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It's just that most board games are pretty dumbed down. You also cant get the real good board games/ Card games at most stores you have to go to specialty geky places to get them.

Car Wars, is an awesome board game. settlers of Catan, Carcassone, Munchkin (Yes it's a board game now) etc....

I have personally corrupted many a youth with The above games. The thing is, you NEED 4 or more players that will be very vocal for them to be fun. With Settlers I try to encourage collusion and to try to bend the rules trading, Munchkin the same..

That's about the real problem - non-mass-market board games tend to be only available at either game stores, or online. These days, online is your best bet - the game store I frequent is quite popular as it's one of the few online for Canada (Craving for a Game) - especially since it's one of the few on the West Coast.

In the US, Amazon.com tends to have the games, and if not, eBay and the like. BoardGameGeek tends to have links to eBay searches that have those games. However, nothing online can really replace (I found) the B&M store. Craving for a Game is near me, so I visit it often enough that the proprietor knows me and what I like, so I have a personal recommendation engine (and he has game rentals plus in-store trials, so you can see if a game is to your liking, or wait for game night and play against others - he supplies the games (or you can too), and everyone comes and plays.

Also, if you're in the high-tech field, it's a good way to spend a lunch hour "offline" and away from the screen - depending on the size of your company, you can easily get the requisite 4+ people (at one point we often had to have two games going). The only downside is this eliminates every game that claimes to take 45 minutes or longer (we find that if a game claims 60 minutes per game, it's probably closer to 75-90).

The good news is that the bigger games (Catan, Carcassonne, etc) tend to be available at larger stores (especially large comic book/toy stores). But there are a lot of real gems that you'll only find at dedicated stores.

Our group has settled on two games consistently (but we do try others to mix it up) - The Seven Seals (aka Zing! in English, but its German/French name is Seven Seals), and Frank's Zoo (a delightfully simple game that has a good element of strategy, and is close to Big 2).

Now finally, we have the technology to experimentally verify the claims made by a certain dice manufacturer!

How would a GERMAN point of view in a war game be like.

How about Panzer General?

You might say that several all ready did offer you the option to play from the german side, but not on the box cover. Look at the art for games with two sides like the venerable Close Combat series. It is pretty clear who you are supposed to be playing. That you can also optionally play as the germans is just a small side note.

In Panzer General, the campaigns can only be played as the German side. It's only the individual scenarios that can be played as the allies. Also, there are plenty of board wargames out there where one of the players must take the German side of WWII.

Mind you, these games abstract away from the violence part, to focus on things like tactics, strategy and logistics. Which I think is one of the reasons why wargames get a pass while Call of Duty doesn't: an FPS is a game that focuses on violence, and thus, is much more vulnerable to accusations that it glorifies violence, or at the very least profits from an audience that glorifies violence. (Another reason is that wargames are strategic games that force you to think harder about the situation on the map, and by extension, the historical situation.)

They did already. From what I heard from internal sources, as much as possible of that stimulus package, goes into parties, sex, drugs, and hookers of the big bosses of all banking companies. Then into big houses and other material wealth. And so on. Unfortunately, with that much money, you can party a loooong time. So I guess it goes like the board game Go For Broke. ;)

Do you really want to go there?

Jeez. I was thinking I was going to get a treatise on Martin Wallace's masterpiece.

Pfft, Monopoly is for casual board gamers. At least get something like Puerto Rico or Agricola when we're talking about hardcore qualifications!

Owning all of these except Ticket to Ride, I suggest you don't buy Settlers. It may have started the whole thing, but it's younger siblings are simply better. Especially Puerto Rico & San Juan as they are made in a way that will ensure all people will play all the time. With Settlers, you can have extended waiting periods.

If you are going to get just two, get Carcassonne (best of the lot) and San Juan (vastly different game mechanics, uses only playing cards so it's highly portable & mobile).

But as we are talking a 13 yo, I suggest you also look at Niagara ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/13308 ) along with the expansion and Ubongo http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/16986 .
You probably want to modify the rules of Niagara to disallow stealing (try both with and without and you will know why). And you don't want to show the kid the Ubongo Extreme! variant with the hexagons any time soon.

Mentioning Cluedo, Risk & Trivial Pursuit for completeness.

Owning all of these except Ticket to Ride, I suggest you don't buy Settlers. It may have started the whole thing, but it's younger siblings are simply better. Especially Puerto Rico & San Juan as they are made in a way that will ensure all people will play all the time. With Settlers, you can have extended waiting periods.

If you are going to get just two, get Carcassonne (best of the lot) and San Juan (vastly different game mechanics, uses only playing cards so it's highly portable & mobile).

But as we are talking a 13 yo, I suggest you also look at Niagara ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/13308 ) along with the expansion and Ubongo http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/16986 .
You probably want to modify the rules of Niagara to disallow stealing (try both with and without and you will know why). And you don't want to show the kid the Ubongo Extreme! variant with the hexagons any time soon.

Mentioning Cluedo, Risk & Trivial Pursuit for completeness.

It's a truly cooperative board game (either you beat the game as a team, or you all lose), non-violent, and a lot of fun!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/30549

Really the only problem has been finding a copy, but I think the new batch is finally in stock at many stores.

Or Pandemic, which is a cooperative game.

80's music seems appropriate for a 34y/o, but I wonder if it distracts him when he's concentrating on a board game or working on his 2004 VW Golf in his Copenhagen, Denmark, garage.

The official site seems to be slashdotted, but there's plenty of info at the Board Game Geek entry for the game.

The publisher is already working that angle... http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/33810

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/13

There are quite a few board games made today that are just as complicated as any modern video game. See sites like http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ for examples.

Also, need I point out that Hasboro owns Wizards of the Coast, who are doing such things as adding online aspects to the venerable Dungeons and Dragons? It's not as if everyone at Hasboro is really old...

However, I still agree with you in principle. They should have just asked them to license it instead of litigating.

I agree they may no longer be part of the mainstream, and that may be partly due to Hasbro just marketing their "classics". However, having played countless PC and console games myself, I always find it a welcome surprise what a sheer variety of boardgames exist, either in themes, mechanics, luck vs. strategy, etc etc.

If anyone is curious, I recommend a visit to this site .

BTW, (board)gamers will always remember Habro as the corporate giant that gobbled up Avalon Hill. Fortunately, a lot of Avalon Hills former line was saved, either by being reprinted by Hasbro, or bought by other companies (such as MultiMan Publishing )

It's also a great game if you're 4 years old.

My daughter loves playing WiiPlay and Disney Princess Adventure

My wife and I play it a little, but we tend to play Raving Rabbids and Trauma Centre: New Blood. That is, when we're not playing board games.

Now here's the kicker - my mom and my mother-in-law ALSO play WiiPlay with my daughter.

I don't have another console or a faster PC because:
1. Time management. I just don't have enough time to play several consoles.
2. Cost. I'm not going to spend my way into debt just so I can play a PS3 / 360. I might get a PS2 this year.
3. I don't want to get into the "arms race" and buy new hardware every year just to keep up.

Crossbows and Catapults FTW! I loved that game! Here are some presents for you:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/images/game/30328/
http://www.boardgames.com/bacrca.html/
http://www.mooseworld.com.au/battleground/

The trick is, of course, getting to the Patent Office in time.

...that just don't happen to be video games: link.

Hi, this is a mee too post. Power Grid and Puerto Rico were a revelation to me in the sense of the surprising and positive evolution of boardgames since my childhood. I really like it when no luck is involved. Those two games, not related to war or killing anyone, are somewhat girlfriend-friendly (well, at least my wife enjoyed Puerto Rico while she's not the game type of girl at all).

I haven't tried Ra, I'll look it out at your advice. I can tell you about Iliade which is very good and has the advantage of being relatively short (a full game in much less than an hour).

have fun

If flux is your favorite game, you really need to see what else is out there. The game is so random, the decisions you make are pretty much irrelevant. The fact is a friend of mine played against his cat, and lost!

There are a ton of good boardgames out there: From Descent to Agricola, with oldies such as Carcassonne, El Grande or Tikal.

As far as videogames go, I've played pretty much every nominee, and Mario Galaxy is head over shoulders above the competition. Mass Effect did nothing KOTOR hadn't done better years ago. Better writing, better characters, better inventory system, better AI. The romance arcs were so absolutely lame they had me longing for Baldur's Gate II. Bioshock has a great story, but it's a pretty average shooter. Half of the plasmoids are pointless, and there's not much enemy variety as the game goes along. Portal is much better, but it is very short. Rock Band is better than Guitar Hero, but they did screw up with the manufacturing problems, and the lack of career online mode is disappointing.

It's Galaxy's year.

No, really. Check it out...:-)

M$'s XNA is cheap (free) and works rather well. You just have to get used to coding in C# and working with DirectX (for the XBox). The compiler is even free. Sure, it's not a complete Visual Studio, but it has a lot of the goodies.

This being slashdot, I know a lot of people shun M$ software and the XBox as well, but it is a decent platform and you can make games on the cheap. I'm actually working with a friend on a homebrew XBox 360 version of Crossbows and Catapults.

but Settlers of Satan is good, too.

Freudian slip anyone? Or did someone make an expansion or parody of Settlers of Catan set in hell?

Might make a nice counterpoint to The Settlers of Canaan (which does exist).

I know you jest, but I actually enjoy the eurogame type of board game setup. I have weekly Lord of the Rings sessions with friends, and it's great since we are competing against the game.

Settlers of Catan is also another great example of this format.

There actually is a meeting like this in the US: next week will be BoardGameGeek's BGG.CON. I'm sure the fact that it follows closely after the Essen conference is no coincidence.

I picked up Carcassonne recently, and it's extremely fun to play. My regular gaming group and I find Settlers to be a little too random for our tastes, but we definitely like Carcassonne.
I've also found that Carcassonne works well at parties as it's very quick to pick up and since the games are short, it's easy to get new people to play.

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Anyone else remember Fortress America? The scenario sounds strangely familiar... oil runs low, US deploys powersats which happen to be dual-purpose, war ensues.

Two Words: Nightmare Chess.

If you really enjoy chess, this is something you definately must check out.

Here's a link to the offline version http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/866

But http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ already exists!

Yeah, a simple destinationElement.innerHTML = "Loading..." before the call would do wonders. Some sites are nice enough to do that when employing AJAX. (BGG uses "Updating...")

That said, the biggest problem with AJAX is the same as with frames: They screw up the idea of bookmarking a page.

Oops. Try http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/134580 if you're interested.

Gentlemen, I give you World In Flames. The mega-game to end all mega-games as far as I can tell. Whip on over to here and you can purchase the 2007 Super Deluxe version for only $349 US!

Here's a guy who has his map sheets mounted on a wall with magnets glued to each of the 6,880 (!) counters. I think he just might be my hero. . . .

Knowing Sony, Grouper's probably being sued by Columbia.

I used to play a lot more video and computer games, but I've mostly given up on them. For the same money (~$50), you can buy a good board game. It's got more interaction, lower system requirements, and doesn't require a massive upgrade to use the new patch.

You're looking at the wrong kind of board games. Try looking at Board Game Geek to see about some more entertaining games. "Roll and move" games like Monopoly and Sorry are kind of low on the "fun" scale. (BGG calls the genre "Ameritrash".)

I can play a few games with my 3-year-old daughter. (Memory, Candy Land, Galloping Pigs) She can also play some video games. When she gets to be old enough, we'll let her play other games like Ticket to Ride or the Settlers of Catan.

You'll have to look into local gaming stores in your area, or perhaps trying mail-order. If you buy a copy of Puerto Rico or Ticket to Ride: Europe, I guarantee that you'll enjoy it.

Hint: more rubber bands mean more strength behind the shot! If you can't put a bruise on your brother's arm from across the basement, your artillery is under-powered.

I was going to suggest this very thing, but then there's the problem of visibility. If you only have one game available on your website, you may not even show up on Google unless someone is specifically searching for your game.

One solution to this problem, though, may be following the Cheapass rulebook to the letter. Print your own boards and rules, let people find their own pawns, etc., then sell through a site like Paizo (which just happens to be how you buy Cheapass Games now). I don't have any idea how Paizo selects which games to include on their site, or if there are any other websites that would be interested in talking with you, but I'm sure you'll be able to find something (Etsy maybe?).

One last suggestion (and it may have already been mentioned), go spend some time in the Board Game Geek forums. I know that there are a lot of budding game developers there, and there may be some much better suggestions/solutions that they know of. You might also be able to develop a starting market there.

...to ask the question would be the Board Game Designers' Forum - http://www.bgdf.com/

You're almost certainly not going to be talking to Hasbro or GW - you're going to be talking (if you're lucky!) to people like Rio Grande, Uberplay, Kosmos, Mayfair, JKLM... If those names don't mean anything to you, get yourself over to http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ and start reading :)

presumably I can't just show up at Hasbro with my jerry rigged setup and expect an enthusiastic response.

Stop being so presumptious. Write to Hasbro with a brief concept of your game and see what they say. Get the game finished and balanced first. No publisher is interested in a half designed game. But don't worry about production values. Graphic designers can be hired by the publisher. And find some other people to help playtest the game. You might want to try a few other publishers as well.

Try BoardGameGeek.

I was just about to post a "So games start with Nintendo and end with Sony or Microsoft, do they?" post myself. I've noticed the same thing in all the popular social websites; The category says "games", 90% of the forums are about video games, 5% are about RPGs, 4% are things like poker, sudoku and chess and maybe 1% might cover things like Roborally, Fluxx, Treehouse/Icehouse, Settlers of Catan or other independant non-electronic games (I hope my new Order of the Stick game is as good as it looks). I've started a heap of "Looney Labs Fans" forums on popular sites, but if I'd realised how few groups there were to discuss anything more general, I think I would have gone for "Independant Games Fans (not video games)" or similar instead.

My favorite game that depends on cooperation is I'm the Boss It still ends with one player winning but to get there they pretty much have to be able to cooperate and negotiate the best with the other players...or have insanely good luck.

Time's Up is my current favorite board game (although, I guess, it's really more of a card game). Great for large groups and lots of fun. The only real problem I have with it is that it requires an even number of people (it's teams of two). Great fun.

Yes, I have; in fact, I own a copy of it. It's a light to medium game in terms of strategy. I was intrigued by the "move backward in order to move forward" mechanic. It's a good game when you have a lot of people (will play up to 6) and don't want to spend more than an hour or so on a game. Check out http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ for more information on this game and others similar to it.

Dude... I'll play you online in the Java client. Best game ever? Hmmm... I do like it. Best new game that I have tried in a long while.

Instructions for online found here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1224164