Game Together

For me, the point of board gaming is to sit down with other people and enjoy the interaction, competition, and camaraderie that comes from a shared non-virtual activity. What brought me back into modern boardgames about ten years ago was a desire to spend some quality time with my wife. Since then, I have introduced games to family, friends, and work colleagues with great success, and I now finally have some regular game groups as well. My goal has never been to convert anyone to a "gamer", but to find ways to connect with people through a common experience. However, I am definitely a gamer myself and enjoy curating my collection, organizing components, reading rulebooks, sleeving thousands of motherlovin' cards, and all those other geek activities that are the other side of the hobby. But most of all I just want to play, Game on!

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Pet peeves

Posted by Damon Asher

16 Mar 2011

Damon Asher

(drasher25)

United States
Jefferson
MA

OK, I recently realized that I have a geek pet peeve: thin cardboard counters in otherwise good production value games from publishers that should know better. Thin counters or tiles bug me far more than unmounted boards; you don't have to pick up and handle the boards as you play. On the list of thin-counter shame:

Hollywood Blockbuster (RIP Uberplay)
Notre Dame
Macao (come on Alea! This is the freakin' Big Box line, step it up!)

These are the ones that come immediately to mind, but I'm sure I'll add more as I come across them again.

Peeve number 2: unpainted miniatures. I am no painter, and I have a hard time distinguishing gray minis from one another on the board. What I usually do is color the base of each mini with a different colored Sharpie so I can tell them apart easily. I would much rather have a cardboard stand-up with nice art than an unpainted miniature. I'm not talking about dudes-on-a-map style wargames. There minis of different colors for each army are fine (unless there are factions within that army that should be different colors, WAR OF THE RING!). I mean games like Runebound where you have a single pawn that you need to pick out from all the other gray pawns on the board.

Fantasy Flight is a big offender here. Come on, can't we at least make each player pawn a different color? At least dip the bases? On the other hand, FFG also demonstrates the model I like the best with Arkham Horror: stand-ups in the game with the option to purchase painted minis separately. That's the way to do it! I'll invest in those bad boys if I love the game. So bravo FFG! And also BOOOO!

On a related note, if you're going to go with stand-ups, provide one stand for each stand-up. Do not make me destroy the stand-up bottoms by squeezing different ones into too few bases each game. Also, make sure that the bases actually hold the cardboard. I am surprised that Z-Man Games gave us those utterly useless bases with Magical Athlete. I can't remember right now if they did the right thing and at least provide one base per character, because I had to swap in some other stands I had. In any case, so close, yet so far!

15 Comments

Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:30 am

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Cracky McCracken

(Cracky)

United States

Ohio

Have you considered spray painting the minis from WotR different colors? if there's a hobby store near you, they could probably set you up with the right sprays and give you some tips.

it's not that hard. just get the paints and some cardboard, set up shop in your yard on a nice day and spray away.

i kind of agree with you about cardboard standees, they're not bad at all when they're nice (and no painting). they actually work pretty well with D&D4e.

Posted Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:41 am
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Damon Asher

(drasher25)

United States
Jefferson
MA

Well, first thing I did with WoTR was color all the bases the faction colors with Sharpies and paint pens. Then I went back and detailed the minis with metallic markers. Then I sold it all and bought the Collector's Edition. Miniature problem solved! (and game budget problem exacerbated!)

But to your point, nope I have no interest in treating my board game like some kinda kit I need fuss with to get playable. Sure, I'll print out some player aids, and sleeve the cards (god help me with the sleeving - something is wrong with me). Heck, I've even made some player aids myself. But I am opposed to the idea that I need to do anything to the game pieces. Say NO WAY TO GRAY!

Posted Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:51 am
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Mik Svellov

(Great Dane)

Denmark
Copenhagen N
EU

There is a simple explanation for the thin cardboard in alea games: alea has a extremely small budget.

Stefan Brück, who is the entire staff of alea, receives a small budget from Ravensburger. He can then either make one large game per year or a couple of minor ones - if he cuts corners.

So don't expect higher quality in the components, but be happy that the quality of the gaming experience is top notch.
And be thankful that Ravensburger doesn't close the label!

Posted Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:17 pm
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Paul Osborne

(paosborne)

England
Canterbury
Kent

I am on board with Damon here, I have both Arkham Horror and Runebound and feel that as playing pieces the Arkham cardboard figures are much better than plain grey plastic pieces with Runebound.

Of course IMHO the worst offender of all is the Lord of the Rings game, that supplied utterly rubbish flimsy plastic coloured identical figures for the players yet provided wooden pawns for the other pieces. Of course I could go to Games Workshop and get some really nice hobbit pieces (for more than I paid for the game) but I am no painter. Sigh.

Posted Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:34 pm
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JC Hendee

(Sigilist)

United States

Oregon

I have to go with Damon on the playing pieces as well, though I'm not as concerned about it. Standees are much more versatile in that many people do not have the time, talent... and MONEY... to paint minis. The Arkham model should be followed by all game companies, though I don't know the specific cost differences (no one here does) of the print and cut on standees vs injection molded minis.

Of course, there is a solution... a color printer, some graphics of characters found on BGG, glue and matt board. It's what we've done with all games from FFG that come with a little gray horde.

Edited Thu Mar 17, 2011 3:42 pm
Posted Thu Mar 17, 2011 3:30 pm
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Damon Asher

(drasher25)

United States
Jefferson
MA

Great Dane wrote:

Good points Mik, but in the context of this blog I think I'm just going to sometimes complain about things without justification or concern for the issues at play. I believe that every man and woman is entitled to intensely dislike 5 things without rationale or justification. Embrace this philosophy and it will set you free!

For example, my current 5:
Men’s dress shoes with tassels
National Public Radio
Women who dress up like babies at Halloween
The Silver Surfer
Honey-Nut Cheerios

Don't tell me why any of these things are good, or why I'm wrong. Don't care. These are bad things, period, and I don't even have to say why, because they are on my 5 list. End of discussion (until I change my list, of course).

Oh, and you can have a bunch of boardgame stuff too, My blog, my rules!

Edited Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:13 pm
Posted Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:04 pm
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Damon Asher

(drasher25)

United States
Jefferson
MA

paosborne wrote:

Mmmmm, yes but would you rather have had the identically shaped, but different color hobbits, or all gray hobbits in different shapes?

Posted Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:08 pm
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Damon Asher

(drasher25)

United States
Jefferson
MA

Sigilist wrote:

That is awesome. But dammit, now I'm having to make my own pieces that are actually cheaper than the ones that come in the game!

I wonder what the MSRP of, say, Runebound or Talisman would be with stand-ups instead of gray minis. From what I understand, making the mold is big big bucks.

Posted Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:11 pm
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Matthew Emch

(Pling)

United States
Charleston
West Virginia

I AM PLING!!

Quote:

Men’s dress shoes with tassels

Yes! So yes!

Posted Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:06 am
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Damon Asher

(drasher25)

United States
Jefferson
MA

Pling wrote:

Quote:

Men’s dress shoes with tassels

Yes! So yes!

While I will cotton no dissension with my 5 list, I am happy to accept your support. Yeah, f*** those tassels!

Posted Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:56 pm
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Matthew Emch

(Pling)

United States
Charleston
West Virginia

I AM PLING!!

I am 100% positive that either a woman, a cat, an art critic, or a turnip came up with the whole dress shoe tassel idea. What a fiasco.

Posted Sat Mar 19, 2011 12:01 am
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JC Hendee

(Sigilist)

United States

Oregon

drasher25 wrote:

Sigilist wrote:

Of course, there is a solution... a color printer, some graphics of characters found on BGG, glue and matt board. It's what we've done with all games from FFG that come with a little gray horde.

There's the cost of the sculptor's original, whom I hope gets royalties rather than just a commission (yea, not likely). Of course casting the multiple molds for mass production is a one time thing as well... and why only the big companies include minis, because they can do big print runs of a game; same as form printed materials, because the setup time is costly and only decreased by the number units of a component down in one run.

Of course, this doesn't really tell use actual costs, but yea, obviously the figurines are more costly, even when a cheaper plastic is used.

Posted Sun Mar 20, 2011 1:11 am
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Damon Asher

(drasher25)

United States
Jefferson
MA

Shadows over Camelot was the game I was trying to remember. There the minis are gray, but the bases are different colors. I think that is a good compromise! Plus, you can buy the fully painted guys as an upgrade.

Edited Sun Mar 20, 2011 3:22 pm
Posted Sun Mar 20, 2011 3:20 pm
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William Bertram

(williambertram)

United States
Wichita
Kansas

First off, I completely agree with you about unpainted minis in board games. It seems a bit unrealistic to think that a significant amount of people will paint these, and that they look good without paint. War games and other "mini" games are a completely different story, but I was kind of hoping Mansions of Madness would go with cardboard stand ups.

I'd have to say the fact that Mansions of Madness has unpainted minis made me decide not to buy a game I was otherwise pretty excited about. It would take me months to paint 32-minis. I don't have time for it, and don't enjoy it. Spending time on painting minis seems even less attractive when you consider that board gamers tend toward variety, so this game will be lucky to see the table half a dozen times.

Why not go with 2 or 3 options for the game pieces, and maybe sell them separately?

1. One version of the game pieces with unpainted minis.
2. One version with painted minis that cost more.
3. One version with cardboard stand ups, that would presumably be much less expensive.

Just my take. I'm probably in the minority (as usual) for refusing to buy games with unpainted minis.

Posted Sun Mar 20, 2011 4:09 pm
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JC Hendee

(Sigilist)

United States

Oregon

williambertram wrote:

Why not go with 2 or 3 options for the game pieces, and maybe sell them separately?

This is not financially viable. It would mean reducing print runs so as not to have too much overstock of each variation and thereby increase the overall production and retail cost of each unit. Whatever was saved on the "standee" version would be eaten up by this, and the figurine version would cost even more.

The only viable model is to produce a game with components of the least cost as a standard and then offer upgrade or accessory products that offer additional or replacement components, such as figurines. The downside to this is that such figurine packs would be printed in lesser quantities, and thereby might be more expensive to produce. In addition, many gamers also look for alternative figurines anyway, since the plastic ones cannot support the quality and detail that pot-metal / pewter figurines have.

Edited Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:51 pm
Posted Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:47 pm
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