Favorite Games

[webny99]

Plot twist: I'm not talking about video games, I'm talking about the old fashioned kind of games like board and card games.

Do people still play these anymore, and if so, which ones are your favorites?
Even if you don't play them now, which ones were big back when you were young/growing up?

[Rothman]

The Missus and I play cribbage every night.  We used to play Dutch Blitz.

[Big John]

Cribbage, backgammon.

[JayhawkCO]

I'm a board game nerd and play games like Catan, Game of Thrones, Terraforming Mars, and Twilight Struggle.  I also play a good amount of poker.  I used to play cribbage a lot with family, but only get to play occasionally when I go camping with some of my midwestern friends.

Chris

[hotdogPi]

Magic: the Gathering, except I haven't had any people to play it with in several years.

[Scott5114]

For my business I actually run a blog that has about 250 different card games on it. So I have a few really obscure favorites from that list. Cash is a great one for four players in partnerships. Thirteen (tien len) is a go-to when I want just a quick game to pass the time (like during a break at work or waiting on something to start), since that lasts just a few minutes per game. Page One is a delightfully simple Japanese trick-taking game with no score; you just draw when you can't follow suit, and the first to run out of cards wins.

I'm a huge fan of Dungeons & Dragons (fifth edition) too. It got a bad rap back in the 80s from people that didn't know what the game was actually about. But basically you and your friends invent fictional characters that go on some sort of adventure and periodically roll dice to see what happens. It's a lot like a video game, except nothing is predetermined, and you can try whatever you want to achieve your goal, as long as the dice will let you. The title (and most of the pre-written adventures) suggests that you'll be spending most of your time going through dungeons and slaying monsters, but nothing says you have to: the last time we played we went to the Queen's birthday party.

Do people still play these anymore

The tabletop gaming community is HUGE and has been for a long time before the pandemic. Most of the "old-fashioned" board games that you play with your family like Monopoly and Sorry and such are disliked by this community, because game design is a much more developed art than it was back then. Modern board games are generally much more balanced and allow for more interesting interactions than "roll a die and move so many spaces". Settlers of Catan is a good starting point, and then there's things like Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and Pandemic (love that game but I haven't played it since 2019 for obvious reasons) to give you an idea of what's possible.

There's a game store here in Norman that sells all of these games, but they also have a library with a playable copy of each (plus a whole bunch of games they don't carry for sale), and you can pay $5 to have access to all the games you'd want all night.

[Max Rockatansky]

Monopoly so long as the real rules are used.  It drives me up the wall when people use Free Parking as a pay out or ban things like auctions or trades. 

[Scott5114]

Monopoly is fun until you play a game that's been designed in the last 25 years or so. Then you realize why it's always kind of sucked.

[CtrlAltDel]

Monopoly so long as the real rules are used.  It drives me up the wall when people use Free Parking as a pay out or ban things like auctions or trades.

Monopoly is fun until you play a game that's been designed in the last 25 years or so. Then you realize why it's always kind of sucked.

If he likes it, he likes it. It doesn't matter if you don't. This is not a thread about games with universal appeal.

[webny99]

Monopoly so long as the real rules are used.  It drives me up the wall when people use Free Parking as a pay out or ban things like auctions or trades.

Monopoly is fun until you play a game that's been designed in the last 25 years or so. Then you realize why it's always kind of sucked.

If he likes it, he likes it. It doesn't matter if you don't. This is not a thread about games with universal appeal.

So what you're saying is...  this isn't a monopoly   

I am not a big fan of Monopoly myself, but then again, I generally prefer card games to board games. It seems like board games usually have a bit too much luck and a bit too little strategy for my liking, while card games tend to have a better balance.

Of course, this could be influenced by the fact that I haven't played many "modern" board games... at least, I don't recognize many of the names mentioned so far, and I don't think games like The Farming Game count as modern...

[kphoger]

20 questions
Double Ditto
Blank Slate
Uno
Pictionary

and Monopoly sucks.

[Max Rockatansky]

Monopoly so long as the real rules are used.  It drives me up the wall when people use Free Parking as a pay out or ban things like auctions or trades.

Monopoly is fun until you play a game that's been designed in the last 25 years or so. Then you realize why it's always kind of sucked.

If he likes it, he likes it. It doesn't matter if you don't. This is not a thread about games with universal appeal.

And I've played a lot of them.  Monopoly stuck with me I guess because it has strategy in the stock game and is still relatively approachable for most people.  The problem getting away from the designed rule set or with custom games.  My wife picked up something called "Firebaughnopoly"  which has free parking pay out and changed all the chance/community chest cards. 

[formulanone]

Dominoes, Uno, and Boggle

I'm actually terrible at Uno, but the kids love it. We play either the "one card draw" method, or we have a randomizer which spits out between 0-4 cards at a button press.

We've found most rounds go on a little too long for "keep drawing until you can play something" version (which I don't recall in the rules but seems to be the most popular).

[Scott5114]

Monopoly so long as the real rules are used.  It drives me up the wall when people use Free Parking as a pay out or ban things like auctions or trades.

Monopoly is fun until you play a game that's been designed in the last 25 years or so. Then you realize why it's always kind of sucked.

If he likes it, he likes it. It doesn't matter if you don't. This is not a thread about games with universal appeal.

It is not a question of like or dislike, but rather that Monopoly is not a particularly well-balanced game, owing to the fact that it relies on a 2d6 system and doesn't really do anything to mitigate the roll-frequency bell-curve that is inherent to a 2d6 roll. So a Monopoly game comes down to basically a question of has anyone playing figured out how to exploit this, and if multiple players have, who manages to do it first. The next several hours are then that player slowly sucking money out of everyone else.

People can still have fun with a badly-constructed board game, but that doesn't make it a good game. Most people having fun with Monopoly are more having fun with their friends and not with the game itself, and that's okay.

If you like the idea of Monopoly but want something balanced, I'd suggest Acquire by Sid Sackson.

[Max Rockatansky]

Monopoly so long as the real rules are used.  It drives me up the wall when people use Free Parking as a pay out or ban things like auctions or trades.

Monopoly is fun until you play a game that's been designed in the last 25 years or so. Then you realize why it's always kind of sucked.

If he likes it, he likes it. It doesn't matter if you don't. This is not a thread about games with universal appeal.

It is not a question of like or dislike, but rather that Monopoly is not a particularly well-balanced game, owing to the fact that it relies on a 2d6 system and doesn't really do anything to mitigate the roll-frequency bell-curve that is inherent to a 2d6 roll. So a Monopoly game comes down to basically a question of has anyone playing figured out how to exploit this, and if multiple players have, who manages to do it first. The next several hours are then that player slowly sucking money out of everyone else.

People can still have fun with a badly-constructed board game, but that doesn't make it a good game. Most people having fun with Monopoly are more having fun with their friends and not with the game itself, and that's okay.

And there are other exploits in the game line hogging up property on yellow or Orange due to the probability in landing spots because of players being in jail.  I try to at least hold some of those properties given that they usually are the first to have stuff built on them.

[Scott5114]

Right, holding the orange properties is basically what I'm getting at, since that's the biggest exploit to the 2d6 bell-curve in the game, though I think there are others. I have always wanted to try playing Monopoly with 1d12 instead of 2d6 just to see how much that balances it, but the sort of people who have d12s around the house tend to want to spend their time playing games that aren't Monopoly.

[CtrlAltDel]

It is not a question of like or dislike

Actually, it is. This is a thread about people's favorite games, that is, the ones they like the most or at least a lot, and you presented a rejection or criticism or of what someone liked. That is, you found some reason why they are having fun wrong, or at least naively. And (as you can see) that drives me nuts.

[Takumi]

I used to play Scrabble, but I haven't since my ex left.

[Scott5114]

It is not a question of like or dislike

Actually, it is. This is a thread about people's favorite games, that is, the ones they like the most or at least a lot, and you presented a rejection or criticism or of what someone liked. That is, you found some reason why they are having fun wrong, or at least naively. And (as you can see) that drives me nuts.

I did no such thing. Nowhere have I criticized Max for liking the game. If he (and his fellow players) enjoys it, he enjoys it. With a game there is nothing more important than if the players are enjoying themselves, and if they can do that despite misbalanced rules, then more power to them.

I mentioned D&D upthread–I'm guilty of having accidentally misbalanced sessions several times. Whoops, sometimes I misread the rules, or fail at math, and then bad things happen. But apparently my players are still having fun, cause we keep playing every week. And that's all that matters. There is no board game police that comes around and writes you a ticket for improper game balance.

That being said, it is easier to enjoy a game that is balanced, because it is more fair. Someone who enjoys putting thought into the game they're playing will find a more well-constructed game more fun to play. But it is also possible to have fun while playing a game, in ways that do not depend on the game at all. If you're playing with family members from out of town, chances are the fun you're having is because you're getting to spend time doing something social with your family and it really doesn't matter what, if anything, is on the table in front of you. There is nothing wrong with this.

People can have fun driving a PT Cruiser.

Basically, the point I was making is that, if you are the sort of player that enjoys board games for the games themselves, it can be rewarding to explore the games beyond what Walmart carries and to check out some of the new stuff that's out there, because there is a lot to explore beyond the old classics. And once you are exposed to the newer titles, there are things about Monopoly that just won't sit as well as they used to.

I used to play Scrabble, but I haven't since my ex left.

Well, at least you didn't get stuck with them. Losing eight points sucks.

[CoreySamson]

Wow I'm surprised I'm not the only one to say cribbage. That game's pretty fun. Some of my other favorites:

Monopoly (original game, original rules. No Mickey Mouse Monopoly or anything like that)
Pictionary (or Charades)
Poker
Rummikub
Scrabble (probably my favorite, except my family doesn't really like playing it)

And those I do not like (or get old quickly):
War
Uno

And one that looks extremely fun, but I haven't played:
Deadball

[CtrlAltDel]

It is not a question of like or dislike

Actually, it is. This is a thread about people's favorite games, that is, the ones they like the most or at least a lot, and you presented a rejection or criticism or of what someone liked. That is, you found some reason why they are having fun wrong, or at least naively. And (as you can see) that drives me nuts.

I did no such thing. Nowhere have I criticized Max for liking the game.

This is what you said:

Monopoly is fun until you play a game that's been designed in the last 25 years or so. Then you realize why it's always kind of sucked.

I have trouble interpreting that comment in a complimentary or even a neutral fashion. I agree with what you said after that, though.

[Scott5114]

That was meant as a criticism of Monopoly, not Max, and I believe Max took it in the manner it was intended based on his response.

In any event, it seems we were on the same page all along!

[Max Rockatansky]

That was meant as a criticism of Monopoly, not Max, and I believe Max took it in the manner it was intended based on his response.

In any event, it seems we were on the same page all along!

If anyone is wondering I didn't take offense, I don't see how I would given this is all subjective opinions.  I'm sure there are lots of games I like that others probably don't. 

[webny99]

20 questions

Oh, man... yes!

And also that thing you toss around where you have to guess the word it's thinking of... [webny99 quickly googles "electronic guess the word game"] ... Catch Phrase! It probably wouldn't be as much fun now, but it was a ton of fun on bus and car trips back in middle and high school.

[Big John]

For all you Monopoly haters, there is this that came out in 1973:

And they came out with a new version that I saw is available in several department-store websites: