When I went downstairs to refresh my cup of tea I found The Daughter and The Younger Son setting up Settlers of Catan, so I stayed to play. We don't abide strictly by the rules, but we really like this game as we've adapted it. I bought it at MidSouthCon several years ago.
Here's a video review from TheDiceTower.com that shows the game as it is set up and provides a general overview:
RPG.net has a review, calling it "a landmark game" and saying "it belongs on every board gamer's shelf. It really shines as a gateway game or a game for more casual players because of its core simplicity and its high replayability." Wired.com calls it a "Monopoly killer". Games Magazine has added it to their Hall of Fame.
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Strategy board games in America are dead unless they are perennials (like Chess, etc.). Otherwise, you have the fringe market where maybe 1 out of 15,000 new games might break out for a year or two before fading (Blokus comes to mind). The trend has been towards social games with a lot of chance, the game being secondary with the primary draw being interaction with other people.
ReplyDeleteEven in Europe, the trend for strategy games are "simpler & faster." Complex strategy board games are a dying breed, having gone over to computerization by the late 90's.
Granted, there will always be a minor exception to the rule but for every person hooked on board games, there's a stadium full of people who will be perfectly content with a browser flash game or "The Sims" or "World of Warcraft" (which, in itself, is the video game equivalent of a social game with a lot of chance).
We take games in spurts, sometimes going for ages without playing and then playing something every day. We have a couple of shelves full of different kinds (mostly older board games like Clue, Monopoly, etc.). We also have video and computer games. We just happened across Settlers of Catan. Every once in a while we find something new to us and try it. Sometimes we like it.
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