Biggest Board Game Surprises of 2022, Gaming Resolutions & MORE! | Board Game Questions & Answers!
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00:00 – Intro
00:20 – How did your board game resolutions from last year go?
03:04 – What are you New Year’s Resolutions?
05:49 – What were your big game surprises from 2022?
#watchitplayed #boardgames #FavoriteBoardGames
I began going through and playing the games from my shelf of future fun, and had a lot of fun! Even with the games I ended up putting on the to-go-away pile. I felt accomplished! Lots more to go with unplayed and haven’t played in a long time. I’ll be discovering new loves along the way.
Keep hoping for the art/history lesson on the great wave painting behind him. Next time, buddy – next time.
Comic Hunters made me proud! Hugs from Brazil.
5:19 I really need content creators to stop saying they got rid of games they can play online, publishers are going to start removing games from BGA. Panic!
I like looking at my tracked plays more than tracking them. I’ve done some things to make it easier, sometimes if they are people I don’t play with regularly I add them as anonymous players. Similarly I only track win/loss but not scores if it is, for example, a game night game. One really important aspect to me though is the timer, I try to start that when the game starts because it’s really good to know how long a session takes.
I wanted to play Concordia and also get a game design idea onto the table. Neither happened last year but I did dive into the wonderful world of Trick Taking Games and made a difficult choice to leave a weekly game group due to a long commute… so I feel like I have grown as a gamer.
New resolutions, well I still want to try out a game design idea I had, I met someone at Unpub that might be interested in helping me play test so that’s extra motivation. I plan to get caught up on the minis that I want to paint. And I want clean up my “side closet” full of Hasbro games, empty expansion boxes, and even a played legacy game.
Biggest surprise for me might be getting into legacy games. My wife loves the story and progression and I’m discovering that I enjoy the flow even if some sessions are better than others. I’ve also discovered a few area control games I enjoy in spite of the genre, got introduced to Alfred Hitchcock’s work through a board game, and learned about myself based on which personalities I clash with at the table (which is weird coming from someone as shy as me).
Thanks for the awesome video! I do track our plays…but I don't tell anyone that I do. I have a gaming group that can be very competitive. If word got out that I was tracking things, there would probably be blood, or at least hurt feelings. This is generally why I stick to cooperative games as well. Back to the topic, tracking the games is more for me to remember all the games we play and to be grateful for all of that time.
How would you decide which games you will play and when to choose whether to cull? Such as mood and frame of mind. FYI, I love tracking my plays as well.
I love tracking my plays, mostly for having that data. It's really interesting to be able to go back through the years and see what I was playing and when and with who. It was also basically necessary for my 2022 New Year's resolution of playing games at a rate of one per day (so at least 365 total plays for the year, which I exceeded! 😀 )
Buy less, play more. That’s my gaming resolution
Will you track your culls as a diary? That would be interesting to see how you go! Last year I played my collection (111 at the time) and succeeded, although we did run low on steam around July… and the collection has expanded since then… eep…
This year, I just picked a few games off the Shelf of Shame and a few beloved favorites I haven't played in awhile and am going to try to get them played. I also will not turn down any racing games as I really want to give them an honest try rather than hate them. I did this with abstract games about 7 years ago and it made me really love them.
I had the same problem with tracking, so I create an app for my taste that register game in bgg. You can give it a try if you want =/ "Dice Geek" 😉
We always track our board game plays and we enjoy it! We love to look back and brag about our wins! 😂
Excellent stuff as always Matthew. I've been culling my collection since last year and am continuing this year. I am also going to try and get all my solo games up to ten plays each as I feel some get neglected being only at one or two plays while others are at eight or nine or very much higher. Will also tell me if I want to keep them or not.
Depends on what. Definitely not those 10×10. When you have so many new games coming out that you want to play, you are creating unnecessary stress by swtting yourself a target to play 10 games 10 times. It's likely more a problem of having too many games. Also It's not work.
Also a BGA discovery, I learned and got excited of Gizmos. I avoided it in real life because of the marbles… I find those unnecessarily fiddly and I hate components that may roll off the table. But since in BGA the marbles have magnets (maybe), I pulled the trigger and tried it out. Lost, then played it again. And again. Not bad.
Im a Mathematician and tracking any hobby you start with a feeling of whimsy or wonder is a bad idea. Yes the information is usefull sometimes, but its easy to get frustrated with the imperfection of your own data. You can always track more, you can always use better tools and have better routines.
This year's resolutions are to buy less games and play the games on my shelf of shame.
LOVE tracking the plays. I start it at the beginning of a play, love putting in the scores and then having the data and looking at it later just reinforces it. Honestly, tracking my games really helps me figure out which ones to cull. There are games I haven't played in 3 years and while I think fondly of them, I clearly don't need them in my collection. Some of them are surprising, but I only know because of the tracking.
I started tracking games last year (not as a resolution, but I just found an app that made it more convenient for me, so I decided to try it). I'm using the data for which games I play and which I don't to help me with culling my collection, which I'll most likely get to in a year or two.
As a resolution, I tried to set a goal to reach x-number points in a game, since tournament data showed that my average game was about half the score of the average winning score there, so it was mostly to figure out the strategy of that game. Never got to the milestone, but my score did improve overall, so I think I get the game more?
I use an app to track plays and I use the same app to decide first player. So it's just a part of the board game ritual. I open it up, select the players and randomize start player. Then the app is running a timer during the play and at the end when I enter in the score and save it also has how long the game play was as well.
@5:20 – Wonders if he needs the physical copy of a game that he can play online
@16:20 – Enthuses about Crusaders, which he played online, and says he wouldn't mind getting the physical copy
Another failed year of New Year's Resolutions?
Yep, I enjoy tracking my games. It gives me all the data on what I played, who wins what games most often, … And I enjoy seeing my most played lists evolve as the year goes by.
It's also helped me realise I didn't need to buy as many games as I used to. Over the past few years, being able to look at what gets played has helped me cull my collection and helped not feel the FOMO I used to feel for some crowdfunded projects.
Get Bloodborne painted and on the table.
I would love to play my entire collection- I have 150 games- but unfortunately I don't play regularly enough to get them all played. One of my goals this year is to play at least 50 %. I will also like to cull some as well – I am in the refining stage of my collection.
Suggestion for tracking plays- I totally get the taking joy out of games portion. That is why I view it as more of a gaming journal- I use BG stats same as Paula- I write down jokes, take pictures and record fun moments of each game in the comments section. Try this out it might help if you still want to try it out.
All the best
Some games require it. Aliens is one of them. Its the movie and you play it mission by mission. Its amazing and you can make your own missions and do the bug hunts also.
My resolution is to not buy any games in 2023. 1 month down…11 to go.
I thought the idea of tracking your plays was lame. After a few years I figured give it a try. I am so happy I did. Started in April 17 2022 and 771 plays so far. Realized I am not that good at games I love 😂
excitedly awaiting Comic Hunters wide release! been looking to get a copy for a while.
Eila and Something Shiny surprised me with how flexible its system was, and how mechanically satisfyingly each chapter was. I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed Alchemists, I tend not to enjoy Euro's or deduction games, but I loved Alchemists.
Last year I wanted to limit my board game collection as well, but the limit grew over time. That saied, compared to most other board games I am very strict with my collection and have less than 20 games (including expansions). When a game does not get played in a year, I get rid of it (exception is Dominion, as I played it over 100 times and ultimate werwolf, as it is only a very small box)
This year I want to buy games that push me or fascinate me. For example I own Kings Dilemma even thoug I lack the group for it. The reason is simply to push me to find new gaming groups with different board game taste, so I can expierience more games without the need to buy more.
Other than that, I always lack one here behind in board games. So I want to take a look at the games from end 2021 and the start of 2022. This way I not only find more information about the games, but I also stay away from kickstarter and most hyped games.
Last but not least, I think about dipping my toes into COIN games. But here I am really not sure, as it seems they need a dedicated group and grow more interesting with more plays, which conflicts with my other board games (e.g root, which is pretty similiar)
I started tracking my plays in 2022. I use the BG stats app which makes it really easy. Honestly I find it annoying to worry about but being able to see the games I've played and the stats makes it well worth it. I'm going to keep doing it as long as I can and if I miss some plays, it's not a big deal
Phenomenal video Matthew! You have a great talent for this
I track plays just to keep track of the games on my shelf of shame and so I can keep track of the ones gathering dust. I kind of want a smaller collection (would make making a decision on what to play a lot easier) and having that data I feel probably would help. But yeah, not a big fan. Kind of tedious. And I'll try to either do it at the end of the night (and end up forgetting some) or during bigger down times.
I have started to track plays though because I have this suspicion that I'm not very good at this whole winning thing and it's been pretty fun to see my numbers not go up very much
I love tracking my plays! I don't stress too much about tracking the scores, but I do log the game, location, and winner. I just do it when in between games and it only takes a few seconds. For this year, I have three resolutions: Play solo games 100 times (already 13% of the way there); Finish my first campaign game (1/12 of Pandemic Legacy S0 done 🤣), and play my unplayed games (45% done, but this is one that I have to keep up with because it will continue growing).
I have the Deluxified versions of Crusaders and Yokohama, such great games.
I tracked plays for the first time in 2022. I did it manually and only listed the game itself, not location, date, scores etc. The reason was to see how many games I actually play in a year.
I thought you were collecting/playing through Knizia? You'll need to log games to do that alone!
If you’re thinking of culling I would happily take Rondo off your hands 😀 can’t get it here in Australia 😢
My resolution was 12 field trips that I need to do for my studio. One per month. I did 6. So 75% by my reckoning.
Great answers! Of course, I track my plays because it’s basically my wife and I’s own version of sabermetrics. Someday, I will know my WAR or ERA, and then I can convince my gaming group that I’m a valuable teammate.
i do every month, i keep saying
"ok this month if i am playing games it is my solo run through gloomhaven!" but then i end up just playing all my other games
which is pretty sad really because i love my solo run through gloomhaven, i have no idea why i don't play it as often as i want to
If you’re willing to ship to America I’d certainly be willing to pick up some of the board games that you cull. 😉
A music related card game "band manager: the boardgame". Where you are trying to gain fame and fans from touring a band, or help with the tour of another band. And the game board is a t-shirt.
I'm happy with tracking plays, but:
– No extra detail, that's just a chore (time played, character played, etc).
– If there's a lot of players, anonymous is fine. Too much faff adding a bunch of people.
Thanks for the content!
How would you rate draft and write records vs something like Fleet the dice game or Welcome To… ? Did you enjoy any of those and this is much better?
Cesars empire, do you remember if it's language independent when it comes to gameplay or are there text on cards etc? I have only found it in Dutch at the moment.
I’ve never played philosophy, but I love the idea of the respect token. Now I have to go into my little collection of miniature game pieces that don’t have games, and find a couple to be respect tokens. Though honestly I think people would rather get fun size chocolate bars 😂
Planet Unknown was a surprise for me in 2022. Name is super generic and at first glance I thought “nope” then after another glance was “eh?” then looked closer and was like “Eh Yeah!”
Thanks Matthew! You put it out there that your goal is cull games. That should work as a great commitment device. I would like to know how you decide which games to cull?
I only track the number of plays so I don't leave some games unplayed too long or so I know how often I've played some and if they are worth the expansions. I track the first 6 games to make sure I have played a new game that many times (that's the minimum I feel I need to really understand and remember a game I might only pick up again in a few months)" I keep my tracking super easy: list of all my games, I write 6,2 for having played one 6 times solo and 2 times with others. That's it. No stats otherwise. I don't care for the rest. In your case, maybe taking photos of your plays would help instead so you remember which game you really liked at a specific event.
I'll take your copy of Trains, if it'll help with your cull.