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Board Games Click With Adults
Thanks to the Washington Post for their article discussing the rise of sophisticated, adult-aimed board games. According to the piece, "sales of non-electronic specialty games... have nearly quadrupled since 1995, [and] one of the fastest-growing areas, industry experts say, is the adult strategy game." But although "the specialty market is still dwarfed by mass-marketed games", excluding a few break-out specialty titles like Settlers Of Catan, the article claims that "board-game sales have always increased during economic slumps", and, "in a sign of just how hungry people are for smarter board games, adult-education programs in Fairfax and Arlington now offer classes that introduce strategy-oriented [boardgame] titles."
Then again, maybe I'm out of the loop; I don't know anyone who's an avid (or even casual) board-gamer.
DecafJedi
my weblog: apropos of something
"Settlers of Catan" sounds like a typo for a game about pioneers in Hell.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
It should also be mentioned that board games are definitely more portable than a game console/PC. I've known a couple of people who stopped going to LAN parties simply because they were sick of dragging out 10kg worth of equipment to the four corners of the earth. And, although the difference is less prominent, a Diplomacy game box is a lot easier to carry than a PS2, four controllers, a Multi-Tap, and your copy of TimeSplitters 2.
Thus, board gaming also appeals to computer players who need their social and competitive fixes but are sick of lugging around so much equipment.
"Max, come over here. French-Canadian bean soup. I want to pay. Let them leave me alone." - Dutch Schultz
When you're young, you play Chutes and Ladders and Hi-ho-cherry-o
When you're older, you play them too. Many games are fun for couples, and nothing's better than Jenga+drunks
Hence they buy a board game instead of reading. I suspect that we will continue to see a strong correlation between the increase in tech jobs (and tech education) and board game sales.
Talisman
Settlers of Catan is very good game to be honest, it also can be expanded in several ways..many a friend of mine are addicted to it.
Some games will be sold forever, I mean there is nothing like a good game of Monopoly or Risk...at least you can throw the board up when you really are a bad looser!
It's always funny until someone gets hurt. Then it's just hilarious. -B.Hicks-
As a person with ADHD (woohoo!), I highly recommend going beyond just strategy games into pen & paper RPGs with or without tabeltop miniatures.
The more work that you put into role-playing, the more you have to read. (For gaming alone, I end up reading history, economics, law, & political science.) You also interact with others and get your creative juices flowing.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
I've sait it before, but it's so relevant to this article I gotta say it again.
In Germany, and other parts of Europe, they make board games very unlike we do in America. We have things like Monopoly or Sorry, where the winner is determined mostly by luck. Over there, they have games where luck is a small or non-existant factor. This is why those games are awesome. Me and my friends have been playing German board games for like 2 or 3 years now. Puerto Rico and El Grande are our favorites. Settlers is just the gateway game, so if you like that then come on in. I hope one day these good games will be on the shelf next to Monopoly, rather than in the specialty shop only.
Head to http://www.boardgamegeek.com to see what I mean.
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The benefit of board games is that you can play them with friends and family and they are relatively easy to learn. After a round or two you normally know the rules and develop basic strategies. And you have an excellent opportunity to communicate and create a sense of community. Compare this to a networked FPS: the rules are simple enough, but a new player will die faster than you can say "frag" causing massive demotivation.
:) Go wild. With Settlers of Catan, give your cards away for free (to anyone, of course). With Monopoly, try to go bankrupt as fast as possible. Bring in some humor.
;)
Of course adults need more elaborate games than children. Just rolling a die gets boring quickly, so a good games challenges you mentally (or lets you challenge the other players).
If you lose all the time, try a different style of play: try to lose from the beginning, announce it, and act accordingly
I've noticed that you will win, despite your best effords to lose. Oh, and don't overdo it. One or two rounds are fun, after that it wears off and becomes tiresome, ultimately annoying everyone else
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
I've been enjoying some of the cheap-ass games for a while. Their games are very bare-bones in their delivery, but some are pleanty involved. The less involved ones are just plain fun as well though because the game premises are so offbeat (Please pass the brain)
CheapAssGames --No it's NOT a p0rn site.
Paul Lenhart writes words!
A big problem with getting into these specialty board games is the cost of entry. Reviews help, but it's hard to really know if you're going to like a game until you buy it and try it out. You can get more bang for your buck by getting a game system, which allows you to play many games. One of my favorites is Icehouse, which enables you to play hundreds of games of different genres. Geeks love Zendo, an inductive logic game you can play with an Icehouse set.
Another option is Cheapass Games, a company specializing in selling games you can play using equipment you probably already have (dice, tokens, cards).
I've also heard good things about Piecepack games. Piecepack is a public domain gaming system, so you can buy a set from several different manufacturers or make your own.
This is something I've noticed from several of the articles here on /.: We seem to be carrying around two definitions of the word "Adult". On one hand, you have the "mature, sophisticated, intellectual" definition, and on the other, you have the "porn, alcohol, and other age-restricted materials" definition.
/., and we're supposed to be the intellectual crowd.
Tragic though it may be, it seems that the latter definition is the more common one, even here on
Enough maudlin, back to games.
On the American side of things, there's Cheapass games, Looney Labs, Out of the Box publishing, and for you linux/opensource/get-it-for-free-fans, Piecepack.
On the German side of the coin, you've got a bit of a quandry. Most German game manufacturers are GmbH, which is an abbreviation for something or another, but basically boils down to the fact that the company isn't allowed to export their products themselves. So, in order for German games to reach other shores, they must go through other companies. Among them, Mayfair Games, importers of the Catan series (pronounced cuh-tahn'), Rio Grande Games (Bohnanza is a good gateway game, while Peurto Rico and TransAmerica have been getting good attention from less casual gamers.), and on some occasions, Fantasy Flight Games, current makers of most Lord of the Rings board games.
For actually buying the games, I would suggest Funagain or Boulder Games.
Enjoy.
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How much more sophisticated can "Bottoms Up" be? :P
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
I think the return on investment I've gotten for Settles of Catan far exceedes just about every thing else except a deck of cards. There are a number of expansions available that don't get as much play, but are still pretty good.
Use top seller lists. Like the top sellers at FunAgainGames. I own nine of the ten listed there today, and they are indeed some of the best.
Bohnanza is an amazing game. I've never met anyone who didn't enjoy playing it, and yet it's still a highly strategic game.
Promote civility: mod down any post starting with 'ummm'.
One of the best boardgames ever produced, was the Games Workshop Masterpece "Talisman". It was pricy, even when it was plentiful, $50 for the base set and like another $30 for each of the 3 expansions, but I am yet to meet a person that has played it and not loved it. It's a simple fantasy boardgame that even non-gamers can understand and enjoy, but there is enough depth to it that there are a lot of subtle strategies that keep the game from being completely random.
Complete sets of this game used to go for as much as $1400 on e-bay for 2nd edition, and about $1000 for the 3rd edition (I have the 3rd edition myself) It's sort of back in print right now, and worth grabbing if you can find it. i haven't checked lately but i would guess that the reprint has lowered the cost of the 3rd edition significantly. Word of warning though, the game without the expansions (you really need at least 2 of them) isn't half as interesting.
Some other great board/card games: Zombies!!!, Frag, Munchkin, and Chez Geek the last 3 are all published by steve jackson games.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
"Hey Dear, now that we've got our attention spans back, we're having the Johnsons over to read 'Life of Pi'."
Board games are a popular party activity where I live - I can't imagine a situation where they would be a substitute for reading.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Complicated strategy board games are fine for the average geeks that want to get together for a night of board gaming and do not want the long hours required for Talisman, Axis&Allies, or AD&D.
There are a lot of simple generic games that are good that will appeal to the cross-gender and the non-geek adults out there. Don't just think monopoly. There are a lot of new board games that are not the norm. As well, some classics are worth looking at as your perception of the game as an adult will be different then your perception of the game when you were a teen.
Games to to look at:
Cranium (Mattel's 3 million+ seller)
Apples to Apples
Wise and Otherwise
Battle of the Sexes
Old classics to relook at now that you're older:
Taboo
Pictionary
Outburst
Balderdash
20th Anniversary Trivial Pursuit Edition (More my generation of questions)
Zombies!!! by Twilight Creations is a great game that can be played through in an hour or less. There are elements of both strategy and luck, and this game has one serious "screw your friends" factor. I believe that there are also two expansions.
"All universal moral principles are idle fantasies." -The Marquis de Sade
Hmph. Journalism indeed...
I'm surprised I haven't seen someone extolling the virtues and replayability of Illuminati. My buddy introduced me to this game back in the early 90's and I've been hooked. Great fun for 3 or more players, highly addictive, great party fun and I've found the girls we hang out with get a kick out of it too (it doesn't take a lot of logic or cutthroat intuition, and there's a bit of diplomacy as well).
--trb
A college buddy introduced me to Settlers, then to Carcassone and Puerto Rico.
We've introduced probably 10 people to Carcassone (very low learning curve).
And it continues. You have someone over, say, "Want to play a board game?"
They expect Monolopy and out comes one of these great games that has a lot of the planning and strategy of a computer game but all the social interaction of a tabletop game. Of course they want to know where they can buy it (there's the rub!).
Once they realize there's a whole genre of these games, it's like you've introduced them to a new world.
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There are quite a variety of boardgames out there, and opinions are quite varied among the various boards devoted to them. The important thread for some is competition, for others it's social interaction. Personally, i find who you play with to be as or more important than what you play. YMMV. Don't be put off by the discussion of cost either, there are many good games at minimal expense with excellent replay value, such as Carcassone ($13 online). Some may consider Talisman worth tremendous sums, but that's a specific case, for sure. And not that great a game in my opinion. Also, i'd stay clear of the Steve Jackson/CCG/RPG/games workshop stuff, if looking for social/family style gaming. Here's a quick 5 picks i'd recommend: Carcassone (great for 2-5) Liars Dice El Grande Ra San Marco
zOMBIES!!! is a broken game out of the box. One that gets worse with every expansion pack. The list of problems is endless, which is unfortunate because it's a fun premise. I enjoy swapping alternate rules with people, but have yet to find a rule set that really makes for suspenseful, strategic play.
Here's some useful links:
There's not a whole lot of strategy in Monopoly. You buy when you can. If you'd like to play a similar game that has lots of strategy facets, check out Fast Food Franchise.
Don't let Parker Bros. get a monopoly on board games!
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Allow me to take a minute to pray that strategy wargames may resurface if this is true.
I sure miss Sixth Fleet, the Tank Leader series, Starfleet Battles... ah, good times, good times.
A great alternative to Monopoly is The Farming Game. It's a little depressing to play since you start out $20,000 in debt, but I guess that's realistic.
You know it's a good game when they've actually bought it in Russia to teach people about farming.
Yeah, I know the whole "Quaker Game Stolen and repackaged".
The strategy in Monopoly revolves around three things:
1: Knowing what to trade, for what, and when. Which is more valuable? Would you trade New York for Park Place? It depends on how much cash your opponents have.
2: Knowing what to pass up. In some situations, Baltic/Medeterraian/The Railroads/Utilities can be a good value. Sometimes the're junk.
3: Knowing when to build. Do you hold on to your moeny or use it to build on your properties.
I enjoy picking up new games even if it's just to play them once. I'll try one every once in a while on a whim for like $16-20 and spend an evening with my friends trying it out. If four friends pitch in $4 each then it's cheaper than going to dinner or a movie, it's social, interactive, and it's an interesting diversion.
While you're at it, see if you can find a copy of Burn Rate - with a theme based on the dot-com collapse.