What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

black inferno wrote: As much as I'm grateful that a robust and diverse online community has developed around the hobby, back then there was an element of wilderness and mystery to learning about these strange games from overseas.

Yeah, this. One could argue that the internet has erased the mystery from a lot of domains, and as such is an extension of the project of "legibility," or making the world governable through imposing order, ostensibly in the service of the citizenry.

The Authoritarian High-Modernist Recipe for Failure <--great stuff.

But we crave mystery and discovery. I just saw an interesting but uneven documentary called "The Institute" about an alternate reality game whose appeal was the injection of mystery back into modern life.

So anyway, governments impose order on the citizenry--

The more I examined these efforts at sedentarization, the more I came to see them as a state’s attempt to make a society legible, to arrange the population in ways that simplified the classic state functions of taxation, conscription, and prevention of rebellion.

In other words, government is playing a resource management game and we are pawns.

But in regards to BGG--like the aforementioned governments, it took something unorganized and somewhat organic and imposed a database over it, and created a virtual economy, making everything consistent but at the same time either reflecting or imposing (not sure) a culture of systemic orderliness, hence the toxic fear of randomness--an element that sits in opposition to the legibility of a database. The place is also like catnip for those who like to inhabit databases (among whom I count myself, when I'm being honest).

"One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship."
George Orwell


F:AT is like an attempt at revolution, that, like all revolutions, slowly creeps towards conformity and unintentional control, at least until we sacrifice the new king.

In this decayed hole among the mountains 385
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel
There is the empty chapel, only the wind’s home.
It has no windows, and the door swings,
Dry bones can harm no one. 390
Only a *** stood on the roof-tree
Co co rico co co rico
In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust
Bringing rain
Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves 395
Waited for rain, while the black clouds
Gathered far distant, over Himavant.
The jungle crouched, humped in silence.
Then spoke the thunder

--T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

Everyone wants to go home to the forgotten country, the games of our wasted youth, or that moment when you entered the hobby and everything was possible.

It's like 12:22 a.m. over here. I'll stop now and give you all a chance to pull on some hip waders.

Fantastic post, craniac, and interesting article. I did a little fist-pump when the author invoked Jane Jacobs (one of my personal heroes).

craniac wrote: Everyone wants to go home to the forgotten country, the games of our wasted youth, or that moment when you entered the hobby and everything was possible.

Beautiful.

I'm confused at this point. Are ya'll claiming people who haven't been in the hobby since 90's are inferior gamers or just people who prefer FFG games over Lost Cities? Please clarify.

black inferno wrote: Yeah. I mean, I remember when pretty much the sum total of online board game discourse (rec.games.board notwithstanding) was user reviews at Funagain.

Game Cabinet was even earlier! Other than Settlers and Quandary (my first Knizia!), Game Cabinet was where I first started reading about these crazy German games...which I think I was turned onto by reading an interview with some indie game designer Alan Moon, who talked up how he was trying to design in a German style. So then I decided I needed to learn German so I could find out more about these things, if they were anywhere near as good as Settlers!

I've been playing Rogue Agent of late. Got a review copy a while back and shelved it while I worked on the transition to the new site. Played several games now and I really don't see how people can give it even a mediocre review. I think they wanted Blade Runner and got something that had the same feel, but in a truncated manner. Same thing happened with Android, but I think it was closer, while not being as good a "game" because of the burdensome rules.

The Android/Human version of the game is definitely the way to go. I really like it, but I have to admit, the rules left me scratching my head at first. It's a game you have to play through once to really understand...just reading the rules isn't enough. Opinion's not formed fully at this point and I want to use the new module before I really form it.

SuperflyTNT wrote: I've been playing Rogue Agent of late. Got a review copy a while back and shelved it while I worked on the transition to the new site. Played several games now and I really don't see how people can give it even a mediocre review. I think they wanted Blade Runner and got something that had the same feel, but in a truncated manner. Same thing happened with Android, but I think it was closer, while not being as good a "game" because of the burdensome rules.

The Android/Human version of the game is definitely the way to go. I really like it, but I have to admit, the rules left me scratching my head at first. It's a game you have to play through once to really understand...just reading the rules isn't enough. Opinion's not formed fully at this point and I want to use the new module before I really form it.

Are the people you playing it with letting their inner assholes out? It's best when everyone is trying to dick each other over, setup bombs to go off on their informants, stealing Criminals, funneling assassins through to block off pathways, etc. It can be downright nasty with the right people.

Are the people you playing it with letting their inner assholes out?

Yuck, sounds like rectal prolapse!

Charlie's just trying to communicate in words Pete will understand..."dick", "nasty", "asshole", "funneling"...

scissors wrote: Yuck, sounds like rectal prolapse!

Charles' rosebudding fetish confirmed?

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Maybe one's preferences are colored by what they started out with? Or is that taking a too simplistic view? I was introduced to board games around 2005-2006 with Arkham Horror. My first game group was heavily into AT-style games with direct conflict, which is what we mostly played. We tried playing Settlers once, and I thought it was completely boring. I know a single play isn't the best circumstance to judge a game, but there were plenty of other games that I would rather play than spending more time trying to 'get' Settlers.

I fully admit I find many Euros pretty boring; maybe I just have a latent agrarian hostility. Although I do really really enjoy Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride, so who knows?

Also, I didn't discover BGG until 2010.

Yah Catan Sucks!!!

You know what doesn't suck though?

STAR TREK CATAN!!!

Which is what we played last night.

I didn't find my gaming tastes unduly influenced by what reintroduced me to the hobby. It was mostly Euros. Some older Pre-Beige era Euros which I found interesting. Things like Ra and Power Grid and Tikal. I still enjoy those but my most favorite games are not of that genre.

PS: Catan does not suck. That was typed for shock value.