Friday Night Shots – Stuck in the Middle of a Bad Game

Welcome back!

I hope that you had a good week.

Belly up to the bar and let me get you a drink. Whatever you like.

Let me turn the music down so we can chat a bit.

Ok, perhaps I shouldn’t say a “bad” game, but maybe a game that you find yourself just not enjoying at all.

This question is more about playing a new to you game rather than just having a bad experience with a game that you otherwise like. For example, ending up at a convention playing with an asshole.

No, the question I’m asking is this.

You’re trying a new game, maybe one that you’ve heard good things about? Or maybe just one that your friend wants to try and has convinced you to.

There’s nothing inherent to the game that gives you a red flag (like I talked about three weeks ago), so you decide to give it a whirl.

And then something happens.

Maybe you discover the game is terrible, or definitely not what you thought.

Or maybe one of the other players made a move that just totally tanked your enjoyment of the game.

Ok, so maybe I am also kind of talking about if you wind up playing with an asshole.

Except this is a friend.

Not an asshole.

And now you’re just not having fun.

Maybe you still have another 30-45 minutes left in the game, or even an hour?

Do you soldier on, doing your best so that you don’t destroy your friends’ fun?

Or do you just say “hey, I’m not having fun. Do you mind if we call it and play something else?”

Or maybe you just act miserable and make the playing experience miserable for everybody else too?

Please, for the love of God, don’t be option 3.

What do I do when I’m in this situation?

Most of the time, I soldier on, doing the best I can, and realize that this is not going to be a great experience.

But it’s a learning experience.

I don’t need to play this game again.

Or if it’s because of one of the players, I don’t need to play with this person again.

Sometimes it’s quick and it doesn’t matter.

Playing Yukon Salon, it was over in 10 minutes, maybe 15, and it was easy to get through and then say “never again.”

But longer, brainier games?

That can be harder, but I’m still able to do it.

My first experience with Gaia Project was kind of brutal, mainly because even after the teach, I had no idea what I was doing or what would be a good thing to do.

It broke my brain.

It was only just over 90 minutes, but for about half of that, I wasn’t really having that much fun.

I did my best, but really that game just kills me.

(Editor: “Then why the heck did you buy the app when it came out?”)

I can’t even imagine making everybody else’s play miserable.

I’ve been on the receiving end of that and it is hideous.

This is one reason I’m kind of scared to try some of the longer games that sound intense, yet also fun.

Games like Food Chain Magnate which are long and apparently you can lose on the first turn.

I may find the game fun, but there’s a good chance I wouldn’t.

And then what do I do for the rest of the 2-4 hours?

I’ve really been itching to play Here I Stand, but when I found out that there is a lot of negotiation in it, and it can take up to 12 hours (though BGG says 3-6 hours).

I’m terrible at negotiation games.

Would I find it fun?

But the idea is so intriguing!

Anyway, there may be a time where I would just say “I’m really not enjoying this. Can we put it away and try something else?”

But mostly, I’m the “soldier on” type of gamer.

Because I love the experience, even if it’s a bad one.

Oh! How about Martin Wallace’s Automobile?

This is an economic game where you are running a factory producing cars, and it’s possible to get stuck in the middle of the game where you basically can’t do anything worthwhile.

You can do stuff, but it really won’t help you much.

(Sorry, it’s been a long time since I’ve played it, so I don’t remember how that happened).

I muddled through the game. I don’t remember how long it took (this was before I started tracking game time on BG Stats), but I did it.

I will probably never play it again, but I managed this time.

One convention, we started playing Merchant of Venus at 10:00 – 11:00 pm (I don’t remember exactly, but I know it was late).

That game can take a while, and I do like it. But at the time, I had only played it once before.

You’re essentially merchants moving from star system to star system, buying goods and selling them in other systems that want it.

And somehow (because I was young and naïve), I ended up not able to get enough money to keep going and just barely scraping by moving from one system to another and then back again.

And we were just finishing up at 2:00 am.

My body really wanted me to resign, but I didn’t.

I stuck it through and we all managed to have some fun (though they had more fun than I did, obviously).

What was I saying?

Oh yeah.

I’m here for the experience, good or bad.

Because I love games, and even a bad experience can be good, because it teaches you.

So even a game that I’m realizing I am not going to like, I will continue!

Because that’s the kind of player I am.

If I ever sit down to play one of the longer wargames, this could very well happen because I’m so inexperienced at anything other than the tactical games like Combat Commander. Anything at the operational or strategic level will probably end up with me doing badly.

But it will be fun!

(I did win my one play of Almoravid, which shocked the hell out of me, but again I digress)

I really can’t imagine being the type of player to make everybody else’s time miserable.

Why would you do that?

And how do you handle it if you end up on the receiving end?

I soldier on…

Funny how that works for both sides of this question.

Let me know in the comments what you do in this situation, both as somebody who’s not enjoying the play or if you have somebody else who’s obviously not enjoying it.

Thanks for reading and putting up with a Friday stream of consciousness post…

(This post brought to you by two Canadian Club and Diet Pepsi drinks, the number 69, and the letter ü)