
The Rise of German Board Games - IntronExon
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/01/german-board-games-catan/550826/?single_page=true
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5_minutes
I love playing board games with my kids, gets them away from anything digital:
nintendo’s, ipads or tv stuff.

And hey having a 8 year old thinking about his Stratego setup, is a good
thing!

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koonsolo
For me, it's always a challenge to play board games with my kids.

They are now 8, 6 and 4, and none of them wants to lose. It always ends up
with someone crying, sometimes with all of them crying (including the winner).

For other parents who have the same issue: I was able to "fix" this situation
by declaring the winner as the person who is able to take defeat without
crying. After that I mostly can declare all of them winners. Sometimes I'm
able to end the game nicely like that.

Just saying that playing a board game with small kids is not always as easy as
your imagine it to be.

EDIT: One more thing: there are some nice co-op games for kids, and with those
I never have a problem. A real recommendation!

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5_minutes
Hah! Definitely have the same problem, there's always someone crying.

Which are some of those co-op games?

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rubinelli
Forbidden Island, Castle Panic, Forbidden Desert, and Pandemic, from less to
more complex.

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taggart
Wow, I had no idea Phil Eklund was such a superstar! I met him waaaay back in
1990 when he still lived in Tucson and would bring his whacky home made games
to the “Historical Games Society” club at the U of A. Way to go Phil!

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mcv
I know Phil Eklund primarily from hard-core science simulations such as _High
Frontier_ and _Biosgenesis_. I do know him, but I wouldn't rank him among game
design superstars such as Uwe Rosenberg or Reiner Knizia. His games are not
exactly mainstream.

Speaking of which, this article suggests that boardgames are niche, but games
like _Siedler von Catan_ , _Agricola_ , or the many, many games by Reiner
Knizia, are absolutely mainstream. At least in Europe. I spent 1997 giving
everybody _Siedler von Catan_ for their birthday (and later the Dutch
translation), so I would hope everybody vaguely interested in boardgames has
it by now.

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branchless
I know it's not the main thrust of the article but to note: monopoly is
supposed to end with one winner by a landslide because it was created as a
critique of capitalism without land value tax. The original game had two sets
of rules, one that was sustainable and one based on the current insanity you
can find outside your window.

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chx
Since the article mentions Monopoly in passing: it is NOT fine for children;
it was created to teach about inequality; it is a horrible game even for
children (or especially for children).

If you are forced to play it, use this
[https://imgur.com/gallery/vX3zm](https://imgur.com/gallery/vX3zm) tactic, it
won't happen again.

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jimktrains2
It was created to teach about the downside of capitalism. I don't see what's
so terrible about that. Capitalism isn't perfect nor the Devil.

When people don't actually play by the rules it turns into a mess.

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mynameishere
It would be an okay game if it taught about the "X of Y" in which X is
anything and Y is anything. But really it's just a game of "who can roll the
dice best?" where the players influence the outcome of the game as much as in
Candyland. (Of course, the players do have to play "correctly", which means
"purchase everything you land on".)

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jimktrains2
> But really it's just a game of "who can roll the dice best?" where the
> players influence the outcome of the game as much as in Candyland.

That's mostly true, but deciding what to buy, how to bid, and negotiating for
properties are all important parts of the game.

Part of the purpose of the game is showing how capitalism is unfair because it
exploits people by randomness of birth and circumstances rather than their
ability to work.

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amenghra
[http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/ins...](http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/boardgame.jpg)
is a humorfilled flowchart. Might help you pick your next game?

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tallanvor
According to that image, Candy Land is only appropriate for "Girly Girls
Only". That's humor for a 10 year old, maybe.

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tonydiv
Clearly the author has never played Settlers of Catan, it does not make
friends.

Hence the memes: [https://imgur.com/a/tUGcn](https://imgur.com/a/tUGcn)

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joshvm
Have you ever played Diplomacy? It makes Catan look like a picnic.

[https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/11/diplomacy-the-most-
evi...](https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/11/diplomacy-the-most-evil-board-
game-ever-made/)

~~~
cycrutchfield
Can confirm that a game of Diplomacy will take a group of happy friends and
turn them into scheming backstabbers who will never trust one another ever
again for the rest of their lives.

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qznc
Some people can deal with that. I played Diplomacy with my whole group at work
and everything is fine.

I wonder if that is a learned skill or a personality trait? In the former
case, it might be valuable to teach it.

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suprfnk
His response seems like hyperbole to me.

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andrey-p
It feels weird to say there's no conflict in Eurogames.

Power Grid is pretty relentless and brutal - there's no violent aspect to it,
but you can mess your opponents pretty badly, and it still hurts.

The only time I've managed to get my girlfriend to swear at me was when I
stole the line she was clearly trying to build in Ticket to Ride.

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FearNotDaniel
Agreed - kind of - since even in Carcassonne (Original and South Seas edition)
there are opportunities to 'steal' someone else's farming/fishing territory,
which inevitably prompts my wife to call me a "meanie". But I still concur
with the overall principle, that opportunities for attack/conflict in these
games tend to be indirect and somewhat secondary.

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DyslexicAtheist
_" Menschärgeredichnicht"_ anyone?

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susi22
Try "Tac" for a new/spiced-up version of the game. It's really fun.

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TomAnthony
IS that this:
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17991/tac](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17991/tac)?

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susi22
Yes! It's _really_ good.

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cdelsolar
Decent article, except for lumping the excellent board game of Scrabble with
Monopoly

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TylerE
Monopoly is a perfectly fine game. The problem is no one bothers to actually
play it by the rules (auctions, no dumb house rules like fines go to free
parking).

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yesenadam
I don't think that's the problem! It's (as noted in many online articles) the
last 2/3 of every game is the richest person getting more and more so, until
too long later they win. Kind of a drag for everyone else. (p.s. I play it by
the rules.)

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tim333
That was kind of by design to illustrate the evils of capitalism and advocate
for a land value tax. Bit of a pity it didn't work.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzie_Magie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzie_Magie))

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dizzy3gg
Bomben Auf England, classic.
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/23577/bomben-auf-
england](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/23577/bomben-auf-england)

~~~
tim333
Made in my family's games factory that one. Although it wasn't under our
control at the time.

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mariushn
How do you copyright game ideas? Say one has a game idea, pretty worked out.
What would be next best steps to take, without being copied/stolen in the
process?

Unlike startups, with boardgames ideas matter much more than execution.
Copyright is the only protection for successful games from being duplicated,
since materials are so cheap.

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JoeAltmaier
Wow, this explains so well why I despise Eurogames. Instead of eliminating
opponents, everybody plays until the end after some arbitrary score limit is
reached (or turn limit or whatever).

I play Dominion or Catan and I'm working away and suddenly somebody says "game
over! I won!" and I'm thinking, well that was a waste of time. I'm resentful
and frustrated - what did I do all that for if it ends at such a meaningless
point?

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detaro
At least with Dominion, I'd say that predicting when the game is ending and
adjusting your play is an important part of the game.

And unless it's really one-sided (which sucks, and maybe there is an argument
that Dominion lends itself to develop one-sided games without recovery) or
whoever you are playing against is keeping mental count of everyone's point
(which wouldn't be impossible, but I've never met someone actually bothering
to do it) they won't be able to say "I won" before everyone has counted out
their points.

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jonreem
When I play I always count victory points - how do you know what to do if you
don’t know how many points people have or how close the game is to ending?

Adjusting your play during the course of the game as the game gets closer to
ending is a crucial part of the game. If you’re surprised when the game ends
you weren’t paying enough attention!

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JoeAltmaier
Exactly. I was paying attention to people at the table, to activity, to eating
and drinking and socializing. You know, what you do while 'playing a game'.

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solarkraft
Fun article about a topic I'm somewhat familiar with (am German and in board
game circles). However I am really not sure if it fits the aggregator.

