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Cheapass Games On Being Cheap And Good
Thanks to GameGirlAdvance for pointing to an OgreCave.com interview with James Ernest, the founder of noted low-price, high-fun board/card game makers Cheapass Games. As the interview notes, "With a mantra of 'Games: they cost too much, and they are at some level all the same', Cheapass virtually created the cheap games market, selling the boards and cards for their games packaged in white paper bags. Shortly after taking gamers by storm with Kill Doctor Lucky, Spree, and a number of humorous titles, James and Cheapass were being imitated right and left. What did it take to get where Cheapass is now, and how does the company plan to stay on top of the cheap games heap?" The interview also notes Cheapass' diversification into videogame publishing, putting out Digital Eel's titles, including Dr Blob's Organism.
This reminds me of when Magic first appeared, before it went through its incredible poplular phase. It was cheap at $7-8 for a start box and maybe $2 for a booster pack. Cheap compared to video games (until rampant speculation made a Black Lotus a $300 card.) It was social as well, whether you were teaching someone to play or a trick you had discovered, discussing the artwork or working out a trade. And it was fun, playing with either one friend or many, or even in a tournament. It nice to see something that does not depend upon microchips being popular.
On that note, I attended one of the many Harry Potter release parties at my local Barnes & Noble on Friday. I just wanted to be able to say I had experiences the phenomenon. I sat with some friends at work and played chess for two and a half hours while everyone waited for 12 o'clock to roll around. It was great to see that many people excited about paper media. And it felt safe. There were young children running all over the place, having fun, and not worrying about being assaulted. It was very nice. Try not to be jaded about this, people. Rowlands was interviewed last week, and reguardless of the money, she truly loves what she is doing.
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
One point to note is that the price of the games does NOT reflect the level of fun youll have. I have spent more time playing Change! in the car with friends on road trips than I will ever spend playing most other games. The higher priced games generally are distinguished by having multi-colored cards with real artwork. If youre a real Cheapass you can get a dozen games for less than $50, including Chief Herman's Holiday Fun Pack which is actually about 30 different games, ranging from using just dice to just a deck of cards to small boards and other bits.
The problem with Cheapass games is that.. well.. they're rather cheapass. They're really just not that good as games.
Most cheapass games are strong on the humour and theme department, but somewhat weak on the actual gameplay. They're typically a fair amount of fun for two or three plays, but after that they get dull and are no longer interesting to play. They often suffer from poor balancing issues and players may not have any chance to win or have much effect on the game. Some of them, despite these flaws, are certainly worth playing, but I cringe at the thought of buying a cheapass game without playing it first, as I'll probably just end up throwing it out or giving it away.
The contention that these games are just as good as full production games like Medina or LÃwenhurz and so on is wrongheaded to say the least.
-josh