Best of Board Games

…and you just know it’s not complete. Check out Yehuda’s list of Monopoly versions.

There are some nice, well edited, concise video reviews at YouTube. There is a summary GeekList and RSS feed.

[via Jon Power and Naturelich]

As usual, Chris Farrell’s review of Twilight Struggle is a beacon of light in a darkened world.

Jacob, he of the Gamer’s Eye, discusses how, maybe–just maybe–one can be both smart and not really be interested in games. I think there’s a tendency–I feel it, sometimes–to see non-gaming (or, worse, “Mattel-Gaming”) as a character flaw rather than as potentially a rational reaction to one’s world.

Sometimes, we forget that other people–yes, including smart people and gamers–might have different preferences or opinions about stuff. I’m always a little dismayed whenever people are shocked by the momentous discovery that other people, whom they heretofore assumed were rational, hold different political positions from their own. (Horrors!) Some people have said they can’t figure out why a “smart person” would like sports, or assume that since I follow NASCAR (yes!) I’m obviously a troglodyte. I think a lot of people have an intuitive syllogism in their subconscious that goes something like “I am a rational person. Therefore, my opinions and behaviors are based on reason. That means that people who are different are irrational.” Or, if we’re feeling charitable, ignorant. (Or, if we’re uncharitable, evil.) (Not that these couldn’t be true, but I’m guessing it’s true less often than most of us assume.)

(Not that I ever harbor such feelings, especially when I worked at the bookstore and saw someone buying the latest Nora Roberts epic when there were perfectly good copies of Master and Margarita and Brideshead Revisited still on the shelves. No sir. (coughs))

We’re never going to make everybody a gamer, not even all the Smart People, or the Right People, or even all our friends. Why? I dunno. I was only a psych major for two semesters, but I seem to recall something about “nature” and “nurture,” how we all don’t go into the machine called Life the same way and we sure as heck don’t come out the same way. Some of us, somewhere along the line, became gamers. Some didn’t, and won’t, no matter what “nature” puts in their way. In the history profession, we fret endlessly about how we should try to make everybody like history. Every generation gets its attempts, and every generation sees them deflate before their very eyes.

What I say, is we should lead by example–let’s have fun playing games, and be good people who have a hobby and maybe attract some new gamers to us, and the hobby, that way. Let’s not talk down to non-gamers, or Risk-players. If somebody’s curious about games, help ‘em out. If they’re not, find something else to talk about. It’s a big world, and games are just a little part of it. One might say: Promote boardgaming constantly–and, when necessary, use words.

(That turned into kind of a rant. Sorry. Blame the gram-and-a-half of medication rumbling around inside me right now.)

From Gerald–aka gamesgrandpa–comes this rendering of “The Bells” to depict Settlers of Catan. Il miglio fabbro…

Is Alex Rockwell the master of strategy articles? I don’t know, but he’s darn good at writing them! Alex loves two-player Caylus, and describes the opening strategies in detail in his article Caylus, the new Addiction! It’s an interesting read, if you’re into two-player Caylus. You should be, as it’s a great way to play a great game.

Very, very few game articles get kicked off by a quote from André Gide. This, a Dave Shapiro article on game art, is one of them. It’s one of the highlights of The Games Journal: Reloaded, as Greg Aleknevicus clears out the closet.

(Many thanks to Yehuda, once again. If you have a tip, send us a line at bestofboardgames at gmail dot com. Thanks!)

Alfred wonders if he will ever play Caylus again:

I saw this happen with Puerto Rico. I played my first game a few months into the PR Phenomenon, and I think I’ve played the game maybe five times, total. Thus, I can no longer play PR against other experienced PR players, since I’m going to hopelessly screw up the game. My play is an insult to it. I don’t want to play against newbies, though, since those games always take longer than Russian war movies. It’s entirely possible I’ll never play Puerto Rico again.

I have a “real” copy already, but if I didn’t, I’d definitely look into downloading and printing off a copy of Steve’s snazzy homemade Liar’s Dice board.

I’ve always said that Taj Mahal is really an auction game with complicated money, rather than a card-playing game. Shannon Appelcline discusses how Blue Moon is really an auction game, which makes a lot of sense. The auction style is rather like TM’s, too.

I’m just a big fan of Knizia’s disguised auction games, I guess!