those rallying points. Or you'll have games which do generate excitement that just aren't possible to get easily for months (I.e. Robinson Crusoe). So these groups of haves and have-nots destroys any momentum gains rather than it building because by the time the have-nots have a chance to play it the haves are already onto the next game shifting excitement.

My two cents at least.

VonTush wrote: Or you'll have games which do generate excitement that just aren't possible to get easily for months (I.e. Robinson Crusoe). So these groups of haves and have-nots destroys momentum rather than it building. Then by the time the have-nots have played it the haves are already onto the next game.

I've noticed that too, and it seems to be getting worse. The first time I noticed this was probably Merchants & Marauders a couple of years ago. Those who played it loved it, but it became a short-supply item very quickly. Then it was quite some time before others got to try it. Then it went out of print again for a long time. It is obtainable now, and the buzz from everyone who played it was rock solid, but I think it took a game that could have been an evergreen perennial favorite and damaged its momentum.

Coincidentally, that was also a Z-Man title. With Robinson Crusoe, you've got people struggling to get copies and overpaying for the privilege--something I refuse to do. I know we were used to seeing huge piles of freely available Z-Man titles in years gone by, but now it seems that barely enough are printed to come close to meeting even the first wave of demand.

It's not just shortage of Z-Man titles, though. I've noticed that the Kickstarter glut has hit full force this past year. I mean, we thought it was bad before, but we're now well into a glut on the same level as the 1995-96 CCG glut. While there are some solid games getting released that way, we're also wading through a sea of games that every Tom, Dick, and Harry with an inkling of a game idea and some graphical design skills are pumping out. Attractive themes, nice art, decent production, generally cute or mildly fun games that end up being half-baked.

Amongst that din it is difficult for stand-out titles to be "found." It's also difficult to get any sort of conversation traction when it seems like one billion people are talking about one billion different games. Then you've got the winners which are in hideous short supply.

It's made 2013 a pretty bad year for me in terms of new releases. I don't really even feel like I'm going to do much in the way of a "Best of 2013" column. I may ramble for a bit with some sort of retrospective discussion, but I was not enamored with 2013 as a whole.

SCHABERNACK IN DER SCHIFFERSTADT

and

HEUGEBLÄSE IN HÖLLRIEGELSKREUTH

are my most favourite games from last year's Spiel.

The large number of releases lately (KS or otherwise) also makes it a bit exhausting to try to keep up. I could spend a couple hours a day just gleaning info on new announcements and releases but I don't want to. The whole idea of trying to keep up is off-putting; I'd rather spend my time reading about the creme de la creme, but I don't even know how to find out what that is anymore.

So I rely more on this site to give me the heads up on what's new and interesting, because there's less overload and the signal to noise ratio is better. I still browse BGG and look at the occasional new review or announcement but I just can't be arsed to get excited about whatever it is everyone else is getting excited about, because everyone else is getting excited about two dozen different things.

I'm also getting tired of with a twist designs, and that's what a lot of the new stuff is. "It's got deckbuilding with a twist." "It puts a new twist on worker placement!" I find I'm liking games more that use a mechanic like deckbuiling or worker placement as a thematic element rather than a central focus. City of Remnants comes to mind for deckbuilding, and Robinson Crusoe comes to mind for worker placement.

Really the confusion of it all, where there's a dozen new things everyday and people lining up to give positive reviews to anything and everything, has gotten me to start spending more time with the games I already have.

As far as new buzz goes? The most recent games I've been excited about and am still playing are:

• Clash of Cultures
• Robinson Crusoe
• Pax Porfiriana
• Archipelago
• City of Remnants

Other than that I've got some stuff in preorder I'm excited about (Glamazons, Dead of Winter, others) and I'm really looking forward to the new Robinson Crusoe and Clash of Cultures expansions.

jeb wrote: I am also waiting for GLAMAZONS, I like everything about that game.

When a game about putting clothes on women is the most anticipated game on people's lists, we are fucking DOOMED.

Regarding Robinson, Theseus, Pathfinder....I know my tastes vary greatly from the norm, but seriously, I'm not a fan of card games, and I've grown VERY cold on co-ops primarily because everything after Pandemic and D&D Ravenloft/Ashy/Drizzy are just poseurs. I'm utterly convinced that they represent the high-water mark on what incredible co-op game design is all about.

I just don't see any games coming down the pipe that are pretty much universally lauded as "Holy fucking shit! If I don't get that I'm going to kill myself, dig myself up out of my own grave, and kill myself again!" kind of in-demand.

I think there are a number if great releases from the past couple of months as well as coming this year. The social deduction sub-genre is really firing on all cylinders and I think the just released One Night Ultimate Werewolf may be the best of this type yet.

Other games that have occupied my mind lately:

-Myth
-Fief: France 1429
-Pax Porfiriana
-Android: Netrunner
-Two Rooms and a Boom

There's also the issue that last year was actually pretty fucking awesome in terms of really top shelf releases- Kemet, Firefly, Pathfinder, Crusoe, DOAII, and so forth. Games that quite frankly I'm still very much interested in playing over pretty much anything else new or even old for that matter. It's harder to get excited about a new title when I've got these game in my go bag pretty much all of the time and I'm always ready to get them going. Let alone that I'm still very much interested in playing X-Wing, Attack Wing, and now Diskwars- all games with limitless replay value and variety. I've barely scratched Archipelago, and I'm still working on Navajo Wars. And Cosmic. Always Cosmic.

Hell, I'm itching to get this new edition of Cave Evil to the table. I can't imagine wanting to play anything else in the pipeline more than that right now.

This is the year, I think, that I'd be totally OK if they just flipped a switch and stopped releasing games. I would be totally OK. Right now, I have pretty much all the games that I know that I want right now.

Social deduction games do seem to be booming...but they are one of my LEAST favorite kinds of games, actually.

Also, I think what is driving a lot of this "Meh" feeling for me is that over the past few years we've been fortunate to have this boon of creativity and innovation. There was a lot new things to get excited about and to experience. Now, especially with Kickstarter" a lot of stuff just feels like "Hey, I can make this game too!"

Yep. New games are a dime a dozen, and there's always a new Kickstarter starting up. The "specialness" of a new games release has been greatly diminished by Kickstarter.

Another factor we're not discussing yet is "god damn it, games are expensive".

Firefly in the same breath as DOA2 and Kemet? Fanboi is dripping off of your sleeve here, my man. I played it and thought, "Wow, Merchants of Firefly". I think Xia will stomp it into oblivion.

"Games are expensive" for the same reason divorce is expensive...it's worth it.

Michael Barnes wrote: Another factor we're not discussing yet is "god damn it, games are expensive".

I remember back in '05 or so eying this game on the shelf that I wanted Silverton. Over a few months I'd be in the game store picking up the box, looking at the box art, the info on the back, but then decide "Eh, it's too expensive" and put it back. Then I'd find myself at the game store doing the same thing a week or so later and think "But I haven't paid that much yet for a game" and put it back. After a few months of this I finally pulled the trigger and paid the MSRP of...$42.99.