I think I found a way to summarize how frustrated I feel at times when it comes to board games. A visual method. Excitements! To LibreOffice!
So, two axes. Vertical axis is a gauge of interest. Horizontal axis is experience level. Not skill level, per se. This isn’t a measure of talent. Just understanding of the fundamentals.
I did an example scattering of a few games I play, and one (Waterdeep) that I haven’t.
Those that know me probably see the pattern or understand where I’m going with this. Those that don’t, well, this picture isn’t that important. I decided to name the quadrants.
Specifically, I wanted to delve into that one in the upper left. Yeah, that aggravating one. Where you know you want to play the game, but you don’t know how to play it? You might recognize it from the name of this post. Subtlety is my middle name.
There are several factors that can lead to landing a game in this quadrant.. Complex rules and mechanics make it harder to learn new games on one’s own. Long play times create inertia to even start. Niche or unpopular games make it harder to find players.
I decided this would be worth all the effort of a blog post when I realize that this is a problem unique to board and tabletop games. Video games do not have any such gap. There are two reason for this.
First, the barrier of functional entry into multiplayer is reduced to nill thanks to the internet. There are varying degrees of learning curves before some games are really fun or engaging, but that’s a different issue. Nothing’s preventing me from playing a single player game except possible technological issues, and mutliplayer just requires a few other people out there, somewhere on the globe, to exist and want the same thing that I do.
Second, there’s no burden to leadership because software curates the game procedurally. A strong working understanding of the rules is not necessary to start a video game; it only helps you master it. The game will enforce the rules and apply the mechanics for you, perfectly. With board games, humans must take on these tasks, and may do so imperfectly.
After further thinking, I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t a three-dimensional problem, with the third dimension being Free Time. But I don’t want to beat that dead horse any further. Y’all get it. I’m busy.
How does this gap wind up persisting, perhaps indefinitely? Well, there’s also a problem of a certain circular dependency. Which I’ll get into in the next post.
To Be Continued…