I have a problem. I like too many things.
My interests run the gamut from things like playing fantasy baseball to watching American Idol with my wife to developing software to painting miniatures to reading books & blogs to designing tabletop games and playing them to spending time with my family to playing the drums to chasing my 2 cats to finding a great new restaurant to eat at to whatever else excites me at the moment. I'm exhausted just thinking about it all.
Maybe you're like me. Maybe you've come to the frustrating conclusion that there are just so many things to spend your time on that you're an ideal candidate for cloning. I mean how else are you going to find the time to do all that stuff? There needs to be 5 or 6 of you.
Let's set aside one Sevy for work and business. He can develop great software and bring home the cash. Hell, you know that the rest of us clones don't want to work for the man anyway.
Clone #2 can serve as the Font of All Knowledge. His job is to voraciously read everything and soak up every worthwhile scrap of knowledge that he comes across. The group will go to him when it needs guidance and answers to difficult questions. Better get him a Kindle, because we're not gonna have enough bookshelves to store all those books he'll be reading.
Clone #3 can be the Socialite. He'll happily flit back and forth amongst family and friends, spreading love and joy, lending an ear to the troubled, offering a hand where needed, and making sure the bonds of blood and friendship remain strong.
Clone #4 can be the Uber Geek. He'll organize boardgame nights, run the local rotisserie baseball league, serve as gamemaster and secretary of the ongoing miniatures wargaming campaign, organize outings to game conventions, spend countless hours reading BoardGameGeek and The Miniatures Page, and listen to 20+ podcasts from the geek community at large.
Clone #5 will be the Artist (or artiste for you French buggers). He'll paint. He'll draw. He'll pick out cool patterns for his wife to cross-stitch. He'll select the color of frame and matte used for all the pictures the family decides to hang on the wall. He'll stroke his imaginary beard at the art show and discuss impressionism, cubism, pointillism, art-deco, and whether Frank Frazetta was a greater artist than Boris or Larry Elmore. He'll leave Frank Lloyd Wright and I.M. Pei architectural books on his coffee-table.
And on it goes.... Clones will be generated and sent off to focus on a specific area of expertise. They'll convene once a week in the great Clone Convocation, probably in my living room. Each will be required to bring a covered dish. It gets expensive feeding all those clones every week. After hours of swapping stories, they'll retire to their separate bedrooms on the 2nd Floor, for as we all know too well, my clone sleeps alone.
And maybe, just maybe, I will finally achieve peace and happiness. I will have mastered and learned everything there is to learn; at least the stuff that I give a rat's ass about. I will finally be satisfied. Until I uncover the next cool thing...
Showing posts with label viewpoint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label viewpoint. Show all posts
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Friday, September 19, 2008
Saving the World, One Toy Soldier at a Time
Time to get political, but in a gaming way.
MSN recently asked the question, "is America on the decline?" Many people are passionate in their belief that the USA is sinking quicker than the Titanic. The economy sucks. Just look at the stagnant housing market and the recent woes on Wall Street if you need proof about that. Consumerism runs rampant through our society.
We're mired in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that show no immediate signs of ending, while more and more American boys are killed and maimed each day. Diplomatically, more and more of the world hates us with each passing day.
Faith in our politicians to remedy these problems has faded to an all-time low. So what do we do about it?
Well... I'm an American. I'm also a miniature wargamer. And you can learn a lot from a miniature wargamer. Sometimes more stuff than you really care to know. Maybe, just maybe, we can learn something valuable from the way these gamers approach their hobby and use that knowledge to model changes in American culture? Hell, it's worth a shot, right?
You probably think I've been smoking crack or that I've been toking on the Wacky Weedus. Maybe you just think I'm a jackass. That's okay, but please bear with me.
It seems to me that our society is plagued by 3 evils that will eventually drive us to ruin unless eradicated. Those three bugaboos are (1) rampant consumerism, (2) an entitlement mentality, and (3) the general malaise of laziness that has crept into our culture.
Rampant consumerism revolves around our society's need to buy everything they see, whether it's really needed or not, and then throw it away in search of the next big thing to lust after. Today's American culture is burdened by the "gotta have that, and gotta have it now!" mindset. We're big-time gluttons.
Take video games as a sub-group. There's a palpable lack of innovation in the video/computer game industry. For years, vidiots have been stuck with a never ending flow of 1st-Person shooters, RPG adventure games, and interactive sports games. Not that there's anything wrong with these popular genres, but when will new ground really be broken here? The video game industry is driven by giant companies hoping that they'll produce one mega-hit out of a bunch of mostly lackluster titles and that one hit game will make them rich. If they produce a hit, they continue to make slight variations of that game formula, over and over and over again. The little software companies don't have the financial resources to develop and market their products to a large audience, and as a result, innovation on the whole suffers.
So what do video gamers do? They scarf up a butt-load of new games, churning through title after title like Pac-Man on speed. Most of them are mediocre rehashes of a few great games, and end up getting pawned back to GameStop or auctioned on eBay for pennies on the dollar. Not to mention that even the best video games don't really last. I have board games and miniatures from the 1970's that I still use today. How many video gamers can claim the same thing? Technology charges ahead, rapidly making older games extinct. It's a consumerism based industry. You gotta buy the latest & greatest games now! Once you buy into that, it's hard for addicted vidiots to jump off the merry-go-wheel.
More and more Americans have also been brainwashed to accept an Entitlement Mentality. Young people feel that society owes them a good job that pays high wages. Customers feel that no matter how unreasonable their demands are or how rudely they act, that companies simply owe them fantastic, bend-over-backwards customer service. Ultra left-wing thinkers believe that everyone should have a nice home and get free health care, even if they make zero-effort to get a job and contribute something helpful to society. People are clamoring for more and more free stuff all the time. C'mon gimme free stuff! Gimme gimme gimme! You owe us!
This mentality of entitlement fosters a delusional sense of pride in Americans. If they're entitled to good things it's only because they deserve it. Oh yes, don't you think for a minute that we don't deserve these things. By God, we're Americans. We're the greatest nation in the world. We're smarter, stronger, and richer than everyone else. We're better than everyone else. George Bush and all of our politicians believe this. They're swelling with pride. It's the kind of pride that infers we can do no wrong.
Too much pride is a dangerous thing. A self-absorbed, vain society is one that asserts how it's always right and everyone else is always wrong. And that's just ridiculous because nobody in the world is always right. We're not gods.
When I think of pride like this in terms of gaming, the great "Euro vs. Ameritrash" debate in the boardgaming world quickly comes to mind. Surf on over to the BoardGameGeek website and you will inevitably stumble upon a myriad of forum posts from Euro-gamers asserting their intellectual superiority and telling you why "their games" are so much better than the inelegant, overly time-consuming, and mindless adventure games and wargames that you play. They profess to know what true gaming genius is. If you disagree with them or criticize a Euro-game for being bland or too lightweight, they become apoplectic and spew an endless stream of venomous words.
But Euro-gamers aren't the only ones who are prideful. There's a whole contingent of Ameritrashers (those who enjoy meaty, old school, theme-rich games about war, zombies, space-men, pirates, and monsters) who can hurl insults with the best of them. In fact, the debate over at BGG has gotten so heated that a group of Ameritrash game enthusiasts, feeling unloved and jabbed in their pride-swelled egos, have formed their own website called Fortress Ameritrash. To them, it's the last bastion of sanity in a world filled with foofy Euro-snoots who don't share their impeccable taste in games.
And lastly, we come to the general malaise of laziness that pervades our culture. America didn't always act this way. We were once manufacturing giants, technological innovators, and financial gurus. American people built our country on an ethic of hard-work. We put our minds and bodies to the test and great things were accomplished.
Fast forward to today. It's sad to look at the back/bottom of so many products and see the words "Made in China" instead of "Made in the USA". We're outsourcing tons of technical jobs to India and other foreign nations. Perhaps it's because people just don't want to work as hard anymore. Why should they; they're entitled to take it easy after all. Americans just want to work hard enough to bring home a decent paycheck, and then sit back and buy more and more shiny things that provide the illusion of happiness. They can't be bothered to solve the problems of the world anymore.
Much of the gaming world has responded to our culture's overall laziness in concrete ways.
Remember back in the 80's when you played adventure games like Zork and had to figure out all the riddles yourself? Nowadays you just buy the cheat-book to your favorite video game and it tells you all the secrets you need to know. Remember when you could look at the actual source-code of games you played on your Apple II+? If you were really curious and hands-on enough, you could learn Basic programming and tweak the code to do new things. I fondly remember editing some lines in my Tuesday Night Football software so that I could play games with Dracula at QB, Frankenstein at tailback, and the Wolfman at wide-receiver instead of using the Cowboys and Steelers rosters that came with the game. I don't see too many average Joes doing those kinds of things today (most programs aren't designed to allow that sort of thing).
In the board-gaming world, the explosion of light, family-friendly Euro games is a clear indicator that the majority of people want fast-playing games where they don't have to think very hard. While Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride are both fantastic games, they're certainly not brain-burners that you immerse yourself in for 3 hours. Playing long games with fairly complex rules just takes too much effort for most folks.
So what's the solution to these cultural woes? Well, you've stayed with me for this long, so let me put it to you simply: we need to think more like veteran miniature wargamers. Seriously.
Unlike the gluttons of our society who buy up all the latest mass-market stuff only to throw it away in short order in search of something new, the veteran miniature-gamer tends to hold onto his precious toy soldiers for a long time. This isn't a quick-fix hobby. Buying miniatures in any appreciable quantity can be costly. So you need to pace yourself. You buy what you can afford and build up your minis collection slowly, over a period of years. Remember that H.G. Wells wrote his famous miniature wargaming book, Little Wars, in 1913. People have been playing with toy soldiers ever since. You don't have to buy every single available model today; they're not going to run out anytime soon!
Miniature wargamers who paint their own models become very attached to their little guys. When you spend all that time putting your own love & attention into something, you don't just toss it aside willy nilly. So while many of us will be the first to admit that mini-gamers love to amass scores of toy soldiers, they're usually treated like tiny treasures, often passed down to friends and family through generations. This isn't a chew'em up, spit 'em out glutton-fest.
By and large, I never think of miniature wargamers as being lazy. They work hard to enjoy their hobby. This form of gaming takes some effort. You've got to plan what types of armies you want to build and research the marketplace to discover what available models are out there. If you buy a batch of unpainted models, then you'll need to set aside time to assemble and paint them. Or if you're lacking free time or artistic talent, you can pay someone else to paint the soldiers for you. Or you can buy pro-painted figures at conventions or off eBay. All of this requires you to get up off your ass and do some planning, and what you ultimately decide is whether you're more comfortable spending time or money.
Mini-gamers are typically a highly creative bunch; much more so than any other type of gamer. They paint. They build things. They dabble in writing their own home-grown rules. They build fictional armies and craft background stories for fictional leaders & heroes that fight for fictional countries. They read history or fantasy/sci-fi to get cool ideas to use in their games. No my friends, being a miniature wargamer is not the domain of the lazy. You need to work at your fun.
While every gaggle of gamers has its overzealous know-it-alls and holier-than-thou jerks, my experience with the majority of veteran mini-gamers is that they're an extremely hospitable bunch. We respect the effort that our peers put into painting their figures, writing their own rules, and crafting their own battle scenarios, because we've done it ourselves and appreciate all the effort it takes to accomplish those things. Miniature wargaming is such a broad-hobby from a creative perspective that you can't help but be humbled by the variety of people doing amazing things with their various talents.
While we take pride in being able to outsmart a friend in a head-to-head military conflict, us old-school tabletop generals value good sportsmanship and know that it's wise to be gracious when we've gotten the stuffing beaten out of our tiny tin army. Friendly competition is what it's all about.
What I've learned over the years as a miniature wargamer is that owning more models doesn't make you happy. Consumerism isn't the answer. When your closet is loaded with too many boxes of unpainted tin soldiers all you feel is overwhelmed that you'll never have time to paint everything.
I've learned that having an inflated sense of pride is just a quicker way to make enemies. There are all types of people involved in the miniature wargaming hobby. Some are masterful painters. Some are innovative rules writers and scenario designers. Some are historians. Some can build wondrous terrain. Some are fantastic storytellers. We should embrace them all, because they all have something to offer. You're not better than they are; you're simply a part of their number.
Happiness in the miniature wargaming hobby is gained through the journey. You can't sit back and wait for everything to magically fall into your lap. You must do something. The thrill of the hunt as you search for cool models to add to your collection is a lot of fun. Taking the time to paint your own models is artistically fulfilling. Those are your shiny little masterpieces! Crafting your own scenarios or wargame rules set is tremendously satisfying. So soak it all in and enjoy the ride for as long as you can.
So America listen to us wily miniature wargamers. When you buy things, savor them. Don't be a voracious glutton hungrily chasing down material nuggets with the hope that the more you consume, the happier you'll become. Check your pride at the door. Don't feel that you're entitled to things because you're better than everyone else. You're not. Everyone has something useful to offer. Respect that. And finally, get off your ass and do some work. Nothing good ever gets done when you sullenly lay around hoping that you'll miraculously win the PowerBall jackpot. Hard work doesn't guarantee success, but laziness is a surefire road to failure.
My name is Steve. I'm a miniature wargamer. And I'm saving America, one toy soldier at a time.
MSN recently asked the question, "is America on the decline?" Many people are passionate in their belief that the USA is sinking quicker than the Titanic. The economy sucks. Just look at the stagnant housing market and the recent woes on Wall Street if you need proof about that. Consumerism runs rampant through our society.
We're mired in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that show no immediate signs of ending, while more and more American boys are killed and maimed each day. Diplomatically, more and more of the world hates us with each passing day.
Faith in our politicians to remedy these problems has faded to an all-time low. So what do we do about it?
Well... I'm an American. I'm also a miniature wargamer. And you can learn a lot from a miniature wargamer. Sometimes more stuff than you really care to know. Maybe, just maybe, we can learn something valuable from the way these gamers approach their hobby and use that knowledge to model changes in American culture? Hell, it's worth a shot, right?
You probably think I've been smoking crack or that I've been toking on the Wacky Weedus. Maybe you just think I'm a jackass. That's okay, but please bear with me.
It seems to me that our society is plagued by 3 evils that will eventually drive us to ruin unless eradicated. Those three bugaboos are (1) rampant consumerism, (2) an entitlement mentality, and (3) the general malaise of laziness that has crept into our culture.
Rampant consumerism revolves around our society's need to buy everything they see, whether it's really needed or not, and then throw it away in search of the next big thing to lust after. Today's American culture is burdened by the "gotta have that, and gotta have it now!" mindset. We're big-time gluttons.
Take video games as a sub-group. There's a palpable lack of innovation in the video/computer game industry. For years, vidiots have been stuck with a never ending flow of 1st-Person shooters, RPG adventure games, and interactive sports games. Not that there's anything wrong with these popular genres, but when will new ground really be broken here? The video game industry is driven by giant companies hoping that they'll produce one mega-hit out of a bunch of mostly lackluster titles and that one hit game will make them rich. If they produce a hit, they continue to make slight variations of that game formula, over and over and over again. The little software companies don't have the financial resources to develop and market their products to a large audience, and as a result, innovation on the whole suffers.
So what do video gamers do? They scarf up a butt-load of new games, churning through title after title like Pac-Man on speed. Most of them are mediocre rehashes of a few great games, and end up getting pawned back to GameStop or auctioned on eBay for pennies on the dollar. Not to mention that even the best video games don't really last. I have board games and miniatures from the 1970's that I still use today. How many video gamers can claim the same thing? Technology charges ahead, rapidly making older games extinct. It's a consumerism based industry. You gotta buy the latest & greatest games now! Once you buy into that, it's hard for addicted vidiots to jump off the merry-go-wheel.
More and more Americans have also been brainwashed to accept an Entitlement Mentality. Young people feel that society owes them a good job that pays high wages. Customers feel that no matter how unreasonable their demands are or how rudely they act, that companies simply owe them fantastic, bend-over-backwards customer service. Ultra left-wing thinkers believe that everyone should have a nice home and get free health care, even if they make zero-effort to get a job and contribute something helpful to society. People are clamoring for more and more free stuff all the time. C'mon gimme free stuff! Gimme gimme gimme! You owe us!
This mentality of entitlement fosters a delusional sense of pride in Americans. If they're entitled to good things it's only because they deserve it. Oh yes, don't you think for a minute that we don't deserve these things. By God, we're Americans. We're the greatest nation in the world. We're smarter, stronger, and richer than everyone else. We're better than everyone else. George Bush and all of our politicians believe this. They're swelling with pride. It's the kind of pride that infers we can do no wrong.
Too much pride is a dangerous thing. A self-absorbed, vain society is one that asserts how it's always right and everyone else is always wrong. And that's just ridiculous because nobody in the world is always right. We're not gods.
When I think of pride like this in terms of gaming, the great "Euro vs. Ameritrash" debate in the boardgaming world quickly comes to mind. Surf on over to the BoardGameGeek website and you will inevitably stumble upon a myriad of forum posts from Euro-gamers asserting their intellectual superiority and telling you why "their games" are so much better than the inelegant, overly time-consuming, and mindless adventure games and wargames that you play. They profess to know what true gaming genius is. If you disagree with them or criticize a Euro-game for being bland or too lightweight, they become apoplectic and spew an endless stream of venomous words.
But Euro-gamers aren't the only ones who are prideful. There's a whole contingent of Ameritrashers (those who enjoy meaty, old school, theme-rich games about war, zombies, space-men, pirates, and monsters) who can hurl insults with the best of them. In fact, the debate over at BGG has gotten so heated that a group of Ameritrash game enthusiasts, feeling unloved and jabbed in their pride-swelled egos, have formed their own website called Fortress Ameritrash. To them, it's the last bastion of sanity in a world filled with foofy Euro-snoots who don't share their impeccable taste in games.
And lastly, we come to the general malaise of laziness that pervades our culture. America didn't always act this way. We were once manufacturing giants, technological innovators, and financial gurus. American people built our country on an ethic of hard-work. We put our minds and bodies to the test and great things were accomplished.
Fast forward to today. It's sad to look at the back/bottom of so many products and see the words "Made in China" instead of "Made in the USA". We're outsourcing tons of technical jobs to India and other foreign nations. Perhaps it's because people just don't want to work as hard anymore. Why should they; they're entitled to take it easy after all. Americans just want to work hard enough to bring home a decent paycheck, and then sit back and buy more and more shiny things that provide the illusion of happiness. They can't be bothered to solve the problems of the world anymore.
Much of the gaming world has responded to our culture's overall laziness in concrete ways.
Remember back in the 80's when you played adventure games like Zork and had to figure out all the riddles yourself? Nowadays you just buy the cheat-book to your favorite video game and it tells you all the secrets you need to know. Remember when you could look at the actual source-code of games you played on your Apple II+? If you were really curious and hands-on enough, you could learn Basic programming and tweak the code to do new things. I fondly remember editing some lines in my Tuesday Night Football software so that I could play games with Dracula at QB, Frankenstein at tailback, and the Wolfman at wide-receiver instead of using the Cowboys and Steelers rosters that came with the game. I don't see too many average Joes doing those kinds of things today (most programs aren't designed to allow that sort of thing).
In the board-gaming world, the explosion of light, family-friendly Euro games is a clear indicator that the majority of people want fast-playing games where they don't have to think very hard. While Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride are both fantastic games, they're certainly not brain-burners that you immerse yourself in for 3 hours. Playing long games with fairly complex rules just takes too much effort for most folks.
So what's the solution to these cultural woes? Well, you've stayed with me for this long, so let me put it to you simply: we need to think more like veteran miniature wargamers. Seriously.
Unlike the gluttons of our society who buy up all the latest mass-market stuff only to throw it away in short order in search of something new, the veteran miniature-gamer tends to hold onto his precious toy soldiers for a long time. This isn't a quick-fix hobby. Buying miniatures in any appreciable quantity can be costly. So you need to pace yourself. You buy what you can afford and build up your minis collection slowly, over a period of years. Remember that H.G. Wells wrote his famous miniature wargaming book, Little Wars, in 1913. People have been playing with toy soldiers ever since. You don't have to buy every single available model today; they're not going to run out anytime soon!
Miniature wargamers who paint their own models become very attached to their little guys. When you spend all that time putting your own love & attention into something, you don't just toss it aside willy nilly. So while many of us will be the first to admit that mini-gamers love to amass scores of toy soldiers, they're usually treated like tiny treasures, often passed down to friends and family through generations. This isn't a chew'em up, spit 'em out glutton-fest.
By and large, I never think of miniature wargamers as being lazy. They work hard to enjoy their hobby. This form of gaming takes some effort. You've got to plan what types of armies you want to build and research the marketplace to discover what available models are out there. If you buy a batch of unpainted models, then you'll need to set aside time to assemble and paint them. Or if you're lacking free time or artistic talent, you can pay someone else to paint the soldiers for you. Or you can buy pro-painted figures at conventions or off eBay. All of this requires you to get up off your ass and do some planning, and what you ultimately decide is whether you're more comfortable spending time or money.
Mini-gamers are typically a highly creative bunch; much more so than any other type of gamer. They paint. They build things. They dabble in writing their own home-grown rules. They build fictional armies and craft background stories for fictional leaders & heroes that fight for fictional countries. They read history or fantasy/sci-fi to get cool ideas to use in their games. No my friends, being a miniature wargamer is not the domain of the lazy. You need to work at your fun.
While every gaggle of gamers has its overzealous know-it-alls and holier-than-thou jerks, my experience with the majority of veteran mini-gamers is that they're an extremely hospitable bunch. We respect the effort that our peers put into painting their figures, writing their own rules, and crafting their own battle scenarios, because we've done it ourselves and appreciate all the effort it takes to accomplish those things. Miniature wargaming is such a broad-hobby from a creative perspective that you can't help but be humbled by the variety of people doing amazing things with their various talents.
While we take pride in being able to outsmart a friend in a head-to-head military conflict, us old-school tabletop generals value good sportsmanship and know that it's wise to be gracious when we've gotten the stuffing beaten out of our tiny tin army. Friendly competition is what it's all about.
What I've learned over the years as a miniature wargamer is that owning more models doesn't make you happy. Consumerism isn't the answer. When your closet is loaded with too many boxes of unpainted tin soldiers all you feel is overwhelmed that you'll never have time to paint everything.
I've learned that having an inflated sense of pride is just a quicker way to make enemies. There are all types of people involved in the miniature wargaming hobby. Some are masterful painters. Some are innovative rules writers and scenario designers. Some are historians. Some can build wondrous terrain. Some are fantastic storytellers. We should embrace them all, because they all have something to offer. You're not better than they are; you're simply a part of their number.
Happiness in the miniature wargaming hobby is gained through the journey. You can't sit back and wait for everything to magically fall into your lap. You must do something. The thrill of the hunt as you search for cool models to add to your collection is a lot of fun. Taking the time to paint your own models is artistically fulfilling. Those are your shiny little masterpieces! Crafting your own scenarios or wargame rules set is tremendously satisfying. So soak it all in and enjoy the ride for as long as you can.
So America listen to us wily miniature wargamers. When you buy things, savor them. Don't be a voracious glutton hungrily chasing down material nuggets with the hope that the more you consume, the happier you'll become. Check your pride at the door. Don't feel that you're entitled to things because you're better than everyone else. You're not. Everyone has something useful to offer. Respect that. And finally, get off your ass and do some work. Nothing good ever gets done when you sullenly lay around hoping that you'll miraculously win the PowerBall jackpot. Hard work doesn't guarantee success, but laziness is a surefire road to failure.
My name is Steve. I'm a miniature wargamer. And I'm saving America, one toy soldier at a time.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Gamer Perspective -- 9/02/2008
There have been many occasions when I thought about sitting down at my PC and writing the next great deeply considered treatise about X and Y. But then I look at the clock, see how late it is, and stop myself before I ever put fingers to keyboard.
Writing an in-depth article is fulfilling, but at the end of another brain-burning workday, sometimes I just want to wing it and shoot from the hip. Can you really blame me?
While I've written random babblings several times before on this blog, I never came up with a formal name for these little forays into the world of tabletop gaming. So starting today, let's call these my Gamer Perspective series. There, I feel better now. My inner urge to categorize and organize things has finally been satisfied. For now.
So what exciting things have been happening lately in the world of board games, miniatures, and wargaming? Well let's see...
BGG Ratings
I'm starting to feel that BoardGameGeek is losing its relevance to me as a source of game ratings. Yes, it's still a fantastic website, filled with a treasure trove of useful game information, FAQs and reviews, game aids, and captivating pictures. But in my eyes, there's a strong inherent bias towards Euro games there. Euros (aka: German or Designer games) are considered "the cream of the crop" by the burgeoning cult of gaming elitists that have infested the waters of BGG.
I don't begrudge anyone for liking Euro games. There are several of them that I really enjoy including Domaine, Kingsburg, Through the Desert, and Carcassonne. But when you look at the top 100 games and see that half of them are Euros, you can't help but feel like a minority voice in the gamer world, especially if your favorites happen to be wargames, miniature games, adventure games, sports games, party games, abstracts, classic games, and the like.
The hot new board game that people are drooling all over themselves to play is Agricola, a game about farming. It has surged to #1 on the BGG game ratings, bumping Puerto Rico (another euro with a somewhat bland theme) from the top spot. I have no desire to play either of those games, simply because the themes are tremendously boring to me. Sorry gamer geeks, but good, elegant game mechanics can only take a game so far. If the theme is about exciting as filling out your federal tax return then count me out. Ain't gonna buy it and ain't gonna play it.
I wish BGG offered a feature in its database to have users categorize themselves as either Euro gamers, Ameritrash gamers (adventure and battle game oriented), Miniatures gamers, Party/Social Gamers, Wargamers, or All-Inclusive gamers (like every style pretty much equally). Then we could filter the game rankings based on how different categories of gamers rated the available games. For instance, suppose you're an Ameritrash gamer. Wouldn't it be cool and informative to see how your fellow Ameritrashers ranked each game, and see what their Top 100 rankings list looked like? It's kind of like taking the GeekBuddy analysis tool and ramping it up a few notches. I would certainly find the game rankings much more useful if such a filtering mechanism existed.
The Recession and Game Spending
I've cut back on my game-related spending of late. Some of it is simply due to a lack of funds. Blowing a large wad of dough at both Origins and Historicon definitely put the kabosh on my stash of "fun money".
The recession certainly isn't helping me any. I can't wait until Bush leaves office. Say what you will about Bill Clinton's morals and poor judgement when it comes to women, but the simple fact is that under Clinton the USA had a huge economic surplus and we weren't engaged in a protracted, senseless war in the Middle East. Under Bush, our economy has lurched into the toilet, American morale is lower than I can ever remember over the past 40 years, and an ever-increasing number of countries around the world now hate us. Thanks for nothing George W.
The recession notwithstanding, I've also come to the realization that I had been plagued by that insidious brain-eating worm which gnaws away at the reasoning center of your mind. You know the one. It's that awful thing which forces you to keep buying new games and new miniatures even though you already own scads of board games that are still unplayed and boxes of minis that remain unpainted. Call it the Consumerism Bug. In most walks of life, I don't fall prey to that. But games are my soft spot. It's taken me awhile to build up my mental defenses and resist the urge to overspend.
During the month of August the only game-related things that I purchased were the Field of Glory rulebook for ancient/medieval wargaming (which was done primarily for research purposes since I'm also a game designer) and these painted Ghouls to use in my Sword of Severnia fantasy wargame:
So far in September I haven't even peeked at eBay. Now if I can just go another 28 days! Backing away from something you love is REALLY difficult!
The Death of Gaming Magazines
Just like the internet age is killing the circulation of local newspapers, the emergence of high quality hobby gaming websites such as BoardGameGeek, The Miniatures Page, ConsimWorld, Tabletop Gaming News, Gaming Report, and others have sounded the death knell for many hardcopy game magazines. Within the past 2 years, I've seen promising magazines such as Harbinger, Ragnarok, Wargames Journal, and Knucklebones all shuffle off to the print-publishing underworld.
I miss the glossy rags. Back in the 1970's and 80's we had an assortment of cool magazines to choose from including Dragon, Different Worlds, White Wolf, Space Gamer, Adventurer, Miniature Wargames, Games Master, and White Dwarf when it was at the peak of its quality and not just a glorified GW catalog.
Sadly, those golden days when you could kick back on the couch or lie in bed and scour through a bunch of glossy games magazines has passed. There are still some good magazines out there; most notably the excellent Battlegames in the miniature wargaming field and Kobold Quarterly and Polymancer for the RPG crowd (although Polymancer could be dying as the company website has seemingly been kaput for close to a year).
I think the key to a successful game magazine nowadays is to produce "timeless" articles. Forget writing about game news or the latest releases. There are too many other places online that can beat you to the punch and provide up-to-the-minute breaking news. Creative content is king.
Battlegames does it right by focusing on battle scenarios, specialty rule sets, ideas for running wargame campaigns, how-to articles on painting, terrain building, and rules design, and so forth. Board game mags could succeed by offering house rules or variants to popular games, sets of free print & play rules, ideas for customizing game components, and providing Q&A articles with famous designers and tips on designing your own games.
Some people will argue that BGG is loaded with so much information that there's no real need for a glossy magazine covering boardgames. I argue that:
- There's so much info on BGG, it becomes daunting to find exactly what you're looking for. A monthly magazine would be more tightly focused and would cut through all the noise which exists on BGG.
- Oftentimes, it's much more enjoyable to read OFFLINE (on the couch or in bed).
I wonder if we'll ever see a board game equivalent of Battlegames someday? What I'd really love to see is a broad "hobby games" magazine that covers board games, card games, miniature games, and RPG's in one mega-publication. I would subscribe to it. Would you?
That's all for today... Until next time, this is SultanSevy wishing you mucho fun!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Frustrated Incorporated
It's time for me to vent and let off some brain-steam. I'm frustrated. About what you say?
Well, truth be told, none of these bothers are earth-shattering frustrations. Rather, they're smally niggly bits which are eating away at my patience; a patience which most friends and family members claim that I have an enormous amount of.
Let's take them in turn...
#1 = WORK
I'm in the process of changing gears work-wise, switching my day-to-day emphasis on baseball related activities (data development, sales, tech support) and returning to a heavy immersion in wargame design, development, and playtesting.
I'm excited to change gears and am really looking forward to doing new things. The preseason and early-season baseball rush always causes me to suffer a bit of burnout, so switching to something radically different is a big boost to my mojo.
The niggling frustration I'm having right now is that I want (and need) to become like Butter. I need to get "on a roll" with my game development & playtesting, but I haven't found that steady flow of inner-brain magic yet. Oh, I'm working diligently and making progress. I just need to get in the zone. That's something that software designers, programmers, artists, architects, and even athletes can probably relate to.
I can't explain how to make it happen. It's not a switch that you simply flip and suddenly, you become inspired and enormously productive. But if you focus on something long and hard enough, eventually magic happens. Ideas flow like cheap wine. You do three days worth of work in one-day. Inspiration bubbles up. You find yourself thinking up brilliant ideas right before dozing off to sleep and while in the shower the next morning.
Anyway, that's what I'm missing right now. I want it to happen... NOW. I guess I'll just have to keep plugging away and stay focused. Sooner or later, it's gonna happen.
#2 = ROTISSERIE BASEBALL
I have never finished dead-last in any fantasy baseball, football, or hockey league that I've participated in. And I've been playing in various leagues for well over 20 years. I'm used to finishing in-the-money, and I've won my fair share of league championships. But currently, in my HARL Baseball league, my favorite fantasy league of all time, I find my Sevy Rhinos team in dead-last. Yikes!
As frustrating as being in last place is, I have faith that things will improve for my ballclub. Experience tells me that you cannot really gauge the strengths/weaknesses of your rotisserie team until 6 weeks of the season have elapsed. On paper, I was pretty happy with my team when I looked it over post-draft. The offense looked very strong, and the pitching seemed decent, although there were a few question marks to consider. But man, has my pitching staff totally sucked so far! Their total implosion is the major reason I'm dwelling in the cellar right now.
My starting pitching staff (this is an NL-only league) consists of Jeff Francis, Oliver Perez, Tom Gorzelanny, Randy Johnson, Joel Pineiro, and Shawn Chacon. Of my top four hurlers, only Oliver Perez has been any good. Francis started off poorly, but his last 2 starts have been solid, so he fortunately appears to be returning to form. Gorzelanny may be hiding an arm injury. His control has been dreadful, and that's very unlike him. The Big Unit missed the first 2 weeks while resting on the DL. He's been decent so far, and I'm hoping he returns to his form of 2005 and leaves his 2006 Yankees season as an aberration. Arizona has a good young team, so the Unit can't help but benefit from that.
The rotation hasn't been my only worry. Prior to this past week, my bullpen had been lit up. Jose Valverde and Tom Gordon have been like kerosene matches standing next to an open flame. Ryan Madson hasn't been much better. Only Kevin Gregg has kept his ERA down and helped my club. Fortunately, things appear to be turning around, as all four relievers combined to bolster my staff last week with Wins, Saves, and quality outings.
So things are improving. I even stuck SP-Odalis Perez into my flex slot to get more Innings Pitched and hopefully whittle down my bloated ERA and WHIP with some quality statistics. Of course, banking on Odalis Perez to be reliable is like hoping that Paris Hilton disappears from the tabloids. But hey, when your options are slim, you gotta gamble sometimes!
#3 = BOARD GAME CLUB
Getting my local board game group to show up and play games on a regular basis has been a major point of frustration for me. I have played a bunch of board games with my friends over the past 8 months or so. They've been extremely enjoyable gaming sessions. I just wish they could happen A LOT more often!
Let's face it, organizing anything is always a big challenge. It's especially tricky when you're dealing with adults who have very busy schedules and kids. Plus, since this is just a fun thing and not a formal event like a class or work project, or participation on a sports team, people tend to blow these things off when squeezed for time. I can understand, but it's still frustrating, especially for the person (me) who arranges everything.
Plus, some of the problems with maintaining a steady gaming schedule has been my own fault. I was extremely busy working overtime and doing other activities during off-hours in February through the first half of April. Nobody else picked up the ball and ran with it, so the game club basically went on hiatus for a few months.
On the plus side, I haven't given up hope yet. I love board games, wargames, and card games. And I have a bunch of new games (at least to me) to try out, as well as many old favorites to continue to bring to the table. Despite my disappointment in not getting enough traction going amongst my gamer-friends to put the game group on auto-pilot, I still think it can be done. It's just going to take time and plenty of patience. The fact that I own a bunch of cool games and don't want to see them languish on the shelf for eternity is a driving force behind my continual efforts to light a fire under people's butts.
So I shall start again. People need to come to the realization that having FUN with family and friends is a critical component to a healthy, happy life. It's too easy to get overly caught up in work and day-to-day trifles which are not important in the big scheme of things. So I'm trying to do my part in spreading the joy. Hopefully it will work!
#4 = WRITING TO THIS BLOG
I have three blogs going right now. There's a private one dedicated to the development of my tabletop miniatures wargame called And On the 7th Day They Created Severnia. That's where the project team members and I post our thoughts, ideas, and observations about the Sword of Severnia fantasy wargame we're involved in developing.
I also maintain a blog for my HARL Baseball league, where I write about my fantasy baseball league and share information with the league members. There's also an associated website called HARL Central where members can download weekly stat reports and view online reports.
And then there's this blog, a personal journal where I discuss board games, card games, miniatures, wargames, software development, fantasy sports, and anything else that strikes my fancy.
Keeping all 3 blogs up-to-date can be a challenge. Of all three, writing to this one is the hardest. Experiences designing software/games and with my fantasy baseball league help to generate articles for the other two blogs without much of a problem. But writing to a personal journal is different.
While I almost always have something to say, sometimes I wonder if it's really worth saying. I mean, there's only so much people can read while surfing the net. So I frequently ask myself the question, "what makes this blog worth reading?" Why bother writing at all if I don't have anything interesting, informative, or captivating to say?
That's probably something that a great many bloggers struggle with. Sure, you can use blogging as a pure ego trip, gaining satisfaction in the simple fact that your voice is on the internet somewhere. Or perhaps, you just want to write for cathartic purposes; because it makes you feel good to share your feelings and get things off your chest. They're both valid reasons I suppose.
For me, I want to inform and entertain. The thing that I hope for is that a reader learns something and has fun doing it.
I know that I don't always succeed. I'm still learning what makes a good blog post, what's useful to write about, and what people enjoy. Truth be told, I'm probably overthinking this. Perhaps that's why I'm frustrated about not writing to this blog often enough. Four or five posts per month is not enough. I want to be more prolific and not let things get too stagnant. Posting 12-16 times per month would be oh so much better!
But for an increase in posting to occur, I'm going to have to take a new approach to this blog. Perhaps I should be willing to write shorter posts? Perhaps I should feel free to just brain-dump and not feel guilty about it? Perhaps I need to stop worrying about being informative and just starting writing? It's very possible that could be holding me back.
So I'm going to try something new. I'm just going to LET GO and WRITE and see what happens. At least I can't be frustrated about lack of posting any longer if I take that approach!
Until next time... BE GOOD.
Well, truth be told, none of these bothers are earth-shattering frustrations. Rather, they're smally niggly bits which are eating away at my patience; a patience which most friends and family members claim that I have an enormous amount of.
Let's take them in turn...
#1 = WORK
I'm in the process of changing gears work-wise, switching my day-to-day emphasis on baseball related activities (data development, sales, tech support) and returning to a heavy immersion in wargame design, development, and playtesting.
I'm excited to change gears and am really looking forward to doing new things. The preseason and early-season baseball rush always causes me to suffer a bit of burnout, so switching to something radically different is a big boost to my mojo.
The niggling frustration I'm having right now is that I want (and need) to become like Butter. I need to get "on a roll" with my game development & playtesting, but I haven't found that steady flow of inner-brain magic yet. Oh, I'm working diligently and making progress. I just need to get in the zone. That's something that software designers, programmers, artists, architects, and even athletes can probably relate to.
I can't explain how to make it happen. It's not a switch that you simply flip and suddenly, you become inspired and enormously productive. But if you focus on something long and hard enough, eventually magic happens. Ideas flow like cheap wine. You do three days worth of work in one-day. Inspiration bubbles up. You find yourself thinking up brilliant ideas right before dozing off to sleep and while in the shower the next morning.
Anyway, that's what I'm missing right now. I want it to happen... NOW. I guess I'll just have to keep plugging away and stay focused. Sooner or later, it's gonna happen.
#2 = ROTISSERIE BASEBALL
I have never finished dead-last in any fantasy baseball, football, or hockey league that I've participated in. And I've been playing in various leagues for well over 20 years. I'm used to finishing in-the-money, and I've won my fair share of league championships. But currently, in my HARL Baseball league, my favorite fantasy league of all time, I find my Sevy Rhinos team in dead-last. Yikes!
As frustrating as being in last place is, I have faith that things will improve for my ballclub. Experience tells me that you cannot really gauge the strengths/weaknesses of your rotisserie team until 6 weeks of the season have elapsed. On paper, I was pretty happy with my team when I looked it over post-draft. The offense looked very strong, and the pitching seemed decent, although there were a few question marks to consider. But man, has my pitching staff totally sucked so far! Their total implosion is the major reason I'm dwelling in the cellar right now.
My starting pitching staff (this is an NL-only league) consists of Jeff Francis, Oliver Perez, Tom Gorzelanny, Randy Johnson, Joel Pineiro, and Shawn Chacon. Of my top four hurlers, only Oliver Perez has been any good. Francis started off poorly, but his last 2 starts have been solid, so he fortunately appears to be returning to form. Gorzelanny may be hiding an arm injury. His control has been dreadful, and that's very unlike him. The Big Unit missed the first 2 weeks while resting on the DL. He's been decent so far, and I'm hoping he returns to his form of 2005 and leaves his 2006 Yankees season as an aberration. Arizona has a good young team, so the Unit can't help but benefit from that.
The rotation hasn't been my only worry. Prior to this past week, my bullpen had been lit up. Jose Valverde and Tom Gordon have been like kerosene matches standing next to an open flame. Ryan Madson hasn't been much better. Only Kevin Gregg has kept his ERA down and helped my club. Fortunately, things appear to be turning around, as all four relievers combined to bolster my staff last week with Wins, Saves, and quality outings.
So things are improving. I even stuck SP-Odalis Perez into my flex slot to get more Innings Pitched and hopefully whittle down my bloated ERA and WHIP with some quality statistics. Of course, banking on Odalis Perez to be reliable is like hoping that Paris Hilton disappears from the tabloids. But hey, when your options are slim, you gotta gamble sometimes!
#3 = BOARD GAME CLUB
Getting my local board game group to show up and play games on a regular basis has been a major point of frustration for me. I have played a bunch of board games with my friends over the past 8 months or so. They've been extremely enjoyable gaming sessions. I just wish they could happen A LOT more often!
Let's face it, organizing anything is always a big challenge. It's especially tricky when you're dealing with adults who have very busy schedules and kids. Plus, since this is just a fun thing and not a formal event like a class or work project, or participation on a sports team, people tend to blow these things off when squeezed for time. I can understand, but it's still frustrating, especially for the person (me) who arranges everything.
Plus, some of the problems with maintaining a steady gaming schedule has been my own fault. I was extremely busy working overtime and doing other activities during off-hours in February through the first half of April. Nobody else picked up the ball and ran with it, so the game club basically went on hiatus for a few months.
On the plus side, I haven't given up hope yet. I love board games, wargames, and card games. And I have a bunch of new games (at least to me) to try out, as well as many old favorites to continue to bring to the table. Despite my disappointment in not getting enough traction going amongst my gamer-friends to put the game group on auto-pilot, I still think it can be done. It's just going to take time and plenty of patience. The fact that I own a bunch of cool games and don't want to see them languish on the shelf for eternity is a driving force behind my continual efforts to light a fire under people's butts.
So I shall start again. People need to come to the realization that having FUN with family and friends is a critical component to a healthy, happy life. It's too easy to get overly caught up in work and day-to-day trifles which are not important in the big scheme of things. So I'm trying to do my part in spreading the joy. Hopefully it will work!
#4 = WRITING TO THIS BLOG
I have three blogs going right now. There's a private one dedicated to the development of my tabletop miniatures wargame called And On the 7th Day They Created Severnia. That's where the project team members and I post our thoughts, ideas, and observations about the Sword of Severnia fantasy wargame we're involved in developing.
I also maintain a blog for my HARL Baseball league, where I write about my fantasy baseball league and share information with the league members. There's also an associated website called HARL Central where members can download weekly stat reports and view online reports.
And then there's this blog, a personal journal where I discuss board games, card games, miniatures, wargames, software development, fantasy sports, and anything else that strikes my fancy.
Keeping all 3 blogs up-to-date can be a challenge. Of all three, writing to this one is the hardest. Experiences designing software/games and with my fantasy baseball league help to generate articles for the other two blogs without much of a problem. But writing to a personal journal is different.
While I almost always have something to say, sometimes I wonder if it's really worth saying. I mean, there's only so much people can read while surfing the net. So I frequently ask myself the question, "what makes this blog worth reading?" Why bother writing at all if I don't have anything interesting, informative, or captivating to say?
That's probably something that a great many bloggers struggle with. Sure, you can use blogging as a pure ego trip, gaining satisfaction in the simple fact that your voice is on the internet somewhere. Or perhaps, you just want to write for cathartic purposes; because it makes you feel good to share your feelings and get things off your chest. They're both valid reasons I suppose.
For me, I want to inform and entertain. The thing that I hope for is that a reader learns something and has fun doing it.
I know that I don't always succeed. I'm still learning what makes a good blog post, what's useful to write about, and what people enjoy. Truth be told, I'm probably overthinking this. Perhaps that's why I'm frustrated about not writing to this blog often enough. Four or five posts per month is not enough. I want to be more prolific and not let things get too stagnant. Posting 12-16 times per month would be oh so much better!
But for an increase in posting to occur, I'm going to have to take a new approach to this blog. Perhaps I should be willing to write shorter posts? Perhaps I should feel free to just brain-dump and not feel guilty about it? Perhaps I need to stop worrying about being informative and just starting writing? It's very possible that could be holding me back.
So I'm going to try something new. I'm just going to LET GO and WRITE and see what happens. At least I can't be frustrated about lack of posting any longer if I take that approach!
Until next time... BE GOOD.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Too Many Games?
Lately, when thinking about my tabletop games collection, I've been pondering the $100,000 question, "how many games is too many games?"
That's not an easy question to answer.
Most avid gamers have a hoarding mentality. They like to collect lots of games and admire what they've amassed, even if there's no realistic chance that they are going to actually get to play all of those games. TMP did a recent poll where they asked miniature wargamers if they were "compulsive hoarders", and the majority of people claimed that YES, they were indeed pack rats. I'm sure that if the same poll was presented on BoardGameGeek, the same answer would be received. The lure of collecting new games is an addiction bordering on kleptomania for many gamers.
But there comes a point in every gamer's life when reality sets in. The moment of truth may occur when you run out of shelf space to store more new games/models. For some very sad, unfortunate gamer geeks, it strikes when they're so far gone that their weekly expenditure on games out-strips their weekly spending on essentials like food and utilities. And for folks like me, it hits when the opportunities to play games with my circle of friends falls far short of the sheer variety of games that I have readily available to play.
When this ultimate breaking point is reached, what's a puzzled gamer to do? To me, the obvious answer is that it's time to streamline and downsize your game collection to much more reasonable levels. And that means selling off games, be it on eBay, at conventions or yard-sales, or selling them to your friends who had the sanity not to go overboard and amass way too many goodies. Perhaps you'll even want to go the philanthropic route and simply give away some of your games to those less fortunate. Whatever your approach, you know (and I know) you've just got to do it!
But before you undertake your own personal great games sell-off, just how many games should you keep? That number will vary greatly for everyone, but my general rule of thumb is to base it on the typical number and type of gaming sessions that you host each year.
Let's look at an example of how you can figure out this target number for yourself.
For me and my busy circle of gaming buddies, the hope is that we can hold 1 game session per week (or 52 sessions per calendar year). So far in 2008, gaming sessions have been held more like once every 2 weeks (or 50% of available weeks) . But if I factor in Monday evening gaming sessions that I've gotten to play with my family, the total has been more like 3 out of every 4 weeks (or 75%). So I'm looking at hosting roughly 40 gaming sessions per year.
If I analyze those 40 gaming sessions, how many games do we play during each session? For me, it's usually just 1 game. But occasionally, perhaps 25% of the time, we'll play a 2nd filler game that takes 30 minutes or less. So taking 40 x 1.25, I need about 50 games to cover every session I'll be hosting per year.
But realistically, you don't always play a different game each time you host a game session with your friends. There are those favorite games that you play multiple times per year. Out of my base of 50 games, perhaps 33% of the time I'm going to replay a personal favorite like Battlelore, HeroScape, Lord of the Rings Confrontation, and so forth. The math is actually a bit more complicated than this, but for easy figuring let's deduct 16 games from my base number (50 x .33) yielding a net of 34 games. I prefer to round to the nearest 5, so that means that 35 games in my collection should do the trick for me.
But I like to factor in one more thing, called the gamer's "security blanket". The idea here is to add 20% to 25% worth of padding to your target number to ensure that you've got enough extra games to feel warm & cozy. I'm going to choose 25% for myself since my target number is pretty low (under 50 games). So with 25% padding factored in, my new target number equals 45 games (or 35 x 1.25, rounded to the nearest increment of 5). For gamers with higher targets (over 100 games), you may want to use the lower 20% padding factor.
The idea of padding is simple. Perhaps you break out a new game only to discover that you absolutely hate it the 1st time you play it. You're going to sell off that puppy right away, and you need a much better game to take its place. Or maybe you want a "special game" that's only pulled out on very rare occasions (e.g. a zombie game on Halloween, or a golden oldie that you play with a childhood friend when he or she comes over for a rare visit). By having some extra games in your collection, you have the security to cover those special circumstances.
Looking at my target number of 45 games, I cry inside a little. Man, I'm going to have to take a hacksaw to a good portion of my collection! My heart has dropped three feet and my hands are starting to shake.
An aside here:
I currently have over 140 games in my tabletop games collection. Some of these are miniature wargames that I own strictly for research purposes. I'm a game designer and like to understand and compare & contrast other wargame systems in an effort to find those game bits that I love, elements of play that I really dislike, pitfalls to avoid, and things that encourage me to devise new concepts/mechanics that haven't ever been done before (or at least done in the way that I envision doing them).
If you ignore all of my minis games, I still have over 100 board games and card games in my collection. Apparently, I'm a bit of a hoarder too! Yikes.
In order to get down to 45 core games, I could get rid of all my board games rated 6 or less (on my personal 1 to 10 rating scale). Even then, I would still be a little bit over my 45 game limit. But there are some well-rated classics that I've kept around for nostalgia's sake, and I could probably part with them simply because I don't foresee getting to play them again. I'm unlikely to ever play Sports Illustrated Baseball or SI Football again. Cutting games like that would probably be enough to get me down to the limit.
What really bothers me is that there are almost 100 new games on my BGG wishlist. For every new game that I add, I'll need to purge an older game from my collection in order to keep things balanced. That brings me to the stark realization that unless I really envision liking a new game and foresee playing it multiple times with my current circle of gaming friends or family, then it's just not worth buying.
So unless I can suddenly finagle more gaming sessions, and consequently increase the number of playable games in my collection, then I'm going to have to purge the wheat from the chaff.
On the plus side, that means focusing my gaming attention on playing the games rated 10, 9, 8, and 7 in my collection. In essence, we're talking quality over quantity. And after all, playing good games is really what it's all about.
On the downside, I'm going to have to get choosier in my game-buying habits. Taking chances on iffy games is not something that I want to do if it means sacrificing a well known, quality game already in my collection. When you're an addictive game hoarder, it's extremely tough to just say no. Perhaps someone will invent MethaMeeple for us addicts? A little injection of this drug before you browse BGG or surf on over to ThoughtHammer, FunAgain, Time Well Spent, FairPlay, or The Warstore and you're good to go! No more hand shakes and nervous eye ticks.
So there you have it. Once Spring rolls around and my spare time frees up, I will begin the purge. Visions of eBay will dance in my head. But then, maybe my fledgling game club will grow and that 45 game limit will grow to 50-60 games? I can only hope for the best.
By the way, what's your personal games target number? I'd love to hear from you Six Sided Rhinoceros readers out there.
That's not an easy question to answer.
Most avid gamers have a hoarding mentality. They like to collect lots of games and admire what they've amassed, even if there's no realistic chance that they are going to actually get to play all of those games. TMP did a recent poll where they asked miniature wargamers if they were "compulsive hoarders", and the majority of people claimed that YES, they were indeed pack rats. I'm sure that if the same poll was presented on BoardGameGeek, the same answer would be received. The lure of collecting new games is an addiction bordering on kleptomania for many gamers.
But there comes a point in every gamer's life when reality sets in. The moment of truth may occur when you run out of shelf space to store more new games/models. For some very sad, unfortunate gamer geeks, it strikes when they're so far gone that their weekly expenditure on games out-strips their weekly spending on essentials like food and utilities. And for folks like me, it hits when the opportunities to play games with my circle of friends falls far short of the sheer variety of games that I have readily available to play.
When this ultimate breaking point is reached, what's a puzzled gamer to do? To me, the obvious answer is that it's time to streamline and downsize your game collection to much more reasonable levels. And that means selling off games, be it on eBay, at conventions or yard-sales, or selling them to your friends who had the sanity not to go overboard and amass way too many goodies. Perhaps you'll even want to go the philanthropic route and simply give away some of your games to those less fortunate. Whatever your approach, you know (and I know) you've just got to do it!
But before you undertake your own personal great games sell-off, just how many games should you keep? That number will vary greatly for everyone, but my general rule of thumb is to base it on the typical number and type of gaming sessions that you host each year.
Let's look at an example of how you can figure out this target number for yourself.
For me and my busy circle of gaming buddies, the hope is that we can hold 1 game session per week (or 52 sessions per calendar year). So far in 2008, gaming sessions have been held more like once every 2 weeks (or 50% of available weeks) . But if I factor in Monday evening gaming sessions that I've gotten to play with my family, the total has been more like 3 out of every 4 weeks (or 75%). So I'm looking at hosting roughly 40 gaming sessions per year.
If I analyze those 40 gaming sessions, how many games do we play during each session? For me, it's usually just 1 game. But occasionally, perhaps 25% of the time, we'll play a 2nd filler game that takes 30 minutes or less. So taking 40 x 1.25, I need about 50 games to cover every session I'll be hosting per year.
But realistically, you don't always play a different game each time you host a game session with your friends. There are those favorite games that you play multiple times per year. Out of my base of 50 games, perhaps 33% of the time I'm going to replay a personal favorite like Battlelore, HeroScape, Lord of the Rings Confrontation, and so forth. The math is actually a bit more complicated than this, but for easy figuring let's deduct 16 games from my base number (50 x .33) yielding a net of 34 games. I prefer to round to the nearest 5, so that means that 35 games in my collection should do the trick for me.
But I like to factor in one more thing, called the gamer's "security blanket". The idea here is to add 20% to 25% worth of padding to your target number to ensure that you've got enough extra games to feel warm & cozy. I'm going to choose 25% for myself since my target number is pretty low (under 50 games). So with 25% padding factored in, my new target number equals 45 games (or 35 x 1.25, rounded to the nearest increment of 5). For gamers with higher targets (over 100 games), you may want to use the lower 20% padding factor.
The idea of padding is simple. Perhaps you break out a new game only to discover that you absolutely hate it the 1st time you play it. You're going to sell off that puppy right away, and you need a much better game to take its place. Or maybe you want a "special game" that's only pulled out on very rare occasions (e.g. a zombie game on Halloween, or a golden oldie that you play with a childhood friend when he or she comes over for a rare visit). By having some extra games in your collection, you have the security to cover those special circumstances.
Looking at my target number of 45 games, I cry inside a little. Man, I'm going to have to take a hacksaw to a good portion of my collection! My heart has dropped three feet and my hands are starting to shake.
An aside here:
I currently have over 140 games in my tabletop games collection. Some of these are miniature wargames that I own strictly for research purposes. I'm a game designer and like to understand and compare & contrast other wargame systems in an effort to find those game bits that I love, elements of play that I really dislike, pitfalls to avoid, and things that encourage me to devise new concepts/mechanics that haven't ever been done before (or at least done in the way that I envision doing them).
If you ignore all of my minis games, I still have over 100 board games and card games in my collection. Apparently, I'm a bit of a hoarder too! Yikes.
In order to get down to 45 core games, I could get rid of all my board games rated 6 or less (on my personal 1 to 10 rating scale). Even then, I would still be a little bit over my 45 game limit. But there are some well-rated classics that I've kept around for nostalgia's sake, and I could probably part with them simply because I don't foresee getting to play them again. I'm unlikely to ever play Sports Illustrated Baseball or SI Football again. Cutting games like that would probably be enough to get me down to the limit.
What really bothers me is that there are almost 100 new games on my BGG wishlist. For every new game that I add, I'll need to purge an older game from my collection in order to keep things balanced. That brings me to the stark realization that unless I really envision liking a new game and foresee playing it multiple times with my current circle of gaming friends or family, then it's just not worth buying.
So unless I can suddenly finagle more gaming sessions, and consequently increase the number of playable games in my collection, then I'm going to have to purge the wheat from the chaff.
On the plus side, that means focusing my gaming attention on playing the games rated 10, 9, 8, and 7 in my collection. In essence, we're talking quality over quantity. And after all, playing good games is really what it's all about.
On the downside, I'm going to have to get choosier in my game-buying habits. Taking chances on iffy games is not something that I want to do if it means sacrificing a well known, quality game already in my collection. When you're an addictive game hoarder, it's extremely tough to just say no. Perhaps someone will invent MethaMeeple for us addicts? A little injection of this drug before you browse BGG or surf on over to ThoughtHammer, FunAgain, Time Well Spent, FairPlay, or The Warstore and you're good to go! No more hand shakes and nervous eye ticks.
So there you have it. Once Spring rolls around and my spare time frees up, I will begin the purge. Visions of eBay will dance in my head. But then, maybe my fledgling game club will grow and that 45 game limit will grow to 50-60 games? I can only hope for the best.
By the way, what's your personal games target number? I'd love to hear from you Six Sided Rhinoceros readers out there.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Game Rankings by SultanSevy
Today, I wanted to share some of my personal views on tabletop games in the way of game rankings.
The following set of game rankings is for those tabletop games that are currently in my collection. There are a few omissions, mostly of games that I have no intention of ever playing and which will be going up on eBay eventually or sold privately. I also left out expansions to base games (such as those for Battlelore, HeroScape, Talisman, etc.) as well as a couple of rules sets included in wargaming books.
This list is primarily aimed at the members of SWABI, so that they can quickly see what types of games are in my collection and which ones I'm most likely to pull out during upcoming gaming sessions. However, my hope is that other visitors to this blog will find the list interesting as well, and will venture out to BoardGameGeek and The Miniatures Page to find out more about these games.
A quick note about the ratings:
The following set of game rankings is for those tabletop games that are currently in my collection. There are a few omissions, mostly of games that I have no intention of ever playing and which will be going up on eBay eventually or sold privately. I also left out expansions to base games (such as those for Battlelore, HeroScape, Talisman, etc.) as well as a couple of rules sets included in wargaming books.
This list is primarily aimed at the members of SWABI, so that they can quickly see what types of games are in my collection and which ones I'm most likely to pull out during upcoming gaming sessions. However, my hope is that other visitors to this blog will find the list interesting as well, and will venture out to BoardGameGeek and The Miniatures Page to find out more about these games.
A quick note about the ratings:
- The RATE column is my personal rating (on a scale of 1 to 10). These ratings could change over time as I play & study some of these games more, but my feeling is that they're very safe bets within +/- 2 places (i.e. a game rated 7 is unlikely to ever rise beyond a 9 or drop below a 5 in my estimation).
- The WEIGHT column is a guideline to the depth and complexity of the game play and its associated rules. Games with a Weight = 1 are simple to learn and lightweight, while games with Weight = 5 have complex rules and very deep, meaty game play.
For a list of games that I have available for trade, or those on my wishlist, see my profile (SultanSevy) on BoardGameGeek. Have fun!
| BOARD GAME | RATE | Players | Time | Weight | Type |
| Battlelore | 10 | 2 | 60 | 4 | Battle |
| HeroScape | 10 | 2 to 4 | 90 | 3 | Battle |
| Statis Pro Baseball | 10 | 2 | 60 | 3 | Sports |
| Domaine | 10 | 2 to 4 | 90 | 4 | Strategy |
| Feudal | 10 | 2 to 6 | 90 | 3 | Battle |
| Dungeon Twister | 9 | 2 | 60 | 4 | Strategy |
| Through the Desert | 9 | 2 to 5 | 45 | 3 | Strategy |
| Lord of the Rings: Confrontation | 9 | 2 | 30 | 3 | Strategy |
| Wizard Kings | 9 | 2 to 7 | 150 | 4 | Wargame |
| Hammer of the Scots | 9 | 2 | 180 | 4 | Wargame |
| Shadows Over Camelot | 9 | 3 to 7 | 90 | 3 | Adventure |
| Acquire | 9 | 2 to 6 | 90 | 3 | Economic |
| Talisman | 9 | 2 to 6 | 180 | 3 | Adventure |
| Tide of Iron | 9 | 2 to 4 | 120 | 5 | Battle |
| Strat-O-Matic Hockey | 9 | 2 | 90 | 3 | Sports |
| Warmaster | 9 | 2 | 120 | 4 | Miniatures |
| Wings of War -- Miniatures | 8 | 2 to 4 | 45 | 2 | Miniatures |
| Ticket to Ride | 8 | 2 to 5 | 60 | 2 | Strategy |
| Carcassonne | 8 | 2 to 5 | 60 | 2 | Strategy |
| Citadels | 8 | 2 to 7 | 60 | 2 | Strategy |
| Condottiere | 8 | 2 to 6 | 60 | 2 | Wargame |
| AT-43 | 8 | 2 | 60 | 4 | Miniatures |
| Cosmic Encounter | 8 | 3 to 6 | 90 | 3 | Strategy |
| Nexus Ops | 8 | 2 to 4 | 60 | 3 | Battle |
| Cash 'N Guns | 8 | 4 to 6 | 30 | 1 | Negotiation |
| Prophecy | 8 | 2 to 5 | 180 | 4 | Adventure |
| Win, Place, & Show | 8 | 3 to 6 | 120 | 3 | Sports |
| Pirate's Cove | 8 | 3 to 5 | 90 | 2 | Adventure |
| Battle Cry (Borg) | 8 | 2 | 45 | 2 | Battle |
| Arkham Horror | 8 | 2 to 8 | 180 | 5 | Adventure |
| Doom | 8 | 2 to 4 | 180 | 4 | Adventure |
| Blood Bowl | 8 | 2 | 120 | 4 | Sports |
| Wargods of Aegyptus | 8 | 2 | 180 | 5 | Miniatures |
| Tactica Medieval | 8 | 2 | 180 | 4 | Miniatures |
| SI Baseball | 8 | 1 to 2 | 45 | 3 | Sports |
| Monsters Menace America | 7 | 2 to 4 | 90 | 2 | Wargame |
| Battleball | 7 | 2 | 45 | 1 | Sports |
| Starship Catan | 7 | 2 | 60 | 3 | Strategy |
| Slapshot | 7 | 2 to 10 | 30 | 1 | Sports |
| Guillotine | 7 | 2 to 5 | 30 | 1 | Cards |
| Monkeys on the Moon | 7 | 2 to 4 | 60 | 3 | Strategy |
| Twixt | 7 | 2 | 30 | 3 | Abstract |
| Hordes of the Things | 7 | 2 to 6 | 45 | 4 | Miniatures |
| Mystery of the Abbey | 7 | 3 to 6 | 120 | 3 | Strategy |
| Chaos Marauders | 7 | 2 to 4 | 45 | 1 | Cards |
| Scrabble | 7 | 2 to 4 | 90 | 3 | Word |
| Attack! | 7 | 2 to 6 | 180 | 3 | Wargame |
| Saboteur | 7 | 3 to 10 | 30 | 1 | Cards |
| Pinochle | 7 | 2 to 4 | 45 | 3 | Cards |
| Ancient/Medieval Warfare | 7 | 2 | 120 | 3 | Miniatures |
| Warhammer | 7 | 2 | 240 | 5 | Miniatures |
| Tactica | 7 | 2 | 180 | 4 | Miniatures |
| Chronopia | 7 | 2 | 90 | 5 | Miniatures |
| Facts In Five | 7 | 1 to 5 | 30 | 2 | Word |
| Pursue the Pennant | 7 | 2 | 60 | 4 | Sports |
| NHL Strategy | 7 | 2 | 60 | 3 | Sports |
| SI Football | 7 | 1 to 2 | 90 | 3 | Sports |
| Lionheart | 6 | 2 | 60 | 2 | Battle |
| Stocks & Bonds | 6 | 2 to 8 | 60 | 3 | Economic |
| Apples to Apples | 6 | 4 to 10 | 30 | 1 | Word |
| Trivial Pursuit | 6 | 2 to 24 | 90 | 2 | Trivia |
| Mystery Rummy | 6 | 2 to 4 | 45 | 2 | Cards |
| Balderdash | 6 | 3 to 6 | 60 | 1 | Word |
| Rogue Trooper | 6 | 2 to 6 | 120 | 2 | Adventure |
| Illuminati | 6 | 2 to 6 | 120 | 3 | Strategy |
| Executive Decision | 6 | 2 to 6 | 90 | 3 | Economic |
| Dark Tower | 6 | 1 to 4 | 90 | 2 | Adventure |
| Bowl Bound | 6 | 2 | 60 | 2 | Sports |
| Orc's Drift | 6 | 2 | 120 | 4 | Miniatures |
| Breakthru | 6 | 2 | 30 | 2 | Abstract |
| Scene It! Movie Edition | 6 | 2 | 30 | 1 | Trivia |
| De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) | 6 | 2 to 6 | 45 | 4 | Miniatures |
| Warrior Heroes | 6 | 2 | 150 | 4 | Miniatures |
| Thinking Man's Golf | 6 | 1 to 4 | 60 | 2 | Sports |
| Battle Cry (Amer.Heritage) | 6 | 2 to 4 | 60 | 2 | Wargame |
| Celtos | 6 | 2 | 120 | 4 | Miniatures |
| Vis Magica | 6 | 2 | 240 | 5 | Miniatures |
| All Wound Up | 5 | 2 to 4 | 60 | 1 | Miniatures |
| Poker | 5 | 2 to 10 | 30 | 3 | Cards |
| Knightmare Chess | 5 | 2 | 60 | 3 | Abstract |
| Backgammon | 5 | 2 | 30 | 2 | Abstract |
| Othello | 5 | 2 | 30 | 2 | Abstract |
| Warlord | 5 | 2 | 90 | 4 | Miniatures |
| De Bellis Multitudinis (DBM) | 5 | 2 | 180 | 5 | Miniatures |
| Wise & Otherwise | 5 | 2 to 6 | 45 | 1 | Word |
| Monopoly | 5 | 2 to 8 | 180 | 2 | Economic |
| Crucible | 5 | 2 | 180 | 5 | Miniatures |
| Dark Emperor | 5 | 2 | 120 | 4 | Wargame |
| Gettysburg | 5 | 2 | 120 | 5 | Wargame |
| Tactics II | 5 | 2 | 120 | 3 | Wargame |
| Diplomacy | 5 | 2 to 7 | 360 | 5 | Negotiation |
| Russian Campaign | 5 | 2 | 360 | 5 | Wargame |
| Pass the Pigs | 4 | 2 to 10 | 30 | 1 | Dice |
| Jargon | 4 | 2 to 6 | 60 | 2 | Word |
| Rummy-O | 4 | 2 to 4 | 30 | 1 | Domino |
| Blue Line Hockey | 4 | 2 | 45 | 2 | Sports |
| Milk & Cookies Rules | 4 | 2 | 90 | 3 | Miniatures |
| Rollout | 4 | 2 to 6 | 120 | 3 | Economic |
| Image | 3 | 2 to 6 | 30 | 2 | Trivia |
| RSVP | 3 | 2 | 60 | 2 | Word |
| VH1 Pop Up Video | 3 | 2 | 45 | 2 | Trivia |
| Let's Go to the Races | 3 | 4 to 16 | 60 | 3 | Sports |
| Trivial Pursuit - Sports Edition | 3 | 2 to 6 | 60 | 3 | Trivia |
| Battlestorm | 3 | 2 | 180 | 5 | Miniatures |
| Americana Golf | 2 | 1 to 4 | 45 | 1 | Sports |
| Yahtzee | 1 | 2 to 10 | 30 | 1 | Dice |
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