Archive for Christopher Ebert
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Christopher Ebert
United States
Cape Coral
Florida
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I still haven't figured out why I'm such a stat junkie. I don't even know when exactly it started, but I know it started sometime in the past two years. I'm saying this, cause it just finally hit me that I keep track of way too much crap. The problem is, I cant stop!! I've tried (thought I have successfully gotten rid of a few stat tables) I just can't get rid of them.
I think I should blame Halo. When you go onto your bungie profile, they track EVERYTHING. I started looking at the heatmaps and weapons and areas that I needed to improve. I'm doing it on Battlefield too. But that was videogames, and it was all automatically taken care of. I got addicted to using Xfire too for tracking time I play games, which since I've moved to Raptr since it tracks even consoles. UGH!!!!
And now... I manually do it for my board game plays. You should see the ridiculous things I track in Google Docs spreadsheets. Fun part is, I've constructed the main one in a way that all I have to do is enter the number for a win or a loss and it auto configures everything else. So here is a list of things I track from boardgames...
Google Docs Spreadsheet - Board Game Plays
• Every game I play(ed) has it's own sheet to track Wins/Losses/Ties. There's a separate table for soloing. Some are even broken up for further tracking, like 2-player, 3-player, etc. Some track which win with which character I use. Each section gets added up individually, then they all get added together. I can easily look at a page and see how many Multiplayer Wins/Losses/Ties I have vs Solo one, as well as an overall that adds them all together. I have a template I use so that I don't have to remake every sheet every time. I just copy it.
• The main sheet is a quick reference that pulls all the numbers from all the other sheets automatically. It tracks total multiplayer and total solo games and gives me a percentage of each from the total overall. Total wins/losses/ties, as well as those totals with multiplayer only, and solo only. (Percentages as well) Each game is also grouped by genre, like Abstract, Strategy, Wargame, etc, so I can see the percentage I play of each of those.
• The second sheet, further breaks up my multiplayer gaming into Adversarial vs Co-op. Cause one day I looked at my multiplayer wins and wanted to know how many of those were versus people and not as a co-op. Gah! So I had to make that table. It is also completely automated reading the information from the individual game sheets.
• The third and final sheet (so far) is tracking my overall play %. It only grabs the total games played data from each game sheet and keeps track of the percentage that game gets played. It also has a box at top that displays my most played game (Currently Ascension, which is counted as all the versions of it)
But it doesn't stop there! Oh no. I just HAD to track other crap!
Google Docs Spreadsheet - BG Stats: Wargame WWII
This one, I have no idea why I made it. Maybe I was bored. But dangit!
• First Sheet - Ambush. I just input if I've won or lost depending on the mission. It also looks at those wins and losses and tracks how many times Allies or Axis get a victory for that particular mission. In fact, I could mostly likely automate this from the main sheet above, but I'm still a bit of a novice with information going between different spreadsheets.
• Second Sheet - Ambush Total stats. Looks at the previous one for a quickview. Totals up wins and gets percentages etc. Also shows how many times each map gets used. (since different missions use the same map)
• I pretty much do the same exact thing for Combat Commander and Memoir '44. It took me a long long time to get in every single mission for Memoir '44, since I have every expansion except for the 2nd Campaign Book. So I'll need to add those eventually. The Memoir '44 one is also more extensive since it was the first one I made and has so much info on it. Even the dates the battle took place, but I use this one to arrange them in chronological order, as I'm soloing each one in order.
Google Docs Spreadsheet - BG Stats: Aviation
This is one I'm seriously thinking about ridding myself of since it's becoming more of a pain in the ass to keep up with and I'm finding I don't care about these stats. So far it only has Hornet Leader and RAF stats.
For Hornet Leader I'm tracking
• How many times a target has been destroyed or left operational (Separated by Co-op / Solo)
• How many times a pilot as flown a mission, also tracks if he was undamaged, MIA, etc.
• How many times a pilot has been promoted and what the promotion was.
• How many times a pilot has been drafted or randomly selected.
• How many times a campaign has been played, tracking length of campaign, and evaluation of it.
• How many times a score has shown for a particular campaign. (I really can't figure out why I keep track of this, it makes no sense to)
For RAF:
• Same thing as Hornet Leader with the score... again, why do I do this.. I have no idea.
• How many victories by scenario.
Google Docs Spreadsheet - Deckbuilding Draft Stats
This one started out simple. It was just a table to track when a card from Nightfall or Thunderstone has shown up, just so I can see which ones I have not seen in a game yet. Having all Thunderstone expansions, it's really difficult for me to remember if I've played with a certain card or not, so I kept track of that. Simple.
But I just had to go and complicate the crap out of it, to the point that I can't even remember what the hell it's tracking. I started inputting every time it showed up. Then added percentages. Well, on the sheet there's 3 different percentages that follow the card, and I can't actually remember what they do, even with my title above them. I think, one of them is the percentage of time it has shown up in games, another is the percentage of time it has shown up compared to overall card count, and the last is the percentage it has shown up compared to cards from that particular game/expansion. (again, more crap I don't really need, but it's there)
Google Docs Spreadsheet - BG stats: Other
OMG what's wrong with me.
• Merchants and Marauder captains, how many times they've survived vs being defeated.
• Ghost Stories Taoist Powers: how many times each one has won or lost.
• Ghost Stories Incarnations: how many times each has been exorcized or survived and killed the taoist.
• I used to track something else for Arkham Horror but I don't remember what since I deleted that sheet.
Well. That's the end of the Google Doc Sheets. But does it end there? NO! Why would it. Cause I'm CRAZY!
I have a geeklist that is not submitted and private. Probably to avoid the questions of why the hell am I doing that?
It started off simple... as everything I do. It's titled, Conquering the Soloable game. I listed every game that is Solitaire, has a Solo variant, is co-op (soloable), or that I've written (or found) an unofficial solo variant for. What I was doing, was keeping track of what I have done in a game, cause I bounce around them so much, I lose track. "Have I beaten Ghost Stories on Nightmare solo? I can't remember. Let me look at my list"
THAT was it's ONLY purpose.
That's right, you read it. "Was". *sigh*. I had to go and complicate this one too!!
What did I do? I turned it into a mini game. But then I got rid of that. And made it something else entirely. I made it an Achievement system. If you've played video games, you know what I'm talking about (Gamerscore Achievements on the 360, trophies for PS3, some MMOs even have achievements now)
So I did it for my boardgame soloing. (Not multiplayer, thank god!)
Of course, then I had to make rules for it so that when I add a new game, there's no difference. Then I started keeping track of achievements points and giving everything a point value, which of course led to having the total points possible in the header.
I need help. Professional kind. But I don't think that kind of help exists.
I can't stop...
Here are html links to the stuff I've mentioned above.
Overall Stats (Auto-generated)
Aversarial vs Co-op (Auto-generated)
Playtime Percentage (Auto-generated)
Game Example #1 (Ascension) (Where I enter the win or loss, and the above three sheets read off of it)
Game Example #2 (Ghost Stories)
Thunderstone Draft Stats
My Insane Memoir '44 Stats
Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:44 pm
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Christopher Ebert
United States
Cape Coral
Florida
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I know everyone has their own way of doing things. We are all unique, have our own opinions, likes, dislikes, and process of doing things. That's the beauty of the human race.
Unfortunately, seems that many people in this life see their way as the only way and that if you aren't doing it that way, than you are wrong. You know what I'm talking about too. You've witnessed it yourself many times, even here on boardgamegeek.com. I wrote about a particular example of this in a previous blog; Gotta be the best?
Now, along with this train of thought, also comes a point where you don't understand why someone does things the way they do. This could either be because you see the way you do it, and compare it, therefore thinking it "weird". Much like with differences in culture. Or maybe it's just something you never thought of, but still wouldn't do it that way. I'll list some examples of my own which involve the title of this blog. When it comes to learning new games, I've seen many many posts related to this. And there are quite a few that don't make sense to me, yet then again, I'm not in that person's shoes. Who am I to judge? These examples that I've seen are things like:
• Asking questions about the rules before reading the rulebook. This is understandable when the rulebook is not available for free online, but I've seen this when it is.
• Claiming the game is broken after a mere 1 or 2 plays
• Making house rules after a few plays as well.
• And my favorite, wanting to play all the rules right the very first time.
I'll go over each of these parts with my opinions about this. I want to note, that this blog post is in no way an attack on people that do things this way. It is simply things I personally don't understand why they are done, and my view on it, and hopefully even a guide to help those that do these sort of things to ease their frustration. I've not accomplished much in my life, but I love to help people. I made it my personal goal over 10 years ago to at least try to make a minimum of 1 person smile a day. I feel pretty successful at that. Another thing I do, is find easier yet more efficient ways to do things.
So now for the point of my post, my thoughts...
For the first one I'm going to combine two.
• Asking questions about the rules before reading the rulebook. This is understandable when the rulebook is not available for free online, but I've seen this when it is.
• And my favorite, wanting to play all the rules right the very first time.
In my opinion, trying to make sure you understand everything and play right the very first time, doesn't stamp the rules into your mind as hard. The best way of learning is through trial and error. If you do something wrong, and find out how to do it right, you tend to remember it better.
So this is how I learn a new game.
Step 1: I expect that for the first few plays, I'm going to make mistakes and I'm going to do things wrong and I'm going to forget some minor details.
Step 2: Read the rulebook in it's entirety and try to consume as much as I can. Usually sometimes you don't soak up everything cause of the anticipation of playing the game. Also, you may be imagining what it must be like to play with this rules.
Step 3: Play the game
Step 4: Read the rulebook in it's entirety again. Yes, it is sometimes difficult to do, cause you're reading over something you already know. However, it's important to read everything, cause now you have experience with the game and moving it's components around and getting a feel for the turn order, no longer imagining what it would be. Now when you read the rulebook, you'll have a different view of it and understand it on a more personal level. Not only that, the things you did incorrectly or even forgot will shine out like a beacon from the other things you got the first time.
Step 5: Play the game again.
Step 6: I repeat step 4 until I read through and nothing stands out and I feel I fully grasp all of the rules. Now is also the time I feel I'm ready to teach the game.
An example of this, was with the game Tales of the Arabian Nights. I actually read the rulebook twice before playing it cause I wanted to make sure I got as much info as possible since my first game with it was going to be with 3 people. (I didn't own the game yet, a friend was bringing it over and I like to prepare myself) I finally got the game eventually and played again. Then read every section of the rulebook again and something stood out at me that I didn't notice before, it was the rules with movement. I understood the part on how to read what your movement was, but I was using the location as what counted. For example I was counting Islands as a land movement and only sea zones as water movement. Out of my two read troughs before I had missed the part that you use the path in between as your movement, not the location. That minor mistake I had glossed over before and didn't catch.
I'm sure some of you got that from the very beginning, but remember, we all interpret things differently sometimes. I mean, that is why we are on BGG anyway right? To ask each others opinions and have rules questions?
I'll combine the last two as well...
• Claiming the game is broken after a mere 1 or 2 plays
• Making house rules after a few plays as well.
This one sometimes gets to me. How can an individual understand every strategy and tactic in a game the first play through? I know I sure don't. Sure, you can use the reason that once you've played games enough that you get how games are suppose to work. That just translates to me that if you are a chess master, than you'll immediately be a master at a game like Khet or Go.
I always feel that there are rules there for a reason, and maybe it wasn't there initially or was changed cause after playtesting it didn't or did work.
It seems to me that a lot of times when people say "this game is broken" that it really translates into "I don't like this rule cause it makes it less fun for me / prevents me from winning / etc." Then of course there's house rules to "fix" these "broken" rules.
Now, it's your game, you bought it, you can house rule whatever you want. But I feel it's unfair to house rule something just cause after a few plays you feel it's broken. It takes quite a few games to start developing a real strategy that works or even see another one.
For example, Merchants and Marauders. New people always see the "port-hopping" strategy and exploit it. The new pirate players think it's unfair and makes winning as a merchant easy. So they want to house rule it or of course, call it broken. However experienced players see it as a waste of turns and see it as a poor strategy.
These are just more of my random feeling and ideas, and I am not asking anyone that this is how things should be done or that you should do as I do, after all I never even said that you should do anything. I'm just sharing is all.
Mon Oct 10, 2011 12:27 am
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Christopher Ebert
United States
Cape Coral
Florida
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Disclaimer: Everything in this blog is an opinion that I have. I will not state any facts nor tell people "how they should play". So I would like to ask for the same respect in turn. If you don't feel as I do, you are welcome to share your opinion, but don't degrade mine.
I just read a blog (Here) that got me thinking and decided to blog my thoughts. I'm not really into blogging that much, but every-so-often I do get an inch to write something, and now I have it and need to scratch it.
I definitely love to play board games solitaire. Whenever I see 1 to X amount of players, I tend to want to look more into that game. But it wasn't always like that. While I do enjoy the social aspect of gaming, I do tend to prefer to spend the majority of my time alone. I'm not a social butterfly, but I'm not a complete loner either. I'd say my desires are 85% to be by myself 15% desire for social activity.
When I was young, I was into video games. I loved them. I wasn't a "gamer" persay, cause I was more into band at school and other things. But when I had nothing to do, I could be at home, play a game by myself, and not have to worry about my skills vs someone else. When online multiplayer finally came around, I found it as an opportunity to play with friends occasionally or whenever I got the bug to play against people, I could at any time I wanted. Xbox live really helped that out. (Even though it destroyed multiplayer gaming at the same time)
Still though, I mostly stuck with RPGs and Single player campaigns cause there I was in my own little world... there I was king... there I was the best player... there I had the best skills. Then I'd go over to a friend's house, play games with them, and get my butt handed to me. Sure, I'd always hear, "Just practice more and you'll get better!" but I just could never seem to get to that point. It's as if I get to a "plateau" to my learning ability and get stuck there and can't get any further. The more I learned, the better everyone else seemed to get.
So far, I liked playing by myself, liked cooperative games, and hated being competitive. And even though I play to have fun and not to win, it does feel nice to win every once in a while. I lose interest in something I lose over and over and over at.
So now fast forward some years as an adult, and a friend of mine introduced me to the world of board games I didn't know existed. I never looked into it and thought board games were just things like Monopoly and such that you played on family game night. (Which we had and mostly consisted of Monopoly and The American Dream Game)
He showed me games like Descent, BattleLore and Tide of Iron. Heroscape was another one he got me into that I took to more than the rest, but I realized I just liked designing maps more than actually playing. (I only subbmitted on of them to Heroscapers.com, found here. http://www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=3772) There were many others but I just can't remember any at this time.
Funny thing is, almost 99% of the time, I always won the first game we would play. But then after that, just like in video games, I would get beat more than I won. This friend wanted to play these all the time cause he was really into them, but I just didn't want to. For many reasons. First being I was still more of a solitary gamer and didn't want to play board games many times a week. Second being he was the type of gamer that played to win, and would gripe and not have fun if he was losing, and if I ever did win, never acknowledged that I did a good job at besting him that time and would blame it on some fault with the game as why he lost. (He's since got a lot better with this). And third, as with competitive gaming, I would lose 99% of the time. I'm just not good at playing against other humans. I like playing against the game's A.I. or system.
I had moved away for a while, then wound up moving back. He still tried getting me more into board games but couldn't convince me. Even though we both got Space Hulk (third edition). This is actually the first game I wrote a solo variant for. He had moved away so I had no one to play this with, even though I rarely played it anyway. But, I thought, "well, I like to play games by myself, maybe I'll play both sides". It was the first time the concept of playing a game by myself really hit me. I could play both sides and win, yet lose, at the same time. I had heard people do it with chess all the time. How was this any different? Well, I learned a lot about this game by doing that. I learned more, than playing against someone, cause my mindset wasn't trying to prevent yet another defeat. Then I decided to go online and see if anyone maybe came up with a way to play solo. That was the day I discovered boardgamegeek.com. Mostly all I found was threads pointing to the old Deathwing solo variant. I tried it, and didn't like how it worked. So I decided to make my own solo variant and worked a long time creating an "A.I." for the GS. I feel I did a pretty good job when I finally got the rules down and got to the point where I lost 75% of the time.
Well, my friend had moved back as well (we seem to somehow return here) and had a new game he wanted to show me. I went ahead and gave it a try. Memoir '44. I don't know what it was, but this game is what turned on the light inside of me for big interest in board games. It might have been that I was (and still am) a big Call of Duty fan and over the years was becoming more and more interested in WWII games, documentaries, and movies. My favorite movie still being Enemy at the Gates. So needless to say, I loved playing Memoir '44. (Even though I was still losing all the time). Then he introduced me to deck building games with Dominion. I liked it. But he wanted to show me Thunderstone first cause he had a feeling I would like that more. Well, he was right. Sorry Dominion, but I really like the theme and gameplay of Thunderstone a lot more.
That was late 2010. My board game collection and playing dramatically increased and my video game playing decreased as much. I became more active on BGG as well. But... I still had all of the same issues. I wanted to be alone more than socializing, etc. While my collection was growing, I was looking more into games that had players as 1 - x number of players so that I could play them by myself. That was another reason Thunderstone was more desirable than Dominion, it came with solo rules. Pandemic could be played solo... well, any co-op game. And you know how I feel about co-op. Solo rules were a beacon for directing me toward games. If they weren't there and I still liked it, I'd try to find solo rules, and/or create my own. I even made a geeklist for them, Shacky's Solo Variants
Now, if you've stuck with me this far, here's where I get to the point of the title of my blog.
One day while randomly searching around on BGG for soloable games, I came across a geeklist that changed my life.
Always alone... the definitive list of single player games.
I saw entry number 2, Ambush!. Wait what!? A board game that was designed for only one player?! And this has been around since I was a child? How did I not come across this earlier?
I had always thought board games were meant to be multiplayer but had solo variants. So you can imagine my surprise when I came across a solo boardgame with a multiplayer variant. This made me think about a post I saw once where someone asked why would you want to play a board game solo? Why not just play a video game. Well, I am a video gamer. But there's just something about board games. I like playing them. Besides, here I just discovered that there were games designed for people to play solo!
I found this geeklist, Solitaire War Games and got excited. My first solitaire game was RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940. I eventually added Astra Titanus, got a copy of Ambush! from a BGG trade (for a copy of Memoir '44 Air Pack, I had 2), Hornet Leader: Carrier Air Operations, D-Day at Omaha Beach (I became a fan of John H. Butterfield it seems... hehe), and yes, even got a copy of Outdoor Survival from a BGG auction just cause of how ridiculous it is.
Being RAF was my first solitaire game, I was immediately taken to it. I had read some bad reviews about it but some good ones as well. I find it a lot of fun. I've only played the Lion side of things and plan on the next time I play to try out Eagle.
D-day at Omaha Beach, Ambush, and Hornet Leader are definitely my top 3.
I have a small table in my game room off to the side I play these games on so I can leave them up over time. (something you really have to do to play an RAF campaign). I'm currently playing through a campaign of Ambush and I'm recording all of my moves to enter as my first session report, but I will also be making a geeklist for it cause I want to sorta write an RPG story element to it. (I hope to do the same for my solo fun with Space Alert as well in the future)
Overall, I love solitaire gaming. I do still enjoy the social aspect that comes with board gaming with others. Games that don't come with solo rules are also a lot better with others than playing by yourself, but that is just my preference. Thanks for sticking with me this far and my random thoughts.
And thank you
Patrick Carroll
United States
Carver
Minnesota
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." (GK Chesterton)
"That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)
for giving me this itch to write. It's all your fault. 
Mon Sep 26, 2011 12:52 am
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Christopher Ebert
United States
Cape Coral
Florida
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Just doing this as a curiosity. I've seen this elsewhere and figured this would be a good place for me to see for myself.
My collection by ranks of 100 then 1000 (As of 5-27-11)
(0-100)
Pandemic (29) 8.5
Memoir '44 (50) _8_
Arkham Horror (58) _8_
Space Alert (60) 8.5
Descent: Journeys in the Dark (66) _6_
Space Hulk (3E) (81) _8_
Merchants & Marauders (90) 9.5
(101-200)
Alien Frontiers (110) 7.5
Mansions of Madness (121) _8_
Thunderstone (123) 9.5
(201-300)
D&D: Castle Ravenloft (205) _6_
Thunderstone: Dragonspire (223) _10_
Chess (238) _7_
Space Hulk: Death Angel (245) _9_
(301-400)
D-Day at Omaha Beach (302)
Ambush! (306) _8_
Wings of War: Famous Aces (318) _7_
Warhammer Quest (331)
Wings of War: Burning Drachens (338) _7_
(401-500)
None
(501-600)
Khet (577) _7_
RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940 (592) _9_
(601-700)
Nightfall (630) _8_
(701-800)
Pente (753) _5_
(801-900)
Polarity (850) _6_
(901-1000)
None
(1001-2000)
Zombie in my Pocket (pnp) (1034) _7_
Hornet Leader: Carrier Air Operations (1106) 9.5
Star Munchkin (1351) _7_
Munchkin Quest (1557) _8_
Stratego (1893) _5_
Munchkin (1958) _7_
The Omega Virus (1982) _6_
(2001-3000)
Last Chance (2557) _5_
Astra Titanus (2706) 7.5
(3001-4000)
None
(4001-5000)
Fluxx (4094) _7_
The American Dream (4569) _5_
(5001-6000)
Clue (5169) _6_
Zombies!!! (5620) _6_
(6001-7000)
Pimp: The Backhanding (6536) _5_
Mastermind (6772) _5_
Bibleopoly (6801) _3_
Aggravation (6987) _4_
(7001-8000)
MindTrap (7002) _5_
Monopoly (7031) _5_
Battle of the Sexes (7039) _2_
The Game of Life (7041) _4_
(N/A)
19th Hole Golf
More Dirty Minds _5_
Raise the Titanic _5_
_1_ _2_ _3_ _4_ _5_ _6_ _7_ _8_ _9_ _10_
Sat May 28, 2011 12:51 am
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Christopher Ebert
United States
Cape Coral
Florida
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I want to start off saying I understand and respect that everyone has their own opinion and are free to play games however they see fit. What I don't like is when those people believe their opinion is fact and if you don't do it that way, you're doing it wrong. So they press on you that their way is THE way to play and any other way is garbage and makes you a "bad player"
That being said, I'm starting to get a little tired of seeing people bash others for not using the best characters or best setups.
"Why are you using THAT character?! They are the weakest in the game! You should <character> with <ability/stat> cause they are very strong, and use <character> with <ability/stat> to support them."
/StartRant
I've seen this happen a few times. I don't understand it. Sure, they are probably right... but what's the point? If I play that character or setup every single time cause it's the best, it'll get boring. At least to me. If all characters in a game were created equal, what would be the point of "characters". Heck, I find using the weakest character as a challenge sometimes. I don't think it matters how weak or how strong a character is, they all have a chance at winning. And when luck is involved, either as cards or dice rolls, weak characters at times can actually shine over the strong ones.
I'm not going to mention what actually prompted me to write about this, but I had a comment once saying that I must be playing with the worst players of <game> ever cause of something that happened. I don't believe that, I just feel we have different ways of playing.
Another place I do however see this ALL the time is in World of Warcraft. (The video game, not the board game) You aren't using that talent tree?! You're such a newb! The worst was with my Warrior. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to play what everyone plays cause it's "the best" or does the best numbers. I did not enjoy Fury Warriors. I had a lot more fun as a Arms Warrior. (I also hate PvP in WoW). People would get onto me all the time cause I was doing dungeons as Arms and not Fury. I didn't care though, but it did get annoying.
Why can't people let others play the characters or stats that they want? Why does it always got to be the best one? Why do you get considered a lesser or bad player because you don't pick the best?
/EndRant
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Christopher Ebert
United States
Cape Coral
Florida
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I don't see how it happened. I understand why, but it amazes me how the mind can think one way, but due to one or a few circumstances it suddenly shifts somewhere else, and acts as if it had been there all along.
Hi. My name is Chris. I am a sleever...
...but it wasn't always that way. It is new to me. I never really put sleeves on any cards in my board games. I never minded if my cards looked used or warn a bit cause that showed that they were loved and played. I don't sleeve my clothing after all and it certainly doesn't look like it did the first day I got it. Cept for Magic the Gathering, but I only did that with the decks I was using and only cause I liked the art for the ones I found. It had nothing to do with protecting the cards or anything. And because of that, I came to realize I preferred the feel of the cards themselves instead of them in sleeves.
Here's how it started...
I was getting frustrated with the little card decks in Arkham Horror. They were such a pain in the ass to riffle shuffle. I was thinking about getting one of those automatic card shufflers, but didn't think they would work well for those tiny things and probably would make more of a mess to the point of not being worth it.
Then I got into Thunderstone. And then realized if certain cards don't get used much, they will not show the wear that the others do and be easy to point out say, in the dungeon. ("Oh, that may be a treasure cause it looks pristine, I better kill a monster")
But those two cases didn't do it yet. Nope.
Next, was Merchants & Marauders. Nothing but those little cards like in Arkham Horror. But I loved this game too much to let that get in my way.
I'd like to point something out at this point. I never knew you weren't suppose to riffle shuffle with card sleeves. No one ever taught me otherwise, nor did I see any other way to do it. I wasn't a member of BGG in my MtG days nor did I even think of looking up different ways to shuffle.
So back on track... I read a forum talking about how quickly the Merchants & Marauders cards can get worn out, especially the Cargo Cards. Well, I didn't want that to happen. I was spending a lot of money for board games for my tight budget so I wanted to start protecting them and making them last cause I didn't want to worry about it being out of print if I needed to replace it.
And it started. I bought my first card sleeves for the purpose of protecting cards. I read about this company called Mayday that sold really good quality for a low price, and they were just clear, with no art or colors on them. Just what I wanted, and I could afford it. When I went to their site to order them, that's when I saw the video on an easy way to shuffle cards with sleeves. There was the trigger. Shuffling those little cards in Merchants & Marauders was no longer an issue and it was soooooo easy.
(I also got into using plano boxes for storing board game parts as well. Just wanted to mention it even though this blog post is about sleeves)
So far I have sleeved Merchants & Marauders, Space Hulk Death Angel, RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940, Space Alert (but only the small cards, I haven't found sleeves for the threat cards yet), and Pandemic (and expansion)
Once I get the money, I want to sleeve Thunderstone (along with all the expansions I have), Nightfall, Mansions of Madness, and Arkham Horror (as well as the expansions)
Other games I have like the few Wings of War games and all of my Munchkin Games I may sleeve after those if I feel like it, but I've already got to spend too much money as it is, and there are more board games that I'd like the have anyway.
So, my fellow Card Sleevers... I now understand you.
Update: 11 Jan 2012: Thunderstone, Nightfall, Quarriors, and Ascension... all sleeved now. 
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