To What Degree Does Theme Matter?

The topic of theme in games was something that came up at a recent gaming meet-up, and it’s something that’s had me thinking. I’m someone who considers myself squarely in the mechanism corner of the board game arena. Whenever I consider any new game, I (mostly) ignore the theme and go straight for the mechanisms. What mechanisms are at play, and is there something that makes the way they are used stand out? Theme is more a secondary consideration for me – not completely disregarded, but at the same time not all that important. I know it matters to some degree to me because I’m not the biggest fan of purely abstract games, and I find it kind of fascinating that at least a portion of people who complain about lack of theme will still find abstract games very engaging. It just makes me wonder how a complete lack of theme is better than partial and/or pasted on theme.

Collection: Acquisitions and Cullings (Feb, 2017)

I should just say this right up front, so far my determination to slow down my game purchases has failed spectacularly, and February has joined January in being a month of many new games entering my collection. This month I made a larger game order (of 6 games) from my newest board gaming resource, intending on it to be the sole games purchase for the month – only to make several individual game purchases shortly after. I also engaged in my first successful math trade this month, and no fewer than three Kickstarter games showed up in the mail within only a few days between them.

Games I'd rather play with Two

I have as I’ve gotten deeper into the hobby; found more and more opportunity for gaming in groups, like my weekly board game club, the bi-weekly meet-up in my area, as well as frequent invites to game nights at friends’ places, and hosting my own, of course. However, even with all these, the player combination I play the most is two players, usually due to frequently gaming with my flatmate, and playing games one on one with various family members whenever I go home for a visit. Because of this I don’t often buy games that won’t work with two players in some way, shape or form, as this means the games will have a harder time hitting the table. However, I don’t generally seek out two-player only games either, because I do have all those other venues for gaming, and I prefer my collection to primarily catering to both situations.

Games I really don't want to play ever again

There will always be games that just don’t do it for me, types of games I just prefer to avoid. That’s simply how taste works, some things will appeal to us, and others won’t. I’ve learned that I’m a mechanism before theme kind of gamer, that my taste definitely belongs more in the euro game camp than others. Knowing this, I’m getting better at sussing out ahead of time if a new game is likely to engage me or not. I am still open to trying out a game once if the others are gung ho about it, and there are games that I might not particularly want to play that I will join in on to make someone else happy. But there are some games that I will vehemently say no to, games that I’m so dead set against that I’d almost want to play anything else instead. And one would think these were games I hated upon first trying them, and some of them I did, but there are also games that I initially liked that I’ve just grown to really dislike.

My Top 10 Favourite Games

I watch a lot of board gaming related top ten lists, even for genres that usually don’t interest me much, I still check them out. There’s just something really psychologically satisfying about seeing games ordered in lists like that, and also, who knows I might discover something that could change my mind about certain genres or mechanisms. My own early board gaming ‘education’ happened primarily though three channels, one being my local gaming group, two being the show Table Top, and the third being top ten lists. Of course, sometimes it did lead to a few missteps in terms of game purchases, but mostly it was a helpful source for information.

I haven’t made many attempts to make my own lists, and I wasn’t really sure if I was at a point where I could make a proper list that I could stand for. Even though you are practically a seasoned gamer by the time you’re a year or two into the hobby, your taste hasn’t yet stood the test of time. I’ve now been actively gaming for nearly four years, but I’m still discovering games all the time, so there’s no guarantee the list will stay the same five or ten years from now, in fact I can almost guarantee it won’t.

Collection: Acquisitions and Cullings (Jan, 2017)

I made a promise to myself at the end of last year, not really a resolution, but I went into the new year with the intent to slow down my purchase rate. 2016 was the year I truly went crazy with my games purchases. Actually listing and talking about all those games would be too big an endeavour, but not counting promos or Kickstarter campaigns I backed, I bought 56 new games and 25 expansions the past year. That is on average a new game every week, plus a new expansion every other week. I have been gifted a couple of games, and traded a game for another game one time as well, but those have not been included in those numbers. 

Keeping Stats

On New Years Eve a year ago, I made a decision to start tracking my game plays. Part of it was curiosity; I wanted to know how many games I played, as well as how many times I played each game. Sometimes it feels like you’ve played a game a thousand times, but then it turns out to be maybe a dozen or so times, or maybe even less. I also wanted to highlight for myself what games on my shelf wasn’t hitting the table. My collection is still in the easily manageable size, large to non-gamers, but average or less to fellow game acquirers. It’s not size that forces me to cull, but more that I’ve found myself having games that either only hit the table once, or not at all and then resorted to collecting dust on my shelf. As someone put it on Boardgame Geek, I don’t want a mere collection of games, I want a library, because the games are meant to be played.

Me and Gaming

Board games wasn’t my original passion, in fact it took me a good while before I actually discovered there was anything out there outside of playing cards, kiddie games and infinite renditions of Monopoly and Trivia games. I was approaching the mid-20s and had just moved into a shared flat, and one of my new flatmates had a small collection of games, clearly passionate about board games, as she would buy new ones from Germany. I didn’t understand the appeal then, but thought to each their own. She invited me to join her and her friends to play one time, and that session opened up my eyes a bit to a new world. I don’t remember the title of every game, but I know that I was introduced to Ticket to Ride, Seafarers of Catan, Bohnanza and Elfenland through her and her group, and one Western themed game that might have been Bang, but I can’t say for sure as I haven’t played it again.