Board Games - Gentlemen, We All Just Got 10% Cooler

[Coqui]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-packers ... 1421346102

At first we’re like, ‘What the hell is this? Brick? Wool? What kind of game is this?’” said starting center Corey Linsley. But that quickly faded. “We are completely addicted to it, we play it whenever we can,” said tight end Justin Perillo.

I probably already was, but now I'm officially rooting for the Packers Sunday.

[John]

Isn't it amazing how vindicating it feels to have our nerdy pastimes embraced by the jocks? It's a weird phenomenon, yet it's true. And it really does bring disparate social parties together. Consider this quote from the article:

[Green Bay-based gaming store Gnome Games owner Pat Fuge] usually orders too many for the Christmas season, but this time he had to restock in mid-December. “When the average person sees the Packers doing it, it becomes a safe thing. That it’s not the kids in mom’s basement anymore,” Fuge said.

The Packers’ embrace of the game become such a phenomenon that the store put a sign up that said “Be cool like Justin Perillo, play Catan!”

In case your curious, the game that the Packers are playing is called The Settlers of Catan. Learn more about it at its product page and through Wikipedia.

Finally, why doesn't it surprise me that its the linemen who have most fully embraced this intellectual game?

[Denny]

Finally, why doesn't it surprise me that its the linemen who have most fully embraced this intellectual game?

When I was just a tad in the late 1970s I remember some of the Denver Broncos linemen (led by Tom Glassic) doing something similar with miniature Napoleonic soldiers.

Ha! found an old Sports Illustrated article about it....no pictures, unfortunately.
http://www.si.com/vault/1982/08/09/6246 ... r-napoleon

[Leones]

Add another 10% of coolness:

Curt Shilling shares ownership in a board game company 'Multi Man Publishing' which is the present day publisher of Advanced Squad Leader stuff as well as a slew of other great titles. (I'm expecting a copy of their new title VCS Salerno any day now, oh boy! ) He's also a big OOTP fan. :)

Here's a quote from an interview some years ago:

Curt Schilling: I grew up an avid fan of WWII board games. Advanced Squad Leader and Panzerblitz were my first two games. That love is still there and I realize it with the gaming company I own. Check out http://www.multimanpublishing.com to see how that is going. I also enjoyed the occasional D&D game when you could find a good DM. In 1981, my best friend's dad brought home an Apple computer, and sometime after that I played a game called Wizardry for the first time. To get an idea of how hooked I was, I had a paper route at the time. I saved up enough money to buy my own computer then, just so I could play wizardry. I dabbled in all sorts of military simulations, D&D games and the like but when EQ came out I was done. That was it for me, and I’ve been mainly an MMO gamer every since. The other games I play during the season are all the Total War series, Company Commander and the Medal of Honor series. It's kind of ironic that my favorite WWII games, the Medal of Honor Franchise, were created and run by the man who’s now the President of 38 Studios, Brett Close.

The name 'Multi Man' derives from the Squad Leader game in which the counters that represent squads are called multi man counters ( as opposed to individual leaders ) It should also be noted that the designer of Squad Leader, John Hill, passed away only this past week. By all accounts he was a very friendly guy and will be missed.

edit: made a correction to 'multi man counters'

[John]

In 1981, my best friend's dad brought home an Apple computer, and sometime after that I played a game called Wizardry for the first time. To get an idea of how hooked I was, I had a paper route at the time. I saved up enough money to buy my own computer then, just so I could play wizardry.

Mr. Schilling, whatever else your faults, you have impeccable taste. Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was one of the top three games (along with Temple of Apshai and Ultima that got me into computer gaming.

[Lions]

I saw this article linked on Facebook the other day with the caption under the pic reading as follows:

The competitive juices of the NFL fuel lengthy rounds of "Settlers of Catan", a complex game reserved for the nerdiest corners of the gaming world.

That last part is pretty funny to people who are into serious board games. Settlers is generally considered a gateway game. A lightweight, low complexity game that has frequently been the bridge from casual gaming to the nerdier corners of the gaming world. No true gaming nerd would ever consider it complex or among the nerdiest. I guess it's easy to forget that the nerdiest corners are still relatively small compared to the overall gaming world, but it's a lot bigger than it used to be.

[John]

I saw this article linked on Facebook the other day with the caption under the pic reading as follows:

The competitive juices of the NFL fuel lengthy rounds of "Settlers of Catan", a complex game reserved for the nerdiest corners of the gaming world.

That last part is pretty funny to people who are into serious board games. Settlers is generally considered a gateway game. A lightweight, low complexity game that has frequently been the bridge from casual gaming to the nerdier corners of the gaming world. No true gaming nerd would ever consider it complex or among the nerdiest. I guess it's easy to forget that the nerdiest corners are still relatively small compared to the overall gaming world, but it's a lot bigger than it used to be.

I think for writers of articles like that, "nerdiest" is a term applied to absolutely anyone who engages in absolutely any activity that disinterests the writer. A player of The Settlers of Catan would be no more or less nerdy than, say, those guys who play c-Jump or CPU Wars. Who, of course, are total dweebs.

[Apollos]

I saw this article linked on Facebook the other day with the caption under the pic reading as follows:

The competitive juices of the NFL fuel lengthy rounds of "Settlers of Catan", a complex game reserved for the nerdiest corners of the gaming world.

That last part is pretty funny to people who are into serious board games. Settlers is generally considered a gateway game. A lightweight, low complexity game that has frequently been the bridge from casual gaming to the nerdier corners of the gaming world. No true gaming nerd would ever consider it complex or among the nerdiest. I guess it's easy to forget that the nerdiest corners are still relatively small compared to the overall gaming world, but it's a lot bigger than it used to be.

And with over 30 million copies having been sold, I think it's fair to say that Catan has firmly entered the mainstream. The topic was clearly new to the author of this article.

[Bill]

And with over 30 million copies having been sold, I think it's fair to say that Catan has firmly entered the mainstream. The topic was clearly new to the author of this article.

Agreed. If you can find it at Target, I think you are mainstream and beyond. Ticket to Ride is kinda the same boat.
Settlers is kinda in wierd middle ground. Too nerdy for some, not nerdy enough for others. I still like it though.

I definitely like being 10% cooler though....

[Coqui]

Agreed. If you can find it at Target, I think you are mainstream and beyond. Ticket to Ride is kinda the same boat.
Settlers is kinda in wierd middle ground. Too nerdy for some, not nerdy enough for others. I still like it though.

That's a good way to describe it. For us, Settlers is a game that we really enjoyed for a while, but that we seldom play now. I think the whole "gang up on the leader" aspect into which every game generally devolves takes away from the playability. We have an expansion or two, and those help, but they don't completely solve the problem.

And to be clear, we still like it, but it's generally pretty far down the list of games that we tick off when we have some time to play.

[Lions]

For us, Settlers is a game that we really enjoyed for a while, but that we seldom play now.

We're in the same boat. I do miss it occasionally.

I think the whole "gang up on the leader" aspect into which every game generally devolves takes away from the playability. We have an expansion or two, and those help, but they don't completely solve the problem.

We found that we liked the game a ton more without the robber. The house rule was then that when rolling a 7, everyone gets a resource of their choice. It makes the games about twice as fast and you still get plenty of trading in a friendlier environment. We're not particularly cut throat in our gaming and it takes a bit of fun out of beating someone if they got unlucky by having the robber stuck on their 8 for half the game. People gang up on the leader less because it's harder to prevent them from winning. In that vein, I will say that I always felt being a close second late in the game was the best place to be unless you could run away with things.

We would still play with the pirate ship and barbarian invaders in Seafarers and Cities & Knights, respectively.