Board Game News

Ask Ms. Meeples – Bringing Attention to the Unknown

After a lot of thought, I have decided not to write about African Americans in board gaming. This is a subject I care a lot about, but that I cannot in any way speak about as some kind of expert or even as one knowledgeable about the reasons. At some point I'd like to have a serious discussion on this issue. However, this column would not be appropriate for that discussion.

So as you can see, the column is not running every two weeks as was the case previously. Unfortunately with the lack of questions, it's difficult for me to create columns. This week's one is something that came up because of my acquisition of a lot of releases from Spiel 2010. And I think in the future, that's how the column is going to be. When I have something I think would be interesting to write about in social gaming, I'll write about it. If people send me questions, I'll answer them. Otherwise, you may not hear from me for a while.

This column is about how to get a game to the table that is not a "hot" game or a highly rated game or the game that some awesome reviewer is raving about. No, I'm not going to be writing about how to get your best friends to play Candy Land, but instead how to convince your friends to play something like Namibia or Mines of Zavandor.

My friend Lorna is a connoisseur of board games. And by that I mean that she doesn't just look at the hyped games or the popular games; rather, she examines games in a way that appeals to her. She likes a lot of games that other people have never heard of and probably won't ever hear of unless they read her lists or hang out with her. The good news for Lorna is that her friends are willing to take a chance on playing games with her – but not all of us are as fortunate.

Many game groups will look at a game that's not on the BoardGameGeek hot list, not ranked in the top 100 or not bearing a rating of at least 7 with deep suspicion. "Well, if it's so good, why doesn't everybody like it?" "I've never even heard of this game" "It's ugly!" And this is totally understandable. People seek to maximize their leisure time. They don't want to spend four hours playing a lousy game filled with arguments over the rules or mind-numbing boredom. At the same time, our hobby is still a hobby of surprises and not every great game will get the marketing it deserves. Also some games fit some people really well and others not so well. Some of my favorite games are ones that hardly anyone likes. (Parthenon: Rise of the Aegean comes to mind here.)

So you've skimmed the rules or you saw a demo or read a geeklist entry about a game, but you figure that your group may be skeptical. The first thing you need to do is to read the rules thoroughly if they are available. The next thing you need to do is to focus on why you think the game will be fun, so that when you introduce it, you can give the game some context. You may also want to do a couple of the following, too, if you think it's going to be a real problem or you seriously want to play. Try to think of some popular game that the game reminds you of. If you get a chance, play a few solitaire turns to get a feel for the game.

Like Lorna, once you establish a good record with games that are not as well known, your group will be more willing to give them a shot. And this effort is well worth it. Sometimes the hyped games are just that – hype. And sometimes a particular game is a great fit for a specific group. I'm going to be introducing Namibia to my group this weekend. I think some will like it and some will not, but I'm confident that those who like strategy games will at least find something in it that's mentally engaging and entertaining.

Send questions to msmeeples@gmail.com. Happy Holidays!