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Games/Game Styles you can't get to the table

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22 Sep 2017 16:23 - 22 Sep 2017 16:23 #254630 by charlest

Nulluser wrote: I have a group that refuses to play anything longer than an hour, with 4/5 players. It was never like that before but during the Circus days I foisted so many BAD, OVERLONG games on them that it jaded them.


How long ago was that ("the Circus days")?
Last edit: 22 Sep 2017 16:23 by charlest.

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22 Sep 2017 16:42 #254631 by Erik Twice

san il defanso wrote: I generally think that younger gamers are more open to new experiences than seasoned veterans.

In my experience, young gamers can be very narrowminded. As long as you give them some kind of ameitrashy game with obvious appeal, things go well, but they often reject games with "serious" settings out of hand.

Older gamers are less likely to reject games based on the setting, but they tend to be closed off to certain experiences instead (Eg, "take-that").

In a sense I feel I want to play "old people's games" with "young gamers" and that's kind of difficult.
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23 Sep 2017 15:38 #254668 by Vlad
Besides warhammer (which is like 90% of my gaming as of late), I play with 2 groups semi-regularly. They would play absolutely anything, as long as it is Rex.
I should be proud, because I introduced them to it, and also duneified it as much as possible. But it is a little frustrating that we don't have boardgame nights anymore, we have Dune nights.
From time to time, we'd play Spartacus or Cosmic (specially when there's a new player), but any attempts to bring other games are a fiasco. People would play, but without enthusiasm, and there would be questions like "so what unique powers do factions have?" or "are there alliances?" "can two people win together?" "is there bribery?" And my favorite: "So, where is the battle-wheel?"
We had a new guy come over and asked if we'd play a game of Catan. The answer was such a universal scoff, I felt a little bad for him.
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23 Sep 2017 22:03 - 25 Sep 2017 15:50 #254682 by Cranberries
I have three groups I play with, and they each have preferences.

1. A colleague who has had cancer and doesn't like to be exposed to groups of potentially sick people, because he has no immune system. So we play at his house, but only when his wife is gone. There is an unwritten rule that when his wife returns, the game ends immediately. This has never been formally discussed. His energy levels are low too, so we can't play late. So not a lot of long games.Except he meets with large groups of people at work. I'm not sure what is going on. But he played Mimby Zojo with us, and he owns Blood Bowl and that GW naval game which we played before. He's trying to get me to play Twilight STruggle via Steam but he has been playing it a million times and reading strategy articles, and he'll just destroy me so I'm not that motivated. He leans towards point salads.

2. My old group of ten+ years. There are 2-3 old guys left, and a bunch of young guys who play anything space themed or newer. The old guys like euros with economic engines and train games. One guy played 1870 at his house until 3:00 a.m. on a work night. He's 55+, so I guess it was a grail experience. I only meet with them every six months, because I'd rather play trashier games I guess. We played Happy Pigs last time.

3. My family--teens ages 13, 16 and 17, and my wife, who will occasionally play something. She just wants to play Rat-a-Tat-Cat and not learn any new rules. I wonder if she is hiding early onset dementia from me. We tend to argue when we play, although it has been better lately. They would prefer to play games that have a fun theme and are thirty minutes long. That copy of Earth Reborn, Close Action, EastFront and several others are probably never going to be played. They treat gaming with dad like any other tedious chore: "Oh, I have SO MUCH homework". Right now they're downstairs blowing off their homework and watching crappy Korean soap operas or anime.

4. Our only adult friends--the husband--will bring his son by and my son and he will play a game once in a while. Last night we played Dominion, which I hadn't played since forever, having played a demo game with Jay Tummelson once in SLC. Both of our sons were optimization monsters. I'd like to get them to play Zimby Mojo. They might play something longer in the right circumstances.

So longer, heavier games don't hit the table. Wargames don't hit the table. I don't think we'll ever play Cosmic Eidex. We're not playing Duel of Ages II (although my son read the rules and we tried it briefly) and Prince of Chaos probably won't hit the table. Maybe Ars Victor.
Last edit: 25 Sep 2017 15:50 by Cranberries.

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23 Sep 2017 22:55 #254684 by dysjunct
Long two-player games are my nemesis. I like Twilight Struggle and would probably like other war games, but I am blessed/cursed with a group of 4-5 great buds who are almost always down to play games. So the 2p games rarely come out and then I sell them and am sad.
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23 Sep 2017 23:06 - 23 Sep 2017 23:10 #254685 by dysjunct

cranberries wrote: 3. My family--teens ages 13, 16 and 17, and my wife, who will occasionally play something. She just want to play Rat-a-Tat-Cat and not learn any new rules. I wonder if she is hiding early onset dementia from me. We tend to argue when we play, although it has been better lately.


Ever since my limerick creeped you out, I’m trying to be less voyeuristic about the tidbits of info about your family life that you drop here, but this isn’t helping.
Last edit: 23 Sep 2017 23:10 by dysjunct.
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23 Sep 2017 23:14 #254686 by Gary Sax

dysjunct wrote: Long two-player games are my nemesis. I like Twilight Struggle and would probably like other war games, but I am blessed/cursed with a group of 4-5 great buds who are almost always down to play games. So the 2p games rarely come out and then I sell them and am sad.


Yeah, I'd file under good problem to have!

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24 Sep 2017 00:44 #254688 by cdennett
Wow, timely article as I was fortunate to get a copy of The Expanse at GenCon and haven't been able to get it to the table for a frickin month... To be fair, dealing with Harvey didn't help and I had to cancel some game nights, but I also had some extra time when there was nothing to do.

I run a weekly game night at my house, and that's my primary source for gaming. Unfortunately my friend who lives 4 streets away and is my most prolific attendee is generally a fun-murdering cube pusher. And my wife isn't a big gamer, but doesn't like to be left out, and since we game after 8 her brain is mush and she doesn't want to play anything new or complicated. So if we can get to 6 players, we'll break up into two games, which allows one group to go play Terraforming Mars or whatnot, but I'm then usually playing something lighter and often a co-op. It's not terrible, but I can rarely get some of my favorite games to the table, like Cthulhu Wars, Wiz-War, Argent, or Forbidden Stars. And Cosmic Encounter is almost universally hated by the group.

Basically, if it has area control, dudes on a map, direct conflict, or negotiation, it's an uphill battle to get to the table...so basically anything Ameritrash. King of Tokyo maybe the only game that can transcend that boundary.

I'm working on the wife to let me do a monthly weekend game day and then try and schedule specific games that I normally can't get played due to length, complexity, or just not the right mix of people. We'll see if I can field enough interest from my group or if I'm brave enough to go invite random folk from the BGG community...
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24 Sep 2017 08:48 #254692 by Da Bid Dabid

Vlad wrote: I should be proud, because I introduced them to it, and also duneified it as much as possible. But it is a little frustrating that we don't have boardgame nights anymore, we have Dune nights.


This is definitely the best problem to have. But in all honesty you have duneified nights, not Dune nights. ;)

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24 Sep 2017 14:46 #254713 by Vlad
Yeah, well, that's just like your opinion, man.
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25 Sep 2017 10:07 #254742 by san il defanso
One style of game that I find really difficult to get played is basically every card game. Most short card games (what most gamers would traditionally call "fillers") aren't interesting enough to push bigger games off the table. The ones that are, are all still competing with big box games that look flashier, take up more field of vision, and are therefore go-tos when a smaller game would still be great. That means lots of really good games, like Glory to Rome, Innovation, and Mascarade lay unplayed even though I would consider all of them to be terrific games.

A couple of smaller games (like Omen: Reign of War) are good enough that I work hard to push them as playing options. Otherwise it's hard for me to get card games to the table.
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25 Sep 2017 11:22 #254749 by Legomancer

san il defanso wrote: One style of game that I find really difficult to get played is basically every card game. Most short card games (what most gamers would traditionally call "fillers") aren't interesting enough to push bigger games off the table. The ones that are, are all still competing with big box games that look flashier, take up more field of vision, and are therefore go-tos when a smaller game would still be great. That means lots of really good games, like Glory to Rome, Innovation, and Mascarade lay unplayed even though I would consider all of them to be terrific games.

A couple of smaller games (like Omen: Reign of War) are good enough that I work hard to push them as playing options. Otherwise it's hard for me to get card games to the table.


I have this exact problem as well. It frustrates me that my group will ALWAYS choose the 2 hour meaty game over a shorter game unless we're rain dancing, and then they don't want anything new. So we just play long games and For Sale.

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25 Sep 2017 17:48 #254775 by wadenels
I have a handful of fantastic older games. Some GW stuff from the 80s, a couple Avalon Hill titles, a couple old Knizia titles, and a few other random things. I have they because I think they're great games. Nobody wants to play them. I think a lot of people I've gamed with would rather discuss what new game is on the horizon than play something prior to March of 2017.

I also struggle to get negotiation games to the table. I tend to be pretty decent at negotiation games so you'd think I could negotiate them to the table, but you'd be sadly wrong. I understand negotiation games aren't everybody's cup of tea, but you'd swear by the look on people's faces when I bring these games up that I'd offered up a big old steaming cup of the plague.

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