Benny Sperling
United States
Arlington
Texas
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Okay, so I'm not the biggest board game geek alive, not by a long shot, and I was wondering what the difference between the two is and why there is such hatred?
I understand euro games have wooden bits and are more solitaire driven and ameritrash games have plastic bits and you get to beat down the other players. Is that the only difference? Personally I think games should be played based on how they play not their category. Of course my gaming group likes to be snobbed sometimes when I suggest this. They like Catan, and all of its incarnations, but they also love Munchkin, Betrayal at House on the HIll, Citadels, and Infernal Contraption.
So does that make Citadels a euro game, because Faidutti is French and Munchkin Ameritrash because Evil Stevie is 'merican?
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Chuck Pierce
United States
Huntsville
Alabama
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Do yourself a favor and don't worry about why folks bash one style of game versus another. Whether you like meeples, tiles, dice, and/or tons of chits, all that matters is what you like to play. Most folks like multiple styles of games and these heated Ameritrash vs. Euros arguments are stupid and a total waste of time. So, please don't drudge it up again.
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Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock!
United States
Chula Vista
California
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Oxotnik wrote: Do yourself a favor and don't worry about why folks bash one style of game versus another. Whether you like meeples, tiles, dice, and/or tons of chits, all that matters is what you like to play. Most folks like multiple styles of games and these heated Ameritrash vs. Euros arguments are stupid and a total waste of time. So, please don't drudge it up again.
Word!
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Stew Woods
Australia
Wellard
Western Australia
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Indeed, Chuck speaks wisely....
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Les Haskell
United States
Tennessee
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It's not the games so much as it is the players. The sorry fact is that one group (I forget which) is a bunch of silly idiots and the other isn't much better. Even though there is plenty of crossover gaming every once in awhile somebody makes a comment and everybody rallies around their respective flags and flings mud until somebody gets hurt. At that point Admin has little choice but to ban the most prolific offender. Then that event becomes the new rallying cry and new battle lines are drawn. The good news is that the original offense is mostly forgotten until some newbie brings it up again.
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M.D.W
United States
San Angelo
Texas
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I think you probably fall into the catagory of most gamers. It doesn't matter where it was published, who designed it, if it has monsters or farmers, where its rated on BGG. I think most of us only care if we enjoy playing it. There is a minority of gamers who like to scream, shout, and try to drown out each other about which game is best, who deserves to be where, and that their style is better and if you don't agree with them your opinions don't matter. All of which is meaningless drivel when your sitting around having a great time with your game group playing whatever great game is on the table before you.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
That tickles
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It's good you ask this question before you do what that I did:
I am an Ameritrasher from way back. That's why I was so excited when I got Shogun. I loved it and played it enthusiastically for months, blissfully ignorant of the truth.
One day while playing Shogun, I was extolling the virtues of Ameritrash over Euro, as is my wont, when my friend said, "Dude, this is a Euro."
I gave him that look that says, "I was playing Ameritrash long before you even knew that Eurogames existed."
He pointed out that the designer's name is Dirk Henn. I was stunned. Obviously, that is not an American name. I investigated, and determined that my friend was correct.
I was abashed. You can imagine my embarrassment. Since that time I have traded away the sissy, prissy Euro, have tried to delete every positive comment I ever made about Shogun, and I am thinking of starting my own website dedicated as a safe haven for Ameritrashes so that this tragic mistake is not repeated.
As a gamer, you need to learn right now the hard lines between Euros and AT, for your own good.
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[insert witty diatribe meant to persuade you that the Ameritrash vs. Euro war is over, redundant, and only meant for people of low intelligence. Also, insert a vague insinuation that those who enjoyed it are neanderthalic morons beneath my fellow posters and I here who strongly denounce such hogwash.]
Cool! Now I'm on the bandwagon too! A round of back pats, on the house!
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Les Haskell
United States
Tennessee
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Ok, here's the real difference: Euros can't be good games because they have virtually no war in them. When they do try to portray war it is usually too abstract and resolved in some gimmicky way. AmeriTrash games, on the other hand, are useless because they squander perfectly good opportunities to simulate armed conflict by replacing it with toys and bucketfuls of dice. Obviously, the only way to truly enjoy the gaming hobby is to immerse yourself in the world of ASL. Not that I am biased or anything.
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Not Just Wrong- SPECTACULARLY WRONG.
Spain
Texas
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GROUP HUG!!!!!!!
Mongo like all games. But Mongo Straight.
Darilian
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Steve Post
United States
Kent
Ohio
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I was reading the differences between Ameritrash and Euro games. I think it is fun to try to shove game titles into slots. It's just grouping stuff. It's also fun to see a nice, humorous and lively discussion on the various differences between these two classes. To slap each other around on it is....ok. As long as you don't get sore.
To be more generic: trying to prove that group X is better than group Y is just a debate. And in the end it's just an opinion that you are free to disagree with.
Me? What do I like? Arkham Horror, Age of Mythology, Attack, ...Carrasone, Tsuro, Blokus. ...and Heroscape. (there's a debate: kiddy toy, or wargammer's tactical scenario).
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Les Haskell
United States
Tennessee
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clonea wrote: ...and Heroscape. (there's a debate: kiddy toy, or wargammer's tactical scenario).
It's the perfect game to play with your significant other. My wife loves it.
Me? I'm a wargamer who spends most of his gaming time playing Euros and most of his money on AmeriTrash.
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Chuck Pierce
United States
Huntsville
Alabama
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ZombyDawg wrote: Me? I'm a wargamer who spends most of his gaming time playing Euros and most of his money on AmeriTrash.
LOL. I could say the same thing about myself. I classify myself as a grognard, but it seems that these days I've been playing more Euros than anything else (though I've gotta get my dice rolling in somewhere, and lately that somewhere has been a little town called Arkham). :-)
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Alex Bove
United States
East Lansdowne
Pennsylvania
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Is there a Pandora's Box microbadge?
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ronaldinho @boardspace.net
Taiwan
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Personally I think Catan is as much Ameritrash as it is an Euro.
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Hunga Dunga
United States
Portland
Oregon
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benny275 wrote: Okay, so I'm not the biggest board game geek alive, not by a long shot, and I was wondering what the difference between the two is and why there is such hatred?
Fundamentally, Eurogamers and Ameritrashers can never agree on who hates wargamers more.
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Eurogames and ameritrash are all one and the same. European game= American trash. What's to argue?
JK. I should clarify that this was totally in jest in case Eurogamers get sick. Stress is supposed to be an enabling factor for illness and is exponentially worse with the non-existant immune system of the eurogamers. No hard feelings right?
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Kenneth Bailey
United States
Ypsilanti
Michigan
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It was somewhere around 2010 when the end came. The Eurosnoots were tired of the constant bickering. We're not sure what pushed them over the edge. It might have been concerted effort to give a new game called Plumbus a negative rating. Or it may have been their moms kicking them out of their basements and throwing away their games. We'll never know.
The Ameritrashers tried to gain an edge and launch a pre-emptive strike but they were deterred by the wall of wooden cubes that was set up by the Eurosnoots. Cries of, "What a suboptimal move", were heard across the battle field. The Ameritrashers were turned back.
The Eurosnoots were going to launch a counter attack. They examined the battlefield and found that they could maximize the number of victory points they could get if they waited. So they waited and waited. But they waited too long and winter came. The Eurosnoot attack was turned back pretty easily as they couldn't maneuver across the frozen plains.
In the meantime, the Ameritrashers were putting all their knowledge to use and built a nuke. This was a concept familiar to them and they nuked the Eurosnoots. Unfortunately, they were too close and wiped themselves out in the process....
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John Snyder™
United States
Fresno
California
You and the Cap'n make it hap'n
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Candy.
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Ameritrash = Dog lovers
Eurosnoots = Cat lovers
Ameritrash = Atari
Euros = Intellivision
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Aaron Gelb
United States
El Segundo
California
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montu wrote: Is there a Pandora's Box microbadge?
I thought the same thing. Ask this and watch the flood gates come crashing down.
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Simon Lundström
Sweden
Örbyhus
Now who are these five?
Come, come, all children who love fairy tales.
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The only reason I speak of eurogames and amerigames (never say ameritrash because I don't think it's trash) is because I like to sort stuff that doesn't want to be sorted - like grammar. It's a bit like drawing styles: "Hey, this guy draw in a sort of franco-jap style that looks a bit american!". Or trying to describe manga (japanese comics): "It like, you know… those big eyes… but they don't have to have big eyes, I mean it's something more like… you know, it's the story with this… personality, and this guys is like, you know… daw, it's just comics. From Japan!"
The mere concept to derive "styles" out from very vague descriptions is, yes, I mean it, an interesting way to sort your thoughts and attentivity. It's also very good ways to have words to descibe games, albeit weird.
I'm sure you already found your answer as to what makes a euro and what makes an ameri, and eventually it's up to your gut sense. My gut sense tells me that amerigames are more a sort of way to simulate a certain situation, using miniatures and dice rolls to determine outcome, whereas eurogames are more an intricate idea of game mechanics that balance the game among players, and the gaming system itself is more abstract than "see, I try to hit this guy, I roll 3d6".
I like "Shadows over Camelot" as a good example of a eurogame, not becuase it's the most obvious eurogame in history, but actually because it's such an obvious example of a game which normally would take an amerigame direction but didn't. Here you embark on quests for the Holy Grail, you fight the Saxons and Picts, get Excalibur etcetera etcerera but instead of advancing your charas on a field, rolling dies to slay down your enemies, you mark on which quest you are and place down abstract cards with nubers on in order to complete the quests. For a quest to be completed, you have to complete two pairs, or a straight, or a full house. But though this system with cards looks like "what the F-?", it opens up for an amazing game mechanism of cooperative play that would be unthinkable otherwise. A good example of a very concrete-themed eurogame, when eurogames usually are said to me "non themed". (Now someone will come and tell me that ShadowCame isn't a euro  Fine with me.)
So I'd say, no, all games from Europe aren't necessarily by definition a eurogame and vice versa (I'm open for bashing on this issue). Dungeon Quest, created in Sweden, is quite obviously an amerigame by style. Most games that my gaming pals invent are amerigames, though one of them is definately more abstract euro.
Me? I'm neither euro nor amerigamer. I'm a board game geek and will play anything from Monopoly to Puerto Rico.
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Werner Bär
Germany
Karlsruhe
Baden
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Zimeon wrote: I like "Shadows over Camelot" as a good example of a eurogame, not becuase it's the most obvious eurogame in history, but actually because it's such an obvious example of a game which normally would take an amerigame direction but didn't. [...](Now someone will come and tell me that ShadowCame isn't a euro Fine with me.)
I don't know whether it's an euro or not. I assumed it was ameritrash; but i've seen AT fans claim all kinds of games.
Let's see:
+ high randomness (mainly cards; dice when fighting catapults)
+ 'Core Priority' is Drama, not Elegance
+ plastic miniatures
+ player elimination
- mechanics only partly fit theme
- player conflict only with the traitor
- Designer named on box
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Simon Lundström
Sweden
Örbyhus
Now who are these five?
Come, come, all children who love fairy tales.
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Werbaer wrote: + high randomness (mainly cards; dice when fighting catapults)
+ 'Core Priority' is Drama, not Elegance
+ plastic miniatures
+ player elimination
- mechanics only partly fit theme
- player conflict only with the traitor
- Designer named on box
See? This is the interesting part of this "sorting", to hear what typical traits different people see as representative of a certain style. According to my gut, ShadowCame is most definately a euro. I never saw drama as a core priority being typical amerigame, or that the "conflict is only with the traitor" is typical euro. Nor that designer named on box is typical euro, that's more like typical modern.
And I'm not sure about this random thing with the cards either… I find that part more tactical, but maybe it's just me. In any case, it's an interesting thing to discuss.
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E Butler
United States
Hughesville
Pennsylvania
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jim.brooks10 wrote:
Ameritrash = Atari
Euros = Intellivision
That made me laugh..... atari vs. intellivision??? that's the best analogy you could come up with??? It might be time to order an updated analogies reference guide.
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