Shitty board games and Cards Against Humanities Bickering

[Shannow]

I like Talisman. You don't have to do anything in it except throw a dice or three. That is its greatest virtue, especially after playing a lengthy Descent campaign where people ocd for hours over moves because who the fuck caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaares.

Since this is a thread about bickering. I loved Talisman as a kid, now I'd rather light my balls on fire than have to play another game. So. Fucking. Boring.

[schild]

Cave Evil is more Ameritrash than anything Fantasy Flight will ever be able to make.

[Goldenmean]

Cave Evil is more Ameritrash than anything Fantasy Flight will ever be able to make.

Which might go a long way to explaining why I can't bring myself to buy it... But regardless, I was talking about volume of distinct games produced, not position on some euro<->ameritrash scale.

[schild]

I'm aware of what you were saying. There can, however, only be one king - and Emperors of Eternal Evil is the once and future Ameritrash king.

[Bzalthek]

I picked up the Talisman digital edition for my gaming group when it was on sale this holiday.  It's pretty boring, I agree, but then these games are more entertaining due to the players than the game itself.  I don't think there is a single game that can survive repeated use.  They all get old pretty fast.  But I'd love to be proven wrong.

[Sky]

And there have always been 2 Foglios since... man, at least the mid 90s. Phil and his wife Kaja.

I stopped giving a fuck in the mid-80s. So.

[Jeff Kelly]

They win They've won everything!

FTFY

[Jeff Kelly]

I don't dislike CAH, it's just the kind of game that stops being fun once the novelty has run out.

[eldaec]

A conversation with a colleague today reminded me that Fluxx exists, which in turn reminded me of this thread about terrible but inexplicably popular games.

I think I'd rank it as worse than Munchkin.

[schild]

As far as I can tell, Fluxx more self-aware of how crappy it is.

[Goldenmean]

Fluxx is quite possibly my most hated game. Even more so because half the time when I explain what a Nomic is to people they say "Oh, so it's like Fluxx" and my vision goes red, and I come to covered in blood with a severed ear in my mouth.

[Morat20]

I played Pit with my in-laws (that particular version had to date back to the 70s or early 80s) and had a blast. Simple games are often fun. :)

Also introduced my father-in-law to Ticket to Ride, which is just up his proverbial alley.

Mostly, though, we play hearts or spades and grumble about cheating.

I do hear good things about Cosmic Encounters though.

[Samwise]

I used to really like Fluxx because the novelty of a game that rewrites its own rules is interesting.  It's also very well designed as far as it goes, i.e. having all of the rules on the cards, including rules for how to play the cards that don't add new rules.  It was the first game I ever played that was so elegantly self-documenting.  But it's amazing how quickly it went from "oo, neat" to "this is the worst game I have ever played" once that wore off.  It also falls in the "an experience, not a game" camp.

Speaking of games I used to like that I've kinda gotten tired of, I've been thinking about dusting off my Catan board so I can try the Drunkards of Catan mod:

 - There is a new resource, Alcohol.  You can build 1 Alcohol out of 1 Wheat + 1 Wood.
 - Each 2 Alcohol in your possession are worth 1 Victory Point.
 - You may "drink" 1 Alcohol by trading it for 1 resource from the bank; you must take a drink.
 - You may "gift" 1 Alcohol to another player; when you do this they must take a drink.
 - Any time doubles are rolled for resources, it's a festival; all players must drink half their Alcohol.

It'll be entertaining at least once just to see how it integrates into the rest of the game.

[Ironwood]

Fine at the time;  badly later on.

[Yegolev]

I know I'll get some flack for saying how much I enjoy Ticket to Ride, presumably from someone telling me how shitty it is.  Most board/card games are pretty shitty, in my opinion, but they are just games you play to engage other people that you presumably want to have fun with, so whatever.

I lost my first Card Wars game, haven't played a second time, so I don't know where it is on the crap scale.  I can tell you that it doesn't seem to have nearly the same enragement potential as Munchkin.

[Mosesandstick]

I bought my brother the 10th anniversary edition of Ticket to Ride for Christmas, the whole family really enjoyed playing it.

[eldaec]

There's a whole other thread for that.

[schild]

Yea, Ticket to Ride is a good game. It doesn't belong here.

[Mosesandstick]

Whoops, forgot which thread I was in.

I've grown pretty tired of Cards Against Humanity. A lot of the people I know want to play it once they get drunk but then it just devolves into being rude and shock value.

[Kitsune]

I hate cards against humanity for the same reason I hate apples to apples: you could close your eyes and randomly throw a card on the table every round without seriously impacting your chances of winning.  At least for something like balderdash the players have to write their answers from scratch, the card games remove even that much gameplay from the game.

[UnSub]

I've grown pretty tired of Cards Against Humanity. A lot of the people I know want to play it once they get drunk but then it just devolves into being rude and shock value.

Then it's working as intended. CAH is a game for people who want to make shock jokes, but can't be bothered coming up with a set-up or a punchline. Plus they also want the defence of, "I didn't say that; the card did".

[Raph]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-worst-board-games-ever-invented/

 War (the card game), tic-tac-toe, Snakes and Ladders, Candy Land, The Game of Life and Monopoly.

[lamaros]

It would be a close thing for me between playing Monopoly and half the Euro worker placement games popular on BGG.

[MahrinSkel]

As a small child, I absolutely hated Candyland because once the deck is shuffled, everything else is absolutely determined, for me the absolute worst combination of blind chance and rigid determinism.

It wasn't until I read this comic that I understood why. Warning: link may trigger an existential crisis.

--Dave

[Goreschach]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-worst-board-games-ever-invented/

 War (the card game), tic-tac-toe, Snakes and Ladders, Candy Land, The Game of Life and Monopoly.

Boardgamegeek is the hipster cesspit of boardgaming.

[Paelos]

I like Life and Monopoly.

Haters.

[Kail]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-worst-board-games-ever-invented/

 War (the card game), tic-tac-toe, Snakes and Ladders, Candy Land, The Game of Life and Monopoly.

Weird, Extra Credits just did an entire episode about how awesome Snakes and Ladders is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzLYKY1nPsY

I'm having a hard time deciding which I disagree with more.

[angry.bob]

Adventure Time variant of Munchkin

I did not know this existed.

Since this is a thread about bickering. I loved Talisman as a kid, now I'd rather light my balls on fire than have to play another game. So. Fucking. Boring.

Talisman was a lot of fun back in the day, but it really depended too much on which adventurer you drew. If you got someone like the Chaos Warrior or Space Marine you were golden, but if you got Philosopher or Minstrel you may as well punch your own dick the whole game.

Games Workshop amazes me with having such a huge marketshare for decades while consistently having the most poorly written and most imbalanced rules in the industry.

[eldaec]

I like Life and Monopoly.

Haters.

I don't know of what to tell you regarding life, but if you think you like monopoly, is it the auctions for assets? If so, try power grid. If it is convincing a friend to do a terrible trade, try Chinatown. If it is anything else, you need to help us to help you.

[Raph]

I tend to think that specific games are bad for specific people, personally. A bad game is one that isn't good for anyone.

[schild]

Thats an excellent way to never have to give a firm opinion that may be proven wrong.

[eldaec]

I tend to think that specific games are bad for specific people, personally. A bad game is one that isn't good for anyone.

This is broadly a fair statement, but I find it hard to imagine the person for whom Munchkin or Fluxx is a valid life choice. You don't just walk past someone labouring under a misapprehension about this, just as friends do not let friends base their financial planning on payday loans, drink miller light, or play Battlecruiser 3000.

[Rendakor]

Munchkin is targetted at an subset of D&D nerds; specifically, those who like D&D but can't play it (because time, effort, commitment, whatever). It's like the Candy Crush of PNPRPGs.

[Khaldun]

Thats an excellent way to never have to give a firm opinion that may be proven wrong.

As opposed to having insanely firm opinions that are proven wrong as in the exact nanosecond that they are uttered? At the level of antimatter meeting matter and fueling the warp engines of the Enterprise? Not like anyone around here is wrong like that.

[Raph]

Thats an excellent way to never have to give a firm opinion that may be proven wrong.

Hardly! I've never been accused of lacking opinions (or of not being proven wrong) before.

No, it's just that something like tic-tac-toe or Snakes and Ladders is clarly a good game for its demo, and a bad game outside of it. I'm practical and functionalist about it. Hammers make for poor knives, and all that.

Basically, a bad game is one that is badly constructed for even its intended purpose. There is no shortage of bad games out there.