the right way to buy and play games

I have been quite pleased with the way I have been buying and playing games this year. I find that most of my games bought this year have been getting many plays, i.e. very good value for money. I bought 22 games this year, not counting one which I self-made, one that I have pre-ordered but has not arrived (A Game of Thrones LCG - Living Card Game), and one that was a free game with another purchase. This good trend started with Race for the Galaxy (217 plays) and Through the Ages (16 plays), both of which I had not planned to buy, and only decided to do so after playing Han's copies. I have played 21 games of Agricola in one month. With the most recent purchase (mid Nov), I have played Dominion 12 times, Galaxy Trucker 7 times.

It is not just about the number of times a game is played. It is also about appreciating and exploring the strategies in the games. It is quality over quantity. I think it is better to play a good game 5 times and learn its nuances and learn to play it well, than to play 5 mediocre (or maybe even good) games once, and not be able to fully appreciate them. I think (or I would like to think) that I am controlling my game-buying urge better. I am always trying convince myself to play more of the games that I already own, and not to buy any new game unless I have an unstoppable urge to do so. Half-convincing reasons should not be sufficient anymore (e.g. I don't have something like this in my collection, or I should complete the set). That said, I did buy Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries. Now I have Ticket to Ride, TTR Europe, TTR Marklin, TTR 1910, TTR Switzerland, and TTR Nordic Countries. My reason is not half-convincing. My wife likes Ticket to Ride. That's a solid reason. No argument about that. But I don't plan to buy TTR the dice game.

Among the games published at Essen (big game fair in Oct 2008), there was only one game I had an urge to get, Space Alert. However, now that I have read some reviews, I may not get it afterall. Well, maybe I will decide after I get even more plays out of Galaxy Trucker, by the same designer. There were still some interesting games, e.g. Formula D, Cavum, Le Havre (high chance of buying), Chicago Express, Steel Driver, Ghost Stories, Powerboats, Snow Tails, Leader 1, Wasabi (also higher than average chance of buying eventually), but at this moment, no strong urge to buy now. I'll try to wait until mid next year before my next big order. That'll give me some more time to decide which games I want to buy. There will be more reviews for these now-still-new games too by then.

At this moment there is only one game that I have decided to buy - Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition. Well, there goes my no-half-convincing-reasons theory. I'm buying this partly because of nostalgia, and I know I'll love it, despite that I am not likely to get many plays out of it. I think none of my Axis & Allies games have more than 3 plays, except for the 1984 edition Axis & Allies. I didn't keep count of A&A Europe or A&A Pacific plays, but I'm quite sure they have no more than 3. A&A Revised (2004) - 2, A&A Battle of the Bulge - 2, A&A Guadalcanal (which I really liked) - 1.

So I hope for 2009 I will buy fewer games than 2008, and I hope other than a few exceptions I will play all new games at least 5 times.

Euro / new boardgame burnout

Once in a while I feel like I am having a burnout. There are different kinds of burnouts. Sometimes I feel like not playing any games for a while, but this "burnout" that I'm having now is not of this type. The one that I'm having now is Euro-specific and new game-specific.

I always keep up-to-date on boardgame news on the internet. Reading about boardgames on the internet is a daily routine. I often download rules of new games that are made available on the net. Lately I am finding that many new games, especially Eurogames, don't excite me anymore. Sometimes I can't even get myself to finish reading the rules, e.g. in the case of The Golden Age. Confucius took much effort to go through too. Other recent game rules that I have read and found that they don't interest me much are Nefertiti and Tinner's Trail. I can't say these are poor games, since I have not even played them. But I get the "yet another Euro" feeling when I read the rules. Not that these games do not have new innovations, or are not thematic, but I just couldn't find anything really exciting about them. In contrast, I look at my collection of games, and wish that I can play more of some of these games. Maybe that's a good thing. I have far too many games that I don't play enough of. There are many games that I know I will enjoy more after I play more and explore and learn the strategies. There are some that I just want to play to have a good time. Lord of the Rings: Sauron, Lord of the Rings: Battlefields, Caylus, Age of Empires III. In this "burnout" mode, it is easy (well, maybe I should say easier) to convince myself to not buy new games and instead spend more time on games that I already own. But then, I still religiously maintain my game wishlist. Well, actually more a watchlist of games that I may buy. Only a few of them are marked as must-buy.

Lord of the Rings: Sauron

The must-buys now (which can sometimes change) are Race for the Galaxy: Gathering Storm, Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition, 10 Days in Asia and Agricola (pre-ordered). The may-buys are a very very long list. 32 games currently. Most of them will eventually drop off to the won't-buy list. Here are some that I am interested in.

Metropolys sounds like an interesting game with a spatial element. Seems to be quick too. I am interested to try this. Scott Nicholson's video review gives a good overview of the game. Dominion seems to be a complex card game, and being a big fan of Race for the Galaxy, I may like this too. Roll Through the Ages is a dice game by Matt Leacock, designer of Pandemic. This combined with the theme of Through the Ages, another favourite game, makes me very interested. Ticket to Ride: Nordics is a likely purchase, since this is also a 2-3 player only game like Ticket to Ride: Switzerland, which Michelle and I like a lot, and have played a lot. This should be worth the money because we will likely play a lot of it.