The Games that Make me Want my $45K Back from this Hobby
Proud Father and Diabetic Underachiever
United States
State College
Pennsylvania
Grata
Bastard of Internet Ridicule
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There is nothing particularly sinister about board gaming. It's a time sink like any other, and if you let it, as I have done, it can be quite a money sink as well.
But...there is something particularly sinister and malicious about sucky games that you buy for no particular reason, especially when, like myself, you are invariably too lazy to try to sell them or give them away.
It's like that slot machine that killed Everett Sloane, and I frequently find myself wishing that my parents were still alive, so that I could take all these evil games and hide them in their closet, as I did with such items as my Alfred Hitchcock Presents LP, and the little hot potato game from Sav-On that was based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
So, not because they are scary in and of themselves, but only because my lack of self-control as regards them is a matter of some concern, here are the games that I wish I had never owned.
Feel free to add your own such games, bearing in mind that you would probably have needed to hide them in some other persons' closet, as my parents would have probably shot you for trespassing in their house.
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Greg Michealson
United States
Maple Grove
Minnesota
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I spent more than $500 on a game that is now extinct. 'Nuff said.
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Andy Parsons
United Kingdom
Chelmsford
Essex
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This game didn't cost a lot and had no collectable components. Nor did it suck me into a downward spiral of terrible pirate games (Lord knows, there have been a few of those though). It holds a special dank, mildewed place in my heart as the only one of the ten games I rate a 2 that I've ever owned.
This was a typical case of a limited edition, available from the designer at someone else's stand, for a few hours only at a games fair. And me getting over-stimulated reading the previews. I guess the moral of this one is that when a publisher resorts to this kind of selling, their game will usually be no good.
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Richard Young
Canada
Victoria
BC
Old Ways Are Best!
Check Six!
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Yah, First Edition!! The version that barely lasted long enough for the ink to dry before it was replaced with a 2nd edition along with a series of expansions totally incompatible with the original. If you acted fast, you could get the new base set for a discount (that was timed to expire even faster than the version they just rendered obsolete).
The whole debacle annoyed me so much I saved myself a bucket-load of noney pursuing this sick puppy (Martin - how could you let your name stay on this dog?!?)...
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Christine Doiron
United States
Juneau
Alaska
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I absolutely hate this game! It's horrible, horrible, horrible.
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Magister Ludi
France
Paris
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A total dog...brought a starter deck for $3 that I found in a dusty corner of a card shop and thought, 'hey this dosn't look too bad', then found a deck of boosters, still thinking' 'hey this looks pretty good'.
Then I try to decipher the rules. Totally wretched.
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31.
Board Game: Poker
[Average Rating:6.76 Overall Rank:494]
Wendell
United States
Arlington
Virginia
All the little chicks with crimson lips, go...
Hey, get your stinking cursor off my face! I got nukes, you know.
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Although I've played a fair bit of poker, I haven't lost a lot (I've LOST, but not a lot). Components are cheap too. But SURELY somebody has lost a bunch of money on this, even more than on Magic...
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Matthew Stevenson
United States
California
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"Hey! This game is clever and funny. Let's buy the next expansion."
"Hey! That expansion made the game more fun and added more jokes. Let's buy the next expansion."
"Ha ha! What fun this game is. Let's buy the next expansion."
"..."
"Let's save 2 hours and flip a coin."
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Peer Sylvester
Germany
Berlin
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I play games quite regulary. But my game group doesnt play long games. In fact Ive played only 2 games in the last 5 years that lasted for more than 4 hours: Descent and 18xx. Its VERY likely that I wouldnt play any longer games in the near future (my wife is 9 month pregnant).
But that doesnt stop me from buying the following games in the last 12 month:
Revolution (5 hours)
War of the ring (4 hours)
Roads & Boats (4 hours)
Indonesia (3 hours if youre lucky, usually more)
Twilight Imperium (dont know, havent even read the rules, since I wont be able to play rhis anyway)
Why? Why? Why?
BTW: Im currently looking for Doom TB, Arkham Horror, Magic Realm...
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David Cunkelman
United States
Antelope
California
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Easiest link I could find to express my love and hate. AD&D, 2nd Ed D&D, 3rd Ed D&D, D&D 3.5, and now 4th Ed D&D. Its all tabletop Magic:tG! Corrupted and fouled that is that evil capitalist beast WotC.
I absolutely LOVE this RPG. It is between this, my Jyhad "lifestyle," and boardgames in general that most of my free/hobby time is spend. Its a give and take love affair. Over the past year boardgames have won, but Jyhad has made a strong showing for a few months and nearly a dozen new converts. The D&D/RPG world took a dive last year, after reigning supreme for 4+ years (what the hell is Puerto Rico?), with the announcement of 4th edition in my world. After spending $1000's of dollars reviving my childhood love with the inception of 3rd edition, and then $1000's more to convert to 3.5, I quit cold turkey with the announcement of 4th edition last summer, dropped all my games within a few months following and have purchased about 100 boardgames in the past 12 months.
And now that 4th edition is here, I see its only like $60 to pick up all three core books... just to try it, to see if they really made WOW tabletop, or if they hit another stroke of genius and "fixed/improved" D&D yet again (3rd ed is awesome, 3.5 fixed all that needed a tune up, so could 4th really do it again?). NO WotC is a capitalistic monster! Kill it now! I cannot even visit amazon.com without peeking at it... it's just $60... whats the harm, I paid more for Agricola 8 months ago and still haven't received it... Does anyone know a good therapist in the Sacramento, CA area? "Hi, my name is David and I am a game collector/addict..."
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Scott Everts
United States
Foothill Ranch
California
MITCHELL!!!
Push the button, Frank!
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Another money pit. We all loved the Vampire RPG so we all went nuts over the CCG. Spent hundreds to get a complete set. A friend did the same. A few years later we had our complete sets we NEVER played just sitting on a shelf. I was going to a game con that had an auction and decided to sell both our sets there. I stupidly put them together in an auction block and they both went for only $40!! After the auction I saw the winner give one set to a friend and chuckling how they got it so cheap.
If you ever want a reason not to buy new collectible games there's one. You collection will most likely be worthless a few years later.
I think we should stop calling these games collectible since they really blind purchase money pits.
How about this? Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Blind Purchase Money Pit Game.
Man, that just puts it in perspective doesn't it!
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36.
Board Game: Shogun
[Average Rating:7.69 Overall Rank:45]
Peter Freer
New Zealand
Wellington
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fun killer.
Long and static play.
auctioning on play order seems like a good idea, until 4 people bid the same amount...
Awful plastic bits made from recycled yoghurt containers (why not just cardboard?)
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A gift from my gamer friends for my last Birthday. What a disappointment. They actually bought me two games, Shear Panic and Hive. I would never have picked Hive nor Shear Panic in a shop, but Hive was a real surprise and it became one of my favourites !
Not so for Shear Panic. As much as the components do make you feel like you have to love the game, it is dull, uninteresting, over complicated to me ! After a few games, I decided to put my copy on the BGG marketplace (yes, I know, it is a Birthday gift - and it is the much sought after Zoch version).
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Daric Morris
United States
atlanta
Georgia
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The AH version, in my case. It never even occurred to me that this could be bad. I loved the Eon and Mayfair versions so much.
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Atomic wedgie
United States
Vancouver
Washington
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Back in the days when this was out of print, I managed to pick up a second copy of this which was incomplete for the measly sum of $58 plus shipping or thereabouts. It had the cards, but not the counters. My thinking was that since I already had a set I could make replacement counters.
Yeah, right, what was I thinking? Years later this still stares at me accusingly. That and a few other projects that I plan to get to someday.
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My brother got me hooked on this after buying 2 Premiere Starter Packs. Nice game but no mains characters to play a lot of the cards with. Hence my start to the CCG world...
I need Vader, Tarkin, Obi, Luke, Han... and everyone around me had MULTIPLES of the mains
Started buying boosters 1 at a time, then 3... then 10 at a time!!!
Still no mains other than C-3PO (who was crap!)...
Wait... how stupid of me... it's so much "cheaper" to buy by the box!
3 Boxes later I had the entire Premiere set (after trading some doubles... and paying cash for some "cheaper" rares)
Then New Hope and Hoth came out...
More boxes!
Then Dagobah, Cloud City, Jabbas Palace and Second edition...
Must have them too... so, more boxes... (and $1500-2000 later)
But the expansions kept rolling in by Decipher, while my wallet was running dry.... until...
One day while playing SWCCG with friends along came a guy who wanted to get me into Magic by unloading his collection of 2-3,000 cards on me (which he never played ... and obviously didn't know their value)... for $50. I said to myself that even if all the cards were commons, it was a decent deal for $0.02/card.
A month later I decide to look through those Magic cards... there were 4xMoxes/Lotuses/Serra Angels/Multilands!!!... to name a few (and I'm not joking)
Off to "E-Pay" I go and sell the lot.... for A LOT!!!
So what do I do... over the next couple years, the entire proceeds + ~$500 go into the SWCCG sink drain!!!
I was happy though cause now I had every single set, promo sets, foil sets, and all the multiple mains and tools to make any deck I wished.
Today, I'm in need of a home deposit... I look at my thousands of SWCCG cards and wonder just how much I could get for them today... that is, IF I can ever get myself to put them for sale on E-Pay.... after all the effort I went through to obtain them all!
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41.
Board Game: Risk
[Average Rating:5.62 Overall Rank:6468]
Mark Brown
United States
North Liberty
Iowa
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This post is dedicated to all those thrifters out there who, like me, cannot pass up an old copy of Risk 'just for the wooden bits.' Or Monopoly 'for the money and tokens'. Or Clue 'to complete my other incomplete copy'.
Sure, it's only a couple of bucks each time. But I never, ever actually USE any of those parts, because I can't stand the thought of scavenging a game for its parts. So I live with closets full of beat-up, incomplete games, and buy more of them every week.
No doubt about it, I need therapy. 
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Jarrod Shultz
United States
Connellsville
Pennsylvania
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yay, this will be the coolest game ever. ITs like civilization, in space......................2 Hours later- I finally made contact with my neighbor. I am gonna build up my fleet and then kick his butt................2 hours later- Now I have my fleet built, ITS GO TIME! ...................2 minutes later- I just lost all of my ships to a bunch of fighters, this game sucks.
Overall, I really do enjoy the game. There are just a few things that really bother me. THe main thing is the time factor. It just takes too long. I have played this game twice since purchasing it two years ago.
But wait, there is an expansion and it is supposed to speed up the gameplay. Awesome! So I buy the expansion. Sadly, my gaming group has already given up on this game. So there it sits on the shelf.
*sigh* why do all of the good games have to take so long?
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Subhan Michael Tindall
United States
Portland
Oregon
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The year: 1994 The game: TiT
Fortunately I only bought a couple of starters and a box of boosters of this monstrosity before getting a chance to actually play - if you could call it that. My friend & I made it about 2/3 of the way through a game in probably 2 hours before the agony became to great & we went back to playing M:TG. Bleh!
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stephen
United Kingdom
Burton on trent
Staffordshire
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My second nomination is this one, not because I bought it, but because I persuaded my partner to buy it. She loves playing Carcassone and one day while in a game shop she suddenly asked me what game she should buy. Since she loves Carcassone and I already have most of the other versions I suggested this one. We played it, we both prefer other Carcassone incarnations and I think we have played it maybe three times.
The other games have better artwork and just feel more interesting to play. This one feels kinda counter intuitive compared to the others
To this day she has never ever suggested buying another game, and I blame this game for killing her interest in game ownership.
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Jakto Hi'tidi
United States
oklahoma city
Oklahoma
Utinni!
Utinni!
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I must have dumped a couple thousand all told on this behemoth collectible mini game. I and a friend immediately jumped on this game because we used to play Battletech every chance we had back in highschool. We had been playing Mage knight casually with some other friends, so thought this might make a good return of Battletech light. We were right. We loved it, and the first couple of expansions were really well developed. I played sometimes several times a week for over a year mostly at the tournaments. I almost never lost, maybe a half dozen times but tried to keep things social with the other guys. I'd usually trade or giveaway extra prize pieces to the regulars and especially kids that would come play. I even went to the first national championship (on invite) for this game and placed in the top 16. The prizes I won would have ebayed for about $700 which I stupidly held on to, because I was committed (should have BEEN committed) to the game. I mean one prize piece was 1/16 in the world and another was 1/32 and the dropship was really rare too! Nevermind that in game terms they weren't that essential and now are worth nil. Wizkids was doing it's darndest to kill the game themselves. They outlawed all the first expansions and continued introducing broken units that made MECHS (the core of the game) more and more obsolete. After nearly getting in to a fist fight while on a business trip with a local I was trying to show the correct rules to, I realized I had had enough. He later apologized for over reacting, but I never played again. I just wasn't having fun anymore. I was getting tired of the cheaters and bad attitudes. I had had enough.
Now the pieces sit....I contemplate making up premade armies and having a big game with all my friends....someday. This experience with what at it's core started as a very good game really turned around into a bad experience. I've been turned off to collecitble and tournament anything ever since. I've been leary of the Warhammer gamers and not gotten into that either, as I see some of the same attitudes at the local game stores where they play.  The good side, is that I've found greater appreciation of board games and to a lesser extent card games and this site devoted to them. I enjoy a game with an interesting or imaginative theme, NICE bits, and a good game at it's heart. I especially enjoy having everything complete for a good game in one set...no collectibility!
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46.
Board Game: Turn
[Average Rating:4.56 Unranked]
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This one my father offered to me about thirty years ago, and it was one of the very rare case where he had mistaken. Dull and boring.
By the way, it is still in my parent's closets.
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Quijanoth
United States
Crown Point
Indiana
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I caught myself before it became the deep, deep money pit it would have become. No joke, though...this game is expensive and I don't see it going too far past the Voltron expansion.
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kris gorham
United States
albuquerque
New Mexico
I wasn't born ! I sprang from the forhead of God , as he contemplated a particularly vile joke !
I wasn't born , I was hatched in the deepest darkest part of the ocean , and raised by sharks !
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i blew several hundreds if not a couple of thousand on this , from the first set on . i dont play it any more , i dont want it any more , and my friends tell me its worth lots of money .
but with the totes of figures i have , the amount of time i would have to spend typing in the names and cards to several hundred to a thousand or more figs or more is overwhelming , and thus it sits in a storage shed hidden from the light of day 
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SuperflyCircus Pete
United States
Independence
Kentucky
www.superflycircus.blogspot.com - Best Reviews Ever!
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And this was a frakking sinkhole as well.
Played at a buddies house with his older sons, and beat them soundly. The mechanic is cool - it's like little green army men with rubber band guns, but more nuanced.
First it was 10$, then 100$, then 1000$, then I was demoing it, then I was buying the Marvel and Transformers, then the Tournament Scene...all told I sunk a boatload of cash into it to have Hasbro end it's production and see all my money disappear.
Having the trophies and being the "reigning world champion" of a stupid ass game like this really doesn't go very far to getting my money out of it....
So here I sit, with 2 big boxes of myriad figures within, and I'm wondering WHY, WHY, WHY!?!?!?
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Joe S
United States
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma
Don't touch me there.
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Highly disappointed in this one. Anyone who has invested more than 10 hours in the MMO would be.
I mean, with all the beautiful spaceships in the MMO the boardgame resorts to poker chips.
Poker chips?
In space?
I'm sadly trading this awesome game. Disregard anything you see implying that this game sucks.
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