This will be my first time going somewhere away for 3 days and playing games pretty much nonstop. I'm looking forward to it, and wondering how my brain will do on a lack of sleep, lots of caffiene, sugar and alchohol all while trying to make rational decisions on if I want people in Southeast germany to vote for me playing Die Macher... if that reference doesn't make sense click on the link. It will pop open a new window..
Die Macher is infamous in gaming circles. It's widely considered to be the first "Euro" style game that was created in germany. These are the types of games I consider to be the most fun because, unlike most american games, they make you think and plan in a long term method. Don't get me wrong, I'm not great at them, but that hasn't stopped my enthusiasm. Much like chess, I feel that the more I play the more I learn. Unlike chess however I have over 170 of these (see the collection here). You can click on each one to see something about it.
Anyways, Die Macher simulates the German election system and takes 6 or so hours to play. Hey, you think that's long? There's a game where you backstab your best friends which takes 7 hours to play called "Diplomacy". I'm sure most of you who aren't even game players have heard of that one. Regardless I've wanted to play it for a while but you don't get that much time to play one game often... given 24 hours in a day and only about 6 of those needed for sleep and maybe 2-3 for eating and showering that gives us about 15-16 per day for gaming... x3 that's about 40 total... I'm going to get an entire work week's worth of gaming in.... :-) The interesting thing should be to see how many of my games get on the table.
People who are really into eurogames are an unusual breed of folks. If I had to profile them it would be as follows:
- Intelligent
- Like challenges and learning new things (you have to be given all the differen rules)
- Enjoys interactions with other people. This is the big difference between exclusive video gamers.
- Generally opinionated on wanting to play the games they brought (this varies from "would you guys like to play" to the people who will not play anything they brought).
- Hardcore gamers: These are the people who only like to play games which are extremely cerebral most of the time. There are some of these in my weekend group, and while I enjoy playing these games too I have to have some lighter fare too. I'll give an example of a heavy game:
- Imagine you have to power an entire country, but you have limited resources, you're competing with people on auctions for power plants. These plants require various amounts of resources to power a number of cities. You have to go through an auction for the plants. You must then buy, on a limited market, the resources to power these plants. With any remaining money you have to put "houses" in cities which represent that you can power the city. However, other people can block your routes, and each route from city to city has a price that goes with it too. Simple right? :-) This game is called "Power Grid". This game is currently the second highest rated board game on Board Game Geek even though I've only gotten my copy out 1 time I'm really happy to have it.
- People who get VERY upset if you honestly forget a rule that affects them when you're playing a "learning" first game with them. Sometimes these people will never play that game with you again because they feel that you were trying to cheat them when maybe you didn't completely
At any rate. If you're interested in taking a look at how one of these eurogames work I'd suggest you check out www.boardgameswithscott.com. Here are two links of some of my favorites, one of which is a "gateway game" (one to bring new gamers into the fold.... There are a few of you reading this in that position) ... and one of which is a heavy game... These are videos so click the link and enjoy. Scott's a great presenter and even though his style is a little unusual it's one of the things I love about his video blogs.
Gateway Game: - (Game Info) (Video Review) (Another video review here) from the company who makes the game.
Middle Of The Road: Yspahan- (Game Info) (Video Review)
Brain Burner: Reef Encounter - (Game Info) (Video Review) (this is such an awesome game if you can find people who like it)
Farewell for today. Hopefully this explains why my collection is so big. :-)
1 comments:
Thanks for going in early for Ethan's conference.
My favorite game, while of course very light to your standards, is either Picamino or Oden's Ravens.
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