Shelf of Shame | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com Where to jump in on board games, anime, books, and movies as a Nerd Wed, 09 Feb 2022 15:24:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://nerdologists.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/nerdologists-favicon.png Shelf of Shame | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com 32 32 Unplayed Board Games – The Bottom 24 https://nerdologists.com/2022/02/unplayed-board-games-the-bottom-24/ https://nerdologists.com/2022/02/unplayed-board-games-the-bottom-24/#comments Wed, 09 Feb 2022 15:16:57 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=6662 What board games are in the bottom part of my unplayed games? I take a deeper dive to what games are that low and why.

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So, yesterday I talked about my unplayed board games. My plan was to spend some time talking about the games, but I instead talked about Shelf of Shame and Shelf of Opportunity, and how I treat my games that I haven’t played. I think it’s an odd issue to talk about, but something important to talk about with board games. I also laid out my full list. But now we’re going to talk about the games themselves.

Unplayed Board Games 124 to 101

124: Monza

This is a kids car racing game from Haba. It is one that I will play when the toddler is ready to play it. But, for right now, it has some cars in it. And the toddler can match up the cars to spots on the board. Or roll the dice and have fun with it. Not one that’s likely to get played this year, I’d think, but maybe towards the end of the year the toddler will be ready.

123: Dragon Tea Society

This one, and the next one, fall into that same category a bit. Though really Dragon Tea Society and Monza. Dragon Tea Society is a deck building style game. You draw cards, play them out, get more cards, but a simple one at that. It’s cute, I want to try it, but again, this is probably more apt to get played when the toddler is older.

122: Hey, That’s My Fish

As we get out of the games for younger or family audience, we have Hey, That’s My Fish. It is a game about collecting fish. And as you collect fish you break up the ice flow so that it limits where your opponent can go. That seems a little mean, but the concept is easy to grasp. It is one I could see waiting for the toddler to be ready to play it, or playing it with adults just for an easy game.

Danger Park
Image Source: Story Machine Games

121: Danger Park

Next we have Danger Park. I bought this game when the company was going out of business. It’s about building out your amusement park, and clearly you don’t care that much for the safety of your park goers. I like the concept of pushing to see how you can build out the park so that it’s risky but you can make the most money or points.

120: The Faceless

This is a game I saw a while ago on Kickstarter, and it looked cool, in concept. I’m not sure what was going on, but I bought it cheap as the stock was being sold off. The Faceless has you playing as kids trying to avoid a monster. And the monster moves around based off of magnetic pull from where the kids are. The concept seems cool, we’ll have to see how good it is. Because I’d love to be able to manipulate where the monster goes via magnets.

119: 8Bit Box

This is one that I’ve owned for a while. And I keep on meaning to play it, or play one or two of the games in it to see how it is. 8Bit Box promises a game system that has a retro arcade feel. You can pull out some base pieces and a cartridge for a specific game, and that is what you play around with. I don’t know if it’ll be good, I expect it’ll be okay. And it’s a fun concept to mess around with.

118: The Terrifying Girl Disorder

Another one that is not new to my shelf. I bought this game when it was on a sale because it seemed intriguing. A small box card game, the most intriguing part is that you score based off of one of the girls. But you don’t know which it’ll be when you start the game. So you are looking to gather cards in a way that will score you points.

Boy Band Builder
Image Source; !uke earley, Sam Rosen, and Samuel Geer

117: Boy Band Builder

My wife backed this one on Kickstarter. A game from a small and new company here in Minneapolis. It is about building a boy band, and it looks funny. It’s one of those games that we’ll see how good it is, but I also have it higher than some on the list, because I expect for one play, it is going to provide a bunch of good laughs.

116: Starship Samurai

Next up is Starship Samurai. I like mechs and this game has cool mechs. Beyond that it is area control, negotiation – it seems, set collection, a lot of mechanics that I enjoy in the game. I think that the game itself looks better than the box looks, which is a shame. The artwork on the box doesn’t sell me on the game.

115: Unicornus Knights

On the flip side, Unicornus Knights looks good. And I really like the concept of the game. The princess is traveling the land to get to a big bad and fighting as she goes. But you, as knights around her know that she can’t win every fight and shouldn’t get into them. So you manipulate where she moves and deal with threats for her. I like the concept of the main character, the princess, but no one plays her.

114: Copenhagen: Roll & Write

It’s a roll and write game. I got it cheap. I don’t need to say more than that. And honestly, I don’t know a ton more about it than that. It’s one that I should just bust out and play and see how it is. I need to get rid of a few more roll and writes as the roll and writes take up 3 full Kallax cubbies.

113: Journey: Wrath of Demons

This is another game that I should know more about. I keep on researching it, because it keeps on being on sale. Eventually a sale was good enough, and in person, so I grabbed it. It’s a cooperative adventure game based off of a classic Chinese novel. That little bit is enough to keep me very interested in the game, so I want to see how it plays. Plus the cover looks impressive.

112: Cowboy Bebop: Board Game Boogie

This one I picked up because of theme. I really like Cowboy Bebop. It’s up there for my favorite anime, and aesthetically, it is amazing. This is a cooperative game where you are all part of the crew and you try and complete bounties. Each character also wants to do specific things for their own story. So it’s a push and pull of that. I don’t know how great this one is, but it is worth it to me to play it for the theme.

Detective: City of Angels
Image Source: Board Game Geek

111: Detective: City of Angels

Detective: City of Angels, on the other hand, I am very confident will be a great game. It is a crime solving game with a lot of cases. Each person plays a detective racing to solve the case first. Except for one person who plays the chisel, they basically decide on how answers are given. The reason this is low, even though I really want to play it, is that most likely I end up being the chisel. This is a game I want to experience the cases as the detective, but since I own the game, I’ll likely learn it and play as the game master.

110: The Ravens of Thri Sahashri

Another that isn’t new to my shelf. A two player game that I really should pull off the shelf when my friend who I teach a lot of new games to comes over. But the idea is that one person is playing out cards, the other person is trying to pull them back. I forget exactly how it works, but it’s a puzzle of a game to get cards split into certain groupings which looks really interesting.

109: Shadows of Kyoto

Shadows of Kyoto, from the same company as Hanamikoji, is another two player game. In some ways it gives me a little bit of a feeling of a Stratego sort of game. You try and capture enemy agents, or pass along fake intelligence, or escape an agent to win. It plays fast, and I hope that it’s as punchy and interesting a decision space as Hanamikoji, but I suspect it might not be.

108: Ascension: Immortal Heroes

This is a different version of Ascension, but more different than a lot of the expansion/standalone boxes. So I’m curious to see how this one plays. I hope that it keeps a lot of the core mechanics, but maybe makes the game more directly battling versus so purely deck building. I honestly don’t know that much, I got it on a good sale.

107: Pioneer Days

The second game I bought as a company went out of business, this time TMG (Tasty Minstrel Games). Pioneer Days looks like a dice drafting game, and I like dice drafting. It is supposed to have a bit of an Oregon Trail feel where you are heading up west, getting what you need but also having to deal with troubles, weather, sickness, and the like, as you travel. I like the concept of the game a lot, and the artwork on the box is great.

Pioneer Days
Image Source: Tasty Minstrel Games

106: Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write

Another roll and write game. And there are a number more on the list. This one is a roll and write version of Portal Games Imperial Settlers. That is an engine building game, so I’m guessing it’ll be similar for the roll and write. Or in roll and write terms a combo building game. Another one that I just need to play to see if it’s a roll and write that sticks around.

105: Quarto

Part of a line of abstract games, it’s been on my shelf too long. And I really like the concept of the game. You are trying to complete a row that matches. But you don’t get to pick what piece you place, your opponent does. So there are shapes, heights, colors, hollow or not, that can all cause a row to be completed. Can you back your opponent into a corner where they need to give you a piece that lets you win.

104: Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game

One that is lower on the list because it was kind of a grail game for me. By grail game I mean a game that’s out of print or harder to find that you want to get, the holy grail. But it was only kind of one. I want to see how the game is, mess around with it, because it’s kind of a living card game that is done. And it has some nice designers on it. Plus, I like Cthulhu.

103: Escape the Room: Mystery at the Stargazer’s Manor

Escape room games are hard to know where to rank. I like escape room games, but even in my Top 100, they don’t make it. So when ranking them, it is harder to rank. This has a Lovecraftian theme, which is always a plus for me. And it is in a bigger box than stuff like Unlock and Exit. I don’t know if it means it’s a bigger game, but I’m curious, and I know I’ll like it when I get people over to play it.

102: Mesozooic

A smaller game, Mesozooic just looked like a fun game to get. And like a lot of games on my list, it was on sale. It’s about creating a dinosaur themed part, which is a common theme in games. But it’s in a small package, light, and fast, and the artwork looks great on it. Plus it’s a real time game for part of it and then drafting as well, so I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and a good filler to try.

Tags
Image Source: Asmodee

101: TAGS

Finally, we have TAGS to round out this chunk of the list. TAGS is a party game where in teams, I believe, you try to come up with words that match a prompt and a letter. This isn’t that unique, but the game plays fast, and by that I mean you have 15 seconds to guess, then the next team gets 15 and the next. So you need to be very fast in the moment. Seems like a chaotic and fun time.

Final Thoughts

This chunk of the list I do think I’ll play a handful of games. I’ve love to play the escape room game as well as TAGS. And the roll and write games I can knock out solo as well. Mesozooic seems like a good one as well. There are others, mainly Detective: City of Angels that I really want to play, but do I want to put the time in right now to learning that game and playing as the chisel.

Which game would you play first from this group of games?

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New Years Board Game Challenge Resolution https://nerdologists.com/2021/12/new-years-board-game-challenge-resolution/ https://nerdologists.com/2021/12/new-years-board-game-challenge-resolution/#comments Mon, 27 Dec 2021 20:24:50 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=6512 What board game challenge do I want to do in 2022? I have a few ideas of different challenges but I've given myself a target.

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So, if you’ve been keeping up with my 365 Days of Board Gaming challenge, you’ll know that I beat that number pretty handily. Mainly thanks to the board game Orchard, a solo game that I’ve played over 100 times since getting it. And as we get to 2022, it’s time to consider what board game challenge I want to do this year?

Different Board Game Challenges

Let’s go over some of the challenges that are pretty common for people.

1×100 – Pick one game in your collection and play it 100 times

10×10 – 10 games played 10 times each

365 – What I did this year, 365 game plays in 365 days

Whole Collection – Play through my whole collection, that doesn’t mean beat all legacy or campaign games, but give them a whirl.

Shelf of Shame/Opportunity – This is playing all the games in your collection that you haven’t played before.

# of Total Plays or # of Different Games – Two similar but different ones. It’s basically picking an arbitrary

The Tough Things With Challenges

So, you can see there are a lot of different challenges that can be done. And I also get why some people don’t like doing a board game challenge. 1×100 is extremely restrictive. If you find after 50 plays of a game you’re done with it, now what do you do? Do you power through the last 50 plays or risk the same scenario happening again by trying to get to 100 with a new game?

Any total number of game one is easier for me to do. If I play any game I want in my collection, I want to play games all the time. But now I’ve done 365 plays in 365 days plus some. I’ll end around 420 I think. So just doing that again wouldn’t be too challenging. I could push to a higher number 500 plays for the year. But that feels the same as last years in some ways. Covid kept my plays down to start the year, and I can’t see it doing the same again.

Space Base
Image Source: AEG

What Board Game Challenge Do I Pick?

Well, it’s going to be a two part challenge. I’m shooting for 365 again. But to go with that, I have a number of my games that I need to play. I might be off slightly on some of this. I have 137 games that I own and haven’t played. Why I say this might be off is because these games aren’t rated, but I might have just missed rating a game.

So, I am not guaranteeing that I’ll play all of them. but I want to get that list lower. So my goal, by the end of 2022, is to have that unplayed games list down below 100. Now, that doesn’t sound too hard. But keep in mind that I buy new games, that doesn’t include crowdfunding games that will come in. And I did a whole article on board games that are going to be released, theoretically in 2022 that I’m interested in. You can find that here.

By putting the target at below 100 is going to be a challenge since I need to find people to play them with. I can’t do every game night that I run as a new board game night. Thankfully I do have one friend who is always up for trying a new board game, we played Kohaku last week. So he’ll play some of them with me, some I’ll play solo, and who knows when I’ll bust out others.

Plus, this is the end of year target. If I get in 30 new games that makes it way harder. Now, there is a chance a game might be sold without a play, making it easier, but this is going to be the tougher part of the challenge than the 365 plays in a year.

Call to Adventure Stormlight
Image Source: Brotherwise Games

Final Thoughts

It was fun to do a challenge last year. And I am excited to do it again this year. And I’m excited to use this as an excuse to push for getting more of those games that I own but haven’t played played to know if they are going to be a game for me. Like I said, crowdfunded games are going to start showing up and I’ll need the shelf space.

Now, a challenge like this isn’t for everyone. I get it that it can make playing games seem like work. And that is never the goal. We want to play games because they are fun. For me, this is a way to help keep me in the fun. I love to play board games and doing so makes me happy. So this is a nudge to keep playing games and keep being happy, I’ll give myself that nudge.

Have you done a board game challenge? How did it work for you?

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Top 10 Cooperative Games I Want To Play https://nerdologists.com/2021/06/top-10-cooperative-games-i-want-to-play/ https://nerdologists.com/2021/06/top-10-cooperative-games-i-want-to-play/#respond Tue, 15 Jun 2021 13:27:48 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=5784 I did my Top 10 favorite cooperative games, but what about those cooperative games that I'm looking forward to playing on my shelf?

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Last night on Malts and Meeples I streamed my Top 10 Cooperative Games. The video will be right below this, and if you want to read the list, it’s in the other article I posted on cooperative games today, which you can find here. But I really love cooperative games and I give some of the reasons for that. I just like that I can work together with other people to beat the game. It’s fun to beat other players, but it isn’t always as fun as working together.

With that said, I have a bunch of cooperative games sitting on my shelf and coming via Kickstarter. In fact, I probably have enough on my shelves to make a Top 10 games that way, but I am going to include what I have in Kickstarter and coming that way as well as what is on my shelf.

Let’s get to the list:

10 – Etherfields

This is one that I’m glad I backed from Awaken Realms, but while they normally get me with their theme, like Lords of Hellas and Tainted Grail, Etherfields theme of going through dreams was just interesting, it didn’t blow me away. The game play, however, seemed cool, and now I know that Awaken Realms does amazing story. I think what drew me to the game, the game play and deck building still is strong there, and I’m still excited for when I’ll get my copy in.

Image Source: Mythic Games

9 – HEL: The Last Saga

This is the game that really put Mythic Games on the map for me. I’d looked at Reichbusters and Super Fantasy Brawl when they were on Kickstarter but I hadn’t backed them. Same with Joan of Arc. But HEL: The Last Saga, that just looked too cool for me to pass up. This one takes you through a campaign of Viking explorers trying to find out what had happened to the rest of the clan that had gone on ahead. Definitely seems to have a dark element to it that can lean into horror, which I love.

8 – Uprising: The Curse of the Last Empire

This is one that was on Kickstarter but I didn’t end up backing on Kickstarter. Instead, I backed it with a late pledge because the game just kept coming back to me as I one that I wanted to play. Uprising is a 4x game and those are rarely cooperative. And the players are trying to stop two AI controlled enemies. But for the players to get the win, each of the player factions needs to finish ahead of both of the AI factions. So everyone is playing their own faction, and everyone needs to beat the enemy. That idea is just so unique.

Image Source: Nemesis Games

7 – The Reckoners

Well, we are onto one that I have in hand now. And I’ve had this one in hand for a little bit, I just need to get it to the table. This one game takes place in one of my favorite book series, The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson. Basically the Reckoners are a team who tries to take out super powered people. Because all the super powered characters turn bad. But, of course, these are normal people trying to take on powered people, so that isn’t going to be that easy. This game uses dice and just seems really challenging and fun.

6 – Folklore: The Affliction

Another one that I own and this one I’ve had on my shelf for a while. It’s one that I’ve wanted to try streaming but just haven’t gotten to yet. Folklore: The Affliction has you fighting monsters and basically playing an RPG like game. You even use more RPG like dice than a lot of games do. The story just seems fun though, it doesn’t try and go too weird with anything, you are just dealing with werewolves, vampires, and ghosts, more of the normal things the best that you can.

5 – Middara: Unintentional Mallum Act 1

I recently did an unboxing of this game over on Malts and Meeples which you can find here. This is another massive dungeon crawl sort of game. It is even generally a fantasy style game. But the game leans heavily into anime artwork and feel of the game. This is a massive game, I think everything that I have probably is about the same size or slightly more than Gloomhaven, so you know the game is big. The theme and style is just different enough than most that I’m really interested in it.

Solomon Kane
Image Source: Mythic Games

4 – Solomon Kane

This is another kind of campaign game. I say kind of, because it has a lot of mini campaigns in it. Solomon Kane was originally a collection of short stories by Robert E. Howard who was also known for writing the Conan: The Barbarian stories. Solomon Kane was a bad guy who became a good guy who now fights the forces of evil in the world, of the super natural variety.

That theme is just cool, but how do you now end up with the player who is Solomon Kane being more powerful than anyone else in a cooperative setting? You do that by not playing as Solomon Kane. Instead you play as different virtues who are leading Solomon Kane through the stories, keeping him away from darkness. Really cool and unique idea for a game.

3 – Frosthaven

Now, a lot of people probably thought that this would be number one, and really, all my my top 5 are ones that I really am excited to play. Frosthaven is just a little bit lower because I have played all of Gloomhaven. Do I want more of that game system, absolutely. Does the town building sound cool, most definitely. But, I have already played Gloomhaven, so I want to try a few more of these campaign games before Frosthaven comes in. It’s one of those things where I’m already super confident I will love the game, because I know the core of it, so I’m less excited than some other ones.

2 – Roll Player Adventures

Such as Roll Player Adventures, I am really excited for this one to come in this summer. Roll Player Adventures builds upon some of the systems in Roll Player and turns it into an RPG. You are going through stories and adventures using interesting dice placement and other rules to defeat monsters, and play through stories making interesting choices. I have demoed this one, it was at GenCon in 2019, so I’m excited to finally get this game into my hands.

Image Source: Awaken Realms

1 – ISS Vanguard

Finally at #1, we have ISS Vanguard. An Awaken Realms game, this looks like it’s my type of space game. It is going to be a bit messy, like Awaken Realms games are, but a ton of fun. What is really interesting is that the game is in two parts. There is a phase where you improve and do upgrades on your ship, research new things and keep crew members happy and healthy. Then you also go down to planets to explore them and find out their secrets and the secrets of this call that drew you out to these planets.

Honorable Mentions

I could do a number of honorable mentions. I have The 7th Continent on my shelf that I need to play and Mage Knight. There is Robinson Crusoe. On Kickstarter I have The 7th Citadel that I’m looking forward to getting. Also on Kickstarter I have Zombicide: Undead or Alive and Primal: The Awakening all backed as well. Even other games on my shelf like Shadowrun: Sprawl Ops and a little one like The Fox in the Forest Duet are ones that they want to try. And just missing the list is Deep Madness as well. Really,

I have so many of these games that I want to try I could have done a Top 10 I’m waiting on and a Top 10 that I have. Maybe coming up here, I’ll look at what I have on my shelf, cooperative and competitive and do a Top 10 of ones I want to try and then try and get through them this summer.

What cooperative game are looking forward to getting to the table?

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Point of Sale: So Long To Scythe https://nerdologists.com/2020/11/point-of-sale-so-long-to-scythe/ https://nerdologists.com/2020/11/point-of-sale-so-long-to-scythe/#respond Wed, 18 Nov 2020 15:41:39 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=4968 So this is a new series of posts that is going to happen when I sell off a game, or get rid of a game.

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So this is a new series of posts that is going to happen when I sell off a game, or get rid of a game. It is hard to get rid of games, if a game has stuck on my shelf to now, that means that I probably like it quite well, or I haven’t gotten to it, so let’s look at the three games I traded in recently.

Scythe

Probably the most shocking on the list is Stonemaiers game Scythe. This is one of the most popular board games out there, and I actually never played my copy, so why did I get rid of it. The answer is because I’ll probably never play my copy. I have friends who have it and who know how to play it. So I’m going to be much more apt to play their copy with them teaching me. And because it is a bigger euro game, with amazing artwork I’ll give it that, I don’t have as much of a group to play it with as with some other games. So because this is a bigger game, more to know about and teach, I am getting rid of it, freeing up space in my shelf, and hopefully once I can game in person again, I’ll get a chance to play it with the person who has basically everything for the game and some of the bling for it as well.

Pandemic: On the Brink

I like Pandemic, in fact there are three different versions of Pandemic in my top 100, and 4 different versions of Pandemic on my shelf, so why am I getting rid of this expansion to the base game? If I want to have a fun gaming experience with a more advanced version of Pandemic, I will probably take someone through Pandemic Legacy Season 1. I’ve played it twice, and I’d happily play it again as a game master type of roll, because the game is still challenging. If I want to just teach someone the game, adding in stuff from On The Brink is going to add to the complexity of the game, so I won’t put it in. That means that it would have to be a very rare and special situation where I wouldn’t be taking someone through Pandemic Legacy Season 1, and I wouldn’t be teaching someone the base game to need On The Brink. It just was too rare a scenario for me to ever be likely to play it.

Image Source: Plaid Hat Games

Stuffed Fables

When this game cam out, I was really really excited for it. It was a game about stuffed animals who were going on adventures and fighting off the scary animals under the bed while their human, a little girl was asleep, the figures are adorable in the game, book maps are adorable and really everything about it is great component wise, so why am I selling it? There’s one main reason, the theme of this game is for kids, and for younger kids, but with four adults playing it, there were rules questions and things we weren’t sure on. I could eventually take my kid through that game, but by the time he would be able to grasp the strategy and the complexities of the game, I have a whole lot of other games that we can play as well. This isn’t kind of an in between game between kids games and games for adults, it’s just that way in theme. And I think that the theme definitely targets a younger audience than the mechanics do. So as much as I wanted to keep this one on the shelf, there are just too many other good games out there that I’ll be able to play with my toddler eventually to keep one with sometimes confusing rules around.

Which one shocks you the most, probably me getting rid of Scythe. I really want to play that game, and the campaign expansion box, Rise of Fenris looks amazing, but I just know getting my copy to my table wasn’t likely to happen.

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Old Favorite – Shiny and New Board Games https://nerdologists.com/2019/05/old-favorite-shiny-and-new-board-games/ https://nerdologists.com/2019/05/old-favorite-shiny-and-new-board-games/#respond Tue, 21 May 2019 13:24:23 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=3135 Fun board game thought I had yesterday, surrounding board game nights. Last board game night, the theme was new to you games or new to

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Fun board game thought I had yesterday, surrounding board game nights. Last board game night, the theme was new to you games or new to the group games. We got to play Just One, One Night Ultimate Vampire, and Lord of the Rings Dice Game, so the games were to new to some people, and two of the games were new to everyone playing them. This upcoming month, I’m thinking that the theme will be doing old favorites. What are some games that you’ve loved for a long time.

Image Source: Wikipedia

So what I wanted to think about, is there a better way to play games or is there a time for both things?

I think that the simple answer is that there is a time for both old favorites and trying new board games.

There, the article is done. But not really, because I think there are traps that we can fall into as board gamers that we should be aware of with old and new games.

With new games, I feel like it’s pretty simple. As they have put it on the Dice Tower and other places, it’s the cult of the new. The idea for that is that whatever is new is clearly a lot better and everything that came before it is bad. Obviously there can be several issues with this. The first being that you buy games faster than you can play them. I think that is inherently an issue, depending on the type of game that you like to play. If you just play euro games, you can probably keep the games on the “shelf of shame” to a minimum, because playing the game once is a separate experience. There are a lot of games now that have a campaign in them, and with that, now you need to play through several games to either get the idea of the story or to complete the game. So you can end up with a big shelf of unplayed games. The cult of the new can also lead to buying games faster than you can play them, not just because of length, but in general, and in that case, you’re never going to get to them all, and I think for some people that’s fine, but for others, it can be an issue. It goes back to hobby versus collection. Finally, the issue with cult of the new is cost. One groups like The Dice Tower and Rolling Solo Facebook groups, people are always talking about new games. So there are so many games that seem interesting out there, and that is spendy.

Image Source: Cephalofair Games

Now, I talked about that as a negative, but I think sometimes people push back on it too much. This can be one of the issues with the old favorite. There’s nothing wrong with Dominion, a game that I’m not a fan of anymore, but if you are excluding playing other deck builders because you like Dominion so why bother, that’s a bad attitude as well. There are a couple of issues with this mindset. The first being that it’s possible you’ll be alienating yourself from your play group. They are probably going to put up with playing Dominion for a while, but if that’s all you’ll play or if you only have a handful of favorites, they might want to branch out and that will mean branching away from inviting you to game nights. Also, it’s going to keep you from finding other good games. I can, again, understand not wanting to have to learn new games all the time, but doing that to the exclusion of other games is an issue.

Tied into that, but another issue can be treating the game like something more than it is. The idea is that because something like Dominion was the first big deck builder and now is liked less, you feel better because you still like the original. This comes with not being willing to try new games and keeping you from finding new good games because it might be a deck builder and Dominion is a deck builder so why do you need more. However, there are many deck builders out there that do a whole lot more than Dominion, so the elitist attitude that there is no reason to try more keeps you from being able to branch out into more interesting games. Let me quickly clarify my last sentence, while personally think there are deck builders that provide more interesting choices and themes than Dominion, what I meant there was additional interesting games.

Image Source: Z-Man Games

Finally, I think that people often stick with old favorites because of the amount of board games in the market. If you got into Dominion, Catan, or Ticket to Ride when they first came out, the board game market was much smaller. So some people keep from jumping in further, because they don’t know where to jump in. Instead, they just defend the old favorite and only want to play that. That can be because of the number of games or a bad experience with the wrong new game. If someone liked the idea of Legacy games after playing Pandemic Legacy and then played Seafall, they might not want to play another legacy game after that, but don’t let that color all future legacy games. I think, now, we have enough resources to keep the overwhelming number of games or a bad experience to keep you from trying new games. I feel like that is more of an excuse than a reason. With top 10 lists on different types of games from The Dice Tower or The Brothers Murph, and tons of other locations, you can see what games other people like. Also, there is Board Game Geek that has all games listed there, and you can search either by an mechanic that you like, or by a name and you find out information on a game. So yeah, you are still going to find a dud, but between those things, you’re going to be able to find games that are more likely you’ll like. Board Game Geek even has a nice resource now that recommends games if you like one game, so that helps you find more games as well.

Right now, we live in a world where some people hang onto old things too much and other people are too happy to rush forward and never look back. This is a trend in board games as well. For board games, and for my collection, I feel like I need to walk that line, being discerning about adding new things, and being willing to try new things, but at the same, coming back to the old games again from time to time. And again, this depends on whether you want it to be a collection or a hobby. So for that reason, I want to go back to old games, because I want to walk that line, where I have a hobby, but also a large number of board games.

Where do you fall with this on board games? Are you into the new board games? Do you only want to play old favorites? What are some new games that look cool, that you want to try? What are your old favorites?

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Peder’s 2019 Nerd Year Resolutions https://nerdologists.com/2019/01/peders-2019-nerd-year-resolutions/ https://nerdologists.com/2019/01/peders-2019-nerd-year-resolutions/#respond Thu, 03 Jan 2019 14:11:25 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=2697 So I talked yesterday about the resolutions for Nerdologists and the changes that are going to be coming. Now, those are also my nerd years

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So I talked yesterday about the resolutions for Nerdologists and the changes that are going to be coming. Now, those are also my nerd years resolutions, but I have some more resolutions as well.

  1. I resolve to play the games that I got in 2018 that I haven’t played yet. Board games and video games. But really mainly board games is what this is for. Now, I’m not going to be too crazy and say something like I won’t buy more until I’ve played these games, but I want to get these games to the table. On the Dice Tower FB group, they call those unplayed games as your shelf of shame, and I have a number on there right now. The streaming of the games is going to make getting them off the shelf of shame easier.
  2. That takes me nicely into Nerd Year Resolution #2. I resolve to do 20 streams this year. Now, what that looks like is still up in the air, but I want to stream a board game play 20 times. It might mean that I take a week of vacation in the summer and do a stream each day to get a bunch of them done, it might mean that I stream every other week (or at least try to). Or it might mean that I end up streaming 100 times (that would be a lot), but I want to try and stream board game content 20 times.
  3. Complete the Pop Sugar reading challenge. I tend to think Pop Sugar is a pretty dumb site, but three of my co-workers and myself are doing their 40 book reading challenge, and people who don’t finish it by the end of the year have to buy the others lunch. I fully expect to fail at this simply because of having a small child, or baby as they are known as by most people, but I’m going to give it a go and see how many Dresden Files books I can get onto the list.
  4. Watch and/or finish five new animes this year. That isn’t a big number, but look at what else I’m resolving to do. With my previous work schedule I was able to watch a lot of animes, but now it’s a bit trickier, and Funimation leaving VRV slowed it down for a moment as well. But now we have Funimation’s streaming service, so we’re watching Dagashi Kashi which has been hilarious.

Now, four things isn’t a ton of resolutions, but a few of them are pretty big, actually all of them could be big, but I’m probably not going to say I need to watch all of One Piece as the anime, it’ll probably be shows with 20-50 episodes for the whole show. But I was trying to do a few specific things with these resolutions.

Image Source: My Anime List

First, I was trying to make them at least semi-attainable. It is going to be tricky to get through all 40 books for me, unless I find some pretty short books to read. Maybe some of the baby books will fit a category. But one thing you’ll notice, to make them semi-attainable, was that I set bigger numbers, but not a specific pace.

I could have said that I want to stream every other week, but I don’t have my streaming computer yet, and I don’t know how long it will take to get the set-up for streaming right. So instead of going with something that I might fail at easily, because it might not show up and get set-up until two weeks into January. So I went with the bigger numbers, 40 books is daunting, but saying that I want to read a book a week sounds nearly impossible.

Secondly, I’m fine with failing at all of these resolutions. I could have said that I wanted to get back to the gym three times a week and lose 30 pounds so that I’m healthy again or something very important like that, like graduate college or get a job if I were job hunting. But those aren’t great resolutions, those are things that you should be wanting to do without actually making a resolution about them. While I hope all of these comes true and I can get them done, because they would be fun to get done, they aren’t key to my survival still.

That actually quite nicely flows into the final point. All of these are fun resolutions. Kind of like being fine failing at any of them, I’m also going to be more tempted to keep them as compared to losing 30 pounds or finding a job, because I like them. Again, doesn’t mean that those two things aren’t highly important, but you get the point. It’s more that resolutions should be stuff you want to do for yourself to better yourself because you want to do them, not because you have to do them.

Anyways, those aren’t really resolutions, but I wanted to add that in to help people think about their nerdy or non-nerdy resolutions. It might help to put down something you need to do as a resolution, but make sure you pepper in some fun stuff as well

What are your nerdy resolutions for 2019? Do you want to try a new nerdy hobby, read a book that’s been on your reading list for years, or watch a certain TV show or movie? Leave them in the comments below so that people know, and you can help hold me accountable to what I put above as well.


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