Has it been a consistent hobby since childhood or was there a single game, a mechanism, theme or social situation which hooked you in?
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Sadly, the first board game I played was Monopoly at ~10, and that drove me away. Then I rediscovered them in uni with Settlers of Catan and Risk.
Yeah it’s a shame so many people associate board games with boring roll and moves, or family arguments.
A college buddy introduced me to Settlers of Catan, and the rest was history.
I’ve still not played Catan, but I’ve converted a few friends with Cascadia. Catan is the most controversial game I’ve come across, plenty of lovers and haters in equal measure
I’ve never really encountered anybody that hates the game itself, just… certain people who don’t play it well together…
I’d always liked board games, but the wife and I never had anything beyond the ‘classics’, which were fun but kind of been there done that sort of vibe. Then one day a couple years ago we went down to our friend’s house and they showed us Unstable Unicorns, Dixit, and Munchkin and our minds were blown. We immediately started buying the games we’d played and a couple more that had cool art and as we played more with friends and by ourselves we kept buying more and more, even being able to show our friends games they hadn’t heard of. And now we have too many 🤣
Tell me about it, they’re so hard to resist, especially when you’ve got a gaming partner. I love the nature themes like Meadow, Wingspan, etc.
I took Cascadia over to a mate’s, who expected something like monopoly, and he was blown away.
Playing Wingspan as we speak!! I was a huge bird nut growing up so that one was an instant pickup when I heard about it. I still even have a box of a ton of bird statues and pictures in storage.
I’ve been meaning to check out Cascadia, and I’ll have to add Meadow to the list of potentials as well. Parks is another pretty fun nature one that we have, really cool art.
I do really enjoy Wingspan now, the artwork and production quality is a huge appeal, I also use the Wingsong app when my son’s around, as he enjoys hearing the birds.
I love Cascadia, it’s not deep and I feel I’ve maxed out my strategy, but it’s such a pleasure to play, especially with non gamers.
I was looking at Parks last week, do you have either expansion? Was hoping for a big box, but there aren’t any plans.
We do have one of the parks expansions (can’t remember which one) but we still haven’t had the chance to try it out.
Family always played Scrabble and I did not like it… In college my friends frequently played Dominion but I always opted out because I thought I didn’t like board games. Eventually I tried it and fell down a rabbit hole
Wow, so many Catan inductees here.
For me it was the notoriously shitty Civilization (2002). I was around 11 years old. Any designer board game is incredible if it’s the first one you’ve ever played.
Been playing board games of one stripe or another since I was 4-5yrs old and my dad taught me how to play chess, backgammon, checkers, Monopoly etc. Early teens brought more complex games like Shogun, Catan and Roborally (I am HORRENDOUSLY bad at games with move programming like Roborally) along with CCG’s and RPG’s into the mix.
Jeez! Now I feel really old realizing I’ve been gaming for nearly 40yrs.
Love it! I hope I’m setting my kids up to enjoy gaming. Been playing chess with one since he was 6, have enjoyed watching him discover strategies and understand how to defend.
I’ve been playing board games my whole life, but when I was 9 my cousin busted out catan, that was the first proper longer game with actual mechanics. It was the moment I realized board games could be more than a boring family activity.
Catan… The “human warrior” of boardgame introductions, but it did its job
It branched from there to Citadels, Villainous, Rummikub and others until reaching my inevitable fate of becoming a Wingspan addict
They generally still don’t. I’m very picky about my board games and also about the people I play with. If you just grab a random well liked board game and a number of average board game enthusiast and sit me at a table with them. I might have a good time but it’s unlikely.
I feel the same way about the people, in my case anyone who takes it too seriously, takes ages every turn or doesn’t like losing can cause me to lose interest.
Are there specific genres you don’t like, or is it a light/heavy weight thing?
People taking it too seriously are one thing. Another is people not taking games seriously at all. As in they just come to chat and barely engage with the game and won’t learn the rules even after multiple times playing. They will also be super lax with the rules and basically do whatever.
The worst offenders are the ones who are super lax with the rules, taking back turns etc, unless it is against themselves. Maybe I just had some bad luck. My current board games group is super fun though.
As for games I dislike games where the good choices are too obvious. It doesn’t have to be heavy to achieve that imo. But it has to have a minimum of complexity for me to enjoy it.
I’ve not come across that, but I’d probably just stop playing, it’d drive me nuts. My crowd tends to turn up with laminated rule sheets…
On taking back turns, I’m lenient once or twice if done quickly, or if it’s a genuine mistake, but otherwise, no chance.
For me it was either Arkham Horror 2nd edition or Last Night on Earth. Big thematic games with some fun mechanics that we would have stories about playing for months after they were finished.
My family always played the standard 80s/90s board and card games, I picked up Carcassonne in 2012 but it didn’t really click, plus my girlfriend wasn’t into it.
It wasn’t until 2021 when I picked up Azul and Sagrada, that I realised how amazing games have become. The pieces, rulebook, simplicity and depth.
First time playing a worker placement Euro was a real eye opener, having been raised on roll-and-move.
I grew up with the Ravensburger box of classics so, board games were always a part of my childhood. They quickly captured my imagination and I began to draw roll and move boards, explaining to my mom what should happen on each space.
When I got older the whole family got into games and that turned into a nice sunday tradition.
Eventually I got sucked into BGG and never financially recovered…
Oooooh, been a long time.
For it wasn’t Catan. I liked Catan, sure. Played it a few times when it came out. But what did it for me was that my partner at the time went to Spiel in Essen every year, and after we got together dragged me there in 2003. I looked around, a lot was really interesting, and then ended up buying Alhambra for myself. First board game I got for myself. And that really did it. It was far from a perfect game, but this whole expo-then-bought-a-game thing really cemented the idea of not only playing board games but also wanting to have a collection so I can play them with friends when they come over in me.
Aaaand, nowadays I have a 6x4 Kallax filled with games. 🙈
I played some board games here and there; a little Risk, a little Catan. Then a few years ago I was gifted Spirit Island and it just took off. I’ve played a good number of other games since, but a friend and I have been getting together to play Spirit Island almost every week for the last couple of years, and I don’t see any signs of it slowing down.
Ppreviously played Cluedo and Exploding Kitten very casually maybe 2-5 times a year.
Then 3 years ago, I joined a Talisman (4e + Dungeon expansion) 6 player game that lasted 5.5hrs and I stayed in the chair from start to finish. Won the game by 1 turn after completing the dungeon and teleporting to the crown which was being used to finish me off by the last player.
There was assistance from other players with rule clarifications and some tips, so not a solo win.
Now 180 games in the collection(with 30-40 Wall o Shame), I’m regularly exploring the mechanics and previous classics that are out there.
(Inis, Innovation, Port Royal, Bruges, Netrunner, Captain Sonar, Captain Carcass, Crokinole, Diamant, Targi, Morels, Radlands, Skull)
