Friday Night Shots – Old vs New?

Welcome back!

I know it’s been a couple of weeks, but I was taking some time putting a new bar up.

With heated seats!

I hope that works ok and isn’t a fire hazard.

Oops.

Anyway, have a seat and let me get you something to drink.

We’ll just avoid that charred seat over there.

I’ll also turn down the music. I’m not sure how that “Color Me Bad Greatest Hit” CD got in there, but I’ll have to get it removed.

Before we get to tonight’s topic, just wanted to post a bit of an update.

While I still hope to get the final post in my Top 50 Games Played of All Time done for Sunday morning, I’m getting increasingly doubtful that’s going to happen.

I’ll try, but no promises!

It’s been a week…

In the meantime, why not check out a previous one?

Anyway, why don’t we talk about something I talked about a number of years ago, which produced my longest-running series on this blog.

But I haven’t talked about the subject for a while.

New games vs old ones!

Back near the beginning of this blog, I wrote about the Cult of the New, and how I wasn’t really a part of it.

Instead, I am a member of what I called the “Cult of the New to Me,” meaning that I love new game experiences, no matter how old the game is.

It doesn’t matter if it’s new. It just matters if I’ve never played it before.

It actually got talked about on the Board Games in Bed podcast!

That was back in September of 2017.

Have I changed much at all?

In my monthly “New to Me Games” post, I still joke about the cult and how the members get hostile if all of my new game plays are from this year or last year.

It’s still a thing for me, though it has shifted a little bit.

Depending on the publisher and other circumstances.

I admit (and you probably already consider me so) that I am kind of a fanboy of Garphill Games, especially the trilogy games (North Sea, West Kingdom, South Tigris, though I wasn’t a big fan of Explorers of the North Sea).

I have the updated version of Shipwrights of the North Sea heading my way shortly from the Kickstarter campaign.

The description makes it sound great!

But even as much of a fanboy as I am, I don’t get everything they put out.

Other than Ezra & Nehemiah, I haven’t gone after any of their Ancients series.

I’ve backed a couple of Kickstarters that aren’t part of my automatic back list, like Stationfall.

I also put my name in for many GMT Games P500 games, though part of that is an investment in the future.

These things go out of print so easily, and when I retire in a few years I want to find a local wargamer (or maybe a couple) and play some of these. But I want to actually have the games!

Who knows, maybe I’ll get one of these played even earlier? And it’s nice to have the charts and tables and stuff if I ever get a VASSAL game set up, since somebody should really own the game if you’re doing that.

Even then, though, I am choosy about what I want to get. And sometimes by the time the game reaches the printer, I’ve cooled on it enough that I cancel my order.

I do find that people at my game group are more willing to play the games I buy then they were back when I wrote that post. The Garphill games go over pretty well, but other games like Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria and the more recent Guild Academies of Valeria from Daily Magic Games have really been liked as well.

Speaking of the latter, and of “new to me” games in general, my January post should be up in the next week or so. I’ve been working so hard on the Top 50 that this one has fallen by the wayside.

Because of so many games on it!

I have moved a bit more…just a bit…to the Cult of the New, at least in games that I buy.

And yeah, I do love playing the new hotness when Abi (usually it’s Abi) brings it.

Hell, my last major game played (not lunchtime games, I mean) was Nucleum, the new game from Board & Dice that I will detail more in my upcoming post.

It was fun! But I’m still on the fence overall because I was in kind of a bad mood that day and I found it frustrating because I didn’t really “get” it right away, making the rest of the game kind of annoying.

I want to play it when I’m in a better mood and now that I understand it a bit better, I won’t screw myself right out of the gate.

However, even while I love playing the new hotness, my quest to play as many of the BGG Top 100 games still continues, and I love playing every one of these older games.

My play of Obsession on Christmas Eve was the highlight of December, and put the game on my Top 20!

Thus, my cult leader status is maintained, as I cherish any new game experience, even if it’s a game that’s older than some of my students.

In addition to all that, of course, there is wanting to continue to play the old favourites along with new experiences.

Smash Up and other lunchtime games are played often.

Most of my Garphill Games get played multiple times, even the older ones!

I love playing Ark Nova, Jump Drive, and so many others.

I keep track of two things, both of which show up on this blog periodically.

Of course, the “new to me” games go without saying.

But I also track the number of unique games I play each year.

In 2023, that was 127, with 59 new to me games.

So I played more “older” games than new to me ones.

That definitely requires playing the old favourites as well.

What kind of gamer are you?

Are you a Cult of the New? Cult of the New to Me?

If the latter, here’s a sign-up sheet for my cult.

We have joining bonuses!

Do you crave nothing but new experiences, whether they are old games or new? But you bounce from game to game rather than playing old favourites?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Tonight’s post brought to you by Courvoisier brandy, the number 1120, and the letters J&D.