Friday Night Shots (Saturday Edition) – What Attracts You to a Game?

It’s been a month and the bar’s been closed! More renovations needed (and I’m just lazy, actually), but I’m glad you happened by and could stop in!

The jukebox renovations took up most of the month, partially because I kept forgetting to pay the repair folks.

Think that might actually make a difference?

Belly on up to the bar, though, and let me get you a drink of your favourite beverage.

That’s…different. But I can do it!

What day are you on?

Let me fire up the tunes so we can talk privately without all of the people that guy in the corner hearing us.

Ok, maybe you should pay your repair people.

Anyway, let’s talk about what attracts you to a boardgame!

On the Pixelated Cardboard Discord channel, one of the members posted an interesting question.

“What is it that captures your attention and make you want to try a new boardgame?”

It was actually a poll, with options of game designer, Interaction (solo/multiplayer/face-to-face), theme, aesthetic and components, pure curiosity, and reviews & BGG score.

A number of the “new to me” (and sometimes just “new”) games that I play actually are brought to game day by one or more of the other people, and when we’re deciding what game to play that day, the fact that I haven’t played it before will often make me want to play it.

You know me and new to me games!

But even then, sometimes the description of the game will make me decide to play one of the other options (unless there’s just one game because we only have a few people, in which case if others want to play it, I will).

So I’m going to come at this question by considering what will make me either want to buy a new game, or at least ask if somebody will actually bring it to our game day or the next convention.

And my answer is?

It kind of varies.

It is!

But it’s also true.

There are a few designers that I will look at all of their games.

There are the New Zealand designers from my favourite company who I will not name because I don’t want you all to get drunk…

I would like to play every one of their games!

I haven’t bought them all (I know it feels like it, but I haven’t).

But if they came out as a possibility to play, I would be so there to try them.

I’m always up to try a Feld game (I’ve been watching the playthrough of Civolution on Heavy Cardboard and oh wow is Edward costing me money).

But while I would love to try and play them all, I don’t necessarily like them all.

I am intrigued by them, though!

(After I typed this on Friday but before this posted on Saturday, I broke down and pre-ordered this game. I am so weak)

Which brings me to my second choice.

It’s kind of related to “Reviews & BGG Score,” but it’s more like “do people I know or follow like this game and is there an opportunity for me to see how it plays?”

I guess this is also related to aesthetics, but I just want to see it in action.

That happened with Heavy Cardboard and Shipyard, an amazing game that I hadn’t even heard of until I saw Edward’s playthrough.

And now I own it, love it, and have reviewed it!

This game just looks amazing on the table, and the designer actually was a draw too.

He’s also made me (yes, I know, he didn’t come to my house and tie me up, but you know what I mean) buy all of those new Bezier games trick-taking games.

So part of it is how a game comes to your attention.

Theme gets me a little bit, though I usually won’t want to try a game just because of the theme.

In fact, it’s almost an inverse effect.

I won’t usually gravitate to a game just because of its theme, but a game I might otherwise have been interested in might turn me off because of the theme.

I can’t think of any concrete examples of that right now, but it is definitely a possibility.

One thing that wasn’t an option in the poll but that really draws me to a game is the mechanics.

Is it a deckbuilder?

I’m intrigued, especially if it does something interesting with that deckbuilding.

Time of Crisis, for example, is one of my favourite games. Not just because it has the deckbuilding mechanic, but how the mechanic works in that game is amazing.

It drives the gameplay rather than being the gameplay itself.

You’re out on the map, trying to take over provinces and become governors in them, all in the name of declaring yourself Emperor.

You are acquiring cards to bolster your deck and perhaps trying to get rid of your shitty starting cards, but you don’t actually randomly draw them. You have a deck, you choose your next five cards.

You just can’t choose those cards again until your deck runs out, meaning it’s still a good idea to have a fairly lean deck.

I’m starting to also really like dice drafting and dice placement games.

The White Castle has really intriguing dice drafting and placement mechanics that really attracted me when I first played it.

As I’ve said before, we played it wrong and it still intrigued me enough to put it on my Top 50.

I haven’t even played it again since, so haven’t played the correct way!

(Abi, we need to rectify that).

There are also mechanisms that will push me away, which I did actually detail in a previous Friday Night Shots post but I will mention a couple here.

Dexterity games are a no from me. I don’t really have any interest in that kind of thing.

I’m clumsy! I don’t want to possibly poke somebody’s eye out.

Also real-time games I’m pretty much against, though there are a few exceptions that I’ll play, though they’ll never be a favourite.

I like to think about my moves, especially if I’m having to choose where to place things and which tiles I need to grab before others do.

As for interaction, the poll broke that down into solo/multi-player/co-op, but I’d also use “interaction” for how much player interaction there is versus “multiplayer solitaire.”

For me, I like anything as far as solo/multi-player/co-op, so that’s not really a factor for me.

None of that will especially attract me nor will it repel me.

I have some friends who really don’t like co-op games, so they don’t get played that much.

And I’m really starting to like solo games.

As for multi-player solitaire versus high interaction games?

I like wargames, so it’s obvious that I love interaction in my games.

Just look at Combat Commander!

But I also don’t mind multiplayer solitaire games.

I enjoy those as kind of a puzzle, though even most of these games have at least a little interaction, such as competition for worker placement spaces or the like.

The true multiplayer solitaires, like roll and writes, are fine.

They don’t jump out at me, but I don’t mind them either.

There is literally no interaction in most of those.

Finally, there’s “pure curiosity.”

Sometimes a game will be announced and it will be from a designer whose games I haven’t played before, maybe even a publisher from which I’ve never played a game.

The description of the game just sounds intriguing and I want to learn more.

Castle Combo is a pretty good example of that.

It’s a brand new card-drafting game, but I didn’t know that when I first heard of it.

I’ve since played an asynchronous game on Boardgame Arena with some friends and it’s pretty fun!

The game became hot over the last few weeks and that intrigued me, but I knew nothing about it.

It is a basic card drafting/placement game where you draft a card (and pay for it!) and then put it into your 3×3 tableau, trying to position them to get the most optimal points.

It doesn’t seem really that new so I’m not sure why it’s so hot, but it is a lot of fun.

Maybe that’s all it takes?

One final attracting or repelling thing that is a bit broader than all of these choices is genre.

Is it a wargame?

I’m intrigued, but I may very well not buy it because I don’t have many wargaming opponents.

Is it a role-playing game?

That does require like-minded people and the time to put into it.

I’ve never done a one-shot, so maybe I should.

Is it a 2-player skirmish game?

I wouldn’t mind trying it but that won’t attract me to the game.

So, as I said at the beginning of all, I would almost have to choose “all of the above” except for one or two options.

There are all sorts of things that attract me to games.

What attracts you?

Let me know in the comments.