Board games
So, I'll admit it here. I'm a board game addict. Playing them, collecting them, I love board games. And not just the 'old classics' oh no.
While yes, I do have a chess set (somewhere), and a Monopoly set (2 actually, one Lord of the Rings and one of the new electronic versions), I mostly find myself gravitating towards the esoteric and exotic games.
I bought a Go board and stones a while back, one of the most worthwhile investments I've ever made. I also have a set of Japanese Mahjong tiles (for those who don't know, there's about 15 different ways to play Mahjong all over the world, each using a separate set of tiles and using slightly different rules, I got hooked on Japanese Mahjong while watching the anime Saki). I also love games from Fantasy Flight, what some might call "Coffin box" games. Descent: Journeys in the Dark (with all expansions). Arkham Horror (again, with all expansions). Doom: The Boardgame and the expansion. Cosmic Encounter and the Cosmic Incursion expansion. Starcraft: The Board Game and the Brood Wars expansion. War of the Rings. And a couple other games from other publishers lying about here and there.
Why do I enjoy these games, over the "old classics" you may wonder? Well, for one thing I enjoy a game that isn't as predictable as, for example, Monopoly can be. Sure, there's a random element to Monopoly, in the dice. But there's no real _strategy_ to the game, when you get right down to it. The fact that you're not in control of your motion around the board, the dice are, is what keeps you from really forming any kind of long-term plans, since you may never land on that last property you need, and everyone may always skip right on past your yellows with hotels...
I like the strategic nature of games like Arkham Horror, Starcraft, and Descent. They're more than just "roll and move" mechanics. They're games where the players have to take an active, strategic role in how they handle their turns. In Starcraft, you have to be thinking two steps ahead of your opponents, and hoping they don't place their orders on top of yours to foil your plans. In Arkham, everyone is working together as a team to defeat the game itself, and it always amazes me how certain people tend to fall into certain roles, i.e. one player usually ends up the monster-hunter, two of us run around gathering clues and then diving into portals to (hopefully) seal them on our return, while another goes around gathering items and handing them out to those who can use them. A game where everyone has a role to play, you can't just sit back and let things go, you have to pay attention all the time, since environments and rumors can dynamiclly change the way things work for everyone. Descent is just plain "beer and pretzels" fun to me. The best way to describe it is "Dungeons and Dragons Light" since all it is is a pure dungeon-crawl (most of the time, the quests involve "Oh, go into this place and kill this boss monster for some reason"), and since it requires very little in the way of character setup (deal 3 character cards to each player, they pick one, grab their chits, and then the game starts), and provides for hours of fun as they traipse around and try to avoid the dangers the Overlord has in store for them...
OK, I'm rambling a bit, I know. To get back to my point, I think that board games in the modern day teach skills that many people could stand to work on a bit: Critical thinking, planning ahead, and teamwork (in certain situations). Old games like Monopoly rely mainly on luck to carry a player to the win, Scrabble is a battle of attrition hoping you get better letters than your opponent(s), Chess has very little in the way of surprises, since the pieces can only behave the same way in every game. Give me a game that's unpredictable, where the winner(s) truly feels like he earned his/their win, and not just "got lucky" with a good roll or draw.
While yes, I do have a chess set (somewhere), and a Monopoly set (2 actually, one Lord of the Rings and one of the new electronic versions), I mostly find myself gravitating towards the esoteric and exotic games.
I bought a Go board and stones a while back, one of the most worthwhile investments I've ever made. I also have a set of Japanese Mahjong tiles (for those who don't know, there's about 15 different ways to play Mahjong all over the world, each using a separate set of tiles and using slightly different rules, I got hooked on Japanese Mahjong while watching the anime Saki). I also love games from Fantasy Flight, what some might call "Coffin box" games. Descent: Journeys in the Dark (with all expansions). Arkham Horror (again, with all expansions). Doom: The Boardgame and the expansion. Cosmic Encounter and the Cosmic Incursion expansion. Starcraft: The Board Game and the Brood Wars expansion. War of the Rings. And a couple other games from other publishers lying about here and there.
Why do I enjoy these games, over the "old classics" you may wonder? Well, for one thing I enjoy a game that isn't as predictable as, for example, Monopoly can be. Sure, there's a random element to Monopoly, in the dice. But there's no real _strategy_ to the game, when you get right down to it. The fact that you're not in control of your motion around the board, the dice are, is what keeps you from really forming any kind of long-term plans, since you may never land on that last property you need, and everyone may always skip right on past your yellows with hotels...
I like the strategic nature of games like Arkham Horror, Starcraft, and Descent. They're more than just "roll and move" mechanics. They're games where the players have to take an active, strategic role in how they handle their turns. In Starcraft, you have to be thinking two steps ahead of your opponents, and hoping they don't place their orders on top of yours to foil your plans. In Arkham, everyone is working together as a team to defeat the game itself, and it always amazes me how certain people tend to fall into certain roles, i.e. one player usually ends up the monster-hunter, two of us run around gathering clues and then diving into portals to (hopefully) seal them on our return, while another goes around gathering items and handing them out to those who can use them. A game where everyone has a role to play, you can't just sit back and let things go, you have to pay attention all the time, since environments and rumors can dynamiclly change the way things work for everyone. Descent is just plain "beer and pretzels" fun to me. The best way to describe it is "Dungeons and Dragons Light" since all it is is a pure dungeon-crawl (most of the time, the quests involve "Oh, go into this place and kill this boss monster for some reason"), and since it requires very little in the way of character setup (deal 3 character cards to each player, they pick one, grab their chits, and then the game starts), and provides for hours of fun as they traipse around and try to avoid the dangers the Overlord has in store for them...
OK, I'm rambling a bit, I know. To get back to my point, I think that board games in the modern day teach skills that many people could stand to work on a bit: Critical thinking, planning ahead, and teamwork (in certain situations). Old games like Monopoly rely mainly on luck to carry a player to the win, Scrabble is a battle of attrition hoping you get better letters than your opponent(s), Chess has very little in the way of surprises, since the pieces can only behave the same way in every game. Give me a game that's unpredictable, where the winner(s) truly feels like he earned his/their win, and not just "got lucky" with a good roll or draw.