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Finding the board game of your dreamsFeb 04 '01 (Updated Dec 12 '01) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line First you have to know where to look.
Right off the bat, I have to contradict my esteemed colleague Violet2J: Classics are not No. 1 in fun. If you limit yourself to the safe and familiar, you're missing out on the best that the board game publishing world has to offer. As I mentioned in my piece under "What You Should Know About Board Games," you need to find a game store that carries more than the stuff you'll find at Toys 'R' Us. Follow this process: 1. Check the Yellow Pages under "Games & Game Supplies -- Retail." Call each store and ask whether it carries Settlers of Catan (I'll explain why in a moment). If the answer is no, don't bother with it. If the answer is yes, ask whether it carries El Grande. If you've gotten two yeses, ask whether it carries Frank's Zoo. The answers to these questions will tell you how deep the store's stock is. One yes means that the only non-mass-market games it carries are bestsellers. Two yeses means it carries a good range of board games for adults but may not have enough for younger kids. Three yeses means you've struck gold. It's possible -- actually, probable -- that you'll find nothing in your immediate area. In that case . . . 2. Visit Matthew Gray's online board game database (boardgamestuff.com/cgi-bin/gamestore.pl) to search for a game store near you. Be warned that some of the stores that come up will be aimed at "hobby gamers" (fans of strategy, roleplaying and collectible card games) rather than the general game-buying public. Don't worry about this one way or the other; just ask the same questions listed above, and you'll find out whether the store meets your needs. A greater worry is that the nearest store will be further away than you care to go. In which case . . . 3. Visit an online board game retailer. Two of the best are Funagain Games (www.funagain.com) and Fair Play Games (www.fairplaygames.com). Two others with good selections and good prices are Boulder Games (www.bouldergames.com) and Sundown Games (www.sundowngames.com). I wouldn't recommend Boardgames.com; its selection is quite limited compared to the other ones I've listed. As a courtesy to the hardworking specialty game store proprietors who keep the industry alive, please don't skip to this step without first trying steps 1 and 2. Also, never underestimate the value of being able to look at and handle games in person. Better retailers will even have copies cracked open so that you can see for yourself what the components look and feel like. Now you've found a source for quality board games for kids and adults -- and you may well find yourself thoroughly boggled by the range of options, nearly all of them unfamiliar. Here are a few guidelines to help you navigate this terra incognita ludorum: Brand: It's very, very hard to go wrong with anything by Rio Grande Games, an American company that distributes English-language editions of popular European game titles. These games are manufactured in the same production runs as the editions sold overseas, which means they're made of materials that are considerably sturdier and classier than what we're used to in America. Some other dependable board game publishers are Mayfair Games, Fantasy Flight Games, Descartes/Eurogames and Jumbo Games, along with Hasbro's Avalon Hill brand (acquired from a defunct publisher of wargames). For younger kids, Ravensburger and Gamewright are superior brands. Complexity: Go by the age recommendation. A "12 and up" recommendation generally means a rulebook of eight or more pages; adults will find it complex and challenging, though not brain-burning. A "10 and up" recommendation generally means four to six pages of rules and less complex decision-making -- adults will find it light and enjoyable, and adults and kids can easily play it together. A game with an "8 and up" recommendation will be simple to adults; kids will be able to play it together without adult involvement. Lower and more specific age recommendations are suitable for children of the appropriate age and probably of little interest to adults. Games that ordinary adults would find difficult generally don't come with age recommendations at all. Playing time: This is an important consideration, since many imported games assume a longer attention span than we Americans may possess. :-) Luckily, almost all quality board games, especially those produced in Europe, indicate the length of a typical game. For comparison purposes, a typical game of Taboo lasts 45 minutes; a typical game of Monopoly lasts 60 minutes; a typical game of Risk lasts 90 minutes; a typical game of Monopoly using the house rule under which you get money for landing on Free Parking lasts 120 minutes. Games designed specifically for children are almost always finishable in 20 minutes or less. Awards: A Spiel des Jahres ("Game of the Year") or Deutscher Spielepreis ("German Game Award") tells you that a game is really something special -- it beat out a dozen or so other strong competitors released the same year in a country that takes board games as seriously as we take daytime television. Inclusion in Games magazine's end-of-year Top 100 is a fairly strong endorsement. A Mensa award doesn't mean much of anything. Designer: You may not be used to thinking of a game's designer as being important, but at least in Germany, it's a big deal. Certain designers are well-known for the number of games they design and the quality of those games. Some of the most prolific and talented designers are Doris Matthäus and Frank Nestel (a husband-and-wife team), Klaus Teuber, Reiner Knizia, Uwe Rosenberg, Rudi Hoffmann, Wolfgang Kramer, Alex Randolph, Stefan Dorra, Sid Sackson, Alan Moon and Richard Garfield. Theme: If a game's theme amuses or interests you, it's more likely to hold your attention. So if you think, for example, that archaeological exploration in the jungle is cool, Tikal might be up your alley. This is a totally subjective criterion, but one you should still take into account. All these things taken together will help you identify which games could be good. But how do you know whether a game is good? For starters, a store owner knowledgeable enough to carry a deep selection of games will certainly have opinions about which ones are more fun than others. Funagain's site contains user-written reviews of many games, though you'll find that many of them are written by and for hobby gamers. For the ultimate in comprehensive reference, there's Aaron Fuegi's Internet Top 100 (www.bu.edu/~aarondf/top100), which actually lists more than 2,600 games, ranked on a 1-to-10 scale by readers of the rec.games.board Usenet newsgroup. Unfortunately, the actual top 100 list, while brief and well-formatted for reading, lists games originally published in Germany under their German names, which probably won't help you. With that in mind, here are a few recommendations of my own to help you expand your board game horizons: Best Family Games: Settlers of Catan, Through the Desert, Streetcar, Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix, Mississippi Queen, Scotland Yard Best Light Strategy Games for Adults: Modern Art, El Grande, Torres, Tikal, Acquire, Carcassonne, Löwenherz Best Not-So-Light Strategy Games for Adults: Tigris & Euphrates, Princes of Florence, Java Best Party Games: Apples to Apples, Taboo, Scattergories, Namesake, Imaginiff Best Game for Couples: Caesar & Cleopatra Best Well-Known Family Games: Scrabble, Pit, Mille Bornes Nothing to Sneeze At -- If You Follow the Rules to the Letter: Monopoly Best Nontraditional Card Games: Bohnanza, Get the Goods, Wizard, Guillotine, Lord of the Fries Best Games That Teenage Boys Will Consider Cool: Samurai, Robo Rally, Battle Cry, Cosmic Encounter, Formula De One Game That Teenage Girls Might Conceivably Consider Cool: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (unlike many games with product tie-ins, this one is actually a pretty good game!) Best Games Just for Kids: Hare and Tortoise, Frank's Zoo, Galloping Pigs, Rat-a-Tat Cat, Midnight Party Best Game in the World -- If You've Got Seven Players and the Whole Afternoon Ahead of You: Diplomacy Finally, a word on prices: Many of these games will be more expensive than you may be expecting. Don't freak out about it. First, they're designed better and manufactured better, so they deserve the higher price. Second, when you consider how many people play a game and how many times they play it over its lifespan, then compare that to the cost of the same number of people going out to an equivalent number of movies, you'll realize that board games are among the world's greatest entertainment bargains. The real problem isn't the price of one game -- it's how much you wind up spending on new ones once you get hooked. :-)  |
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