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Jedit posted:I don't believe a single word of this. If Bohrer had proof that he was the real designer of AoS then EGG wouldn't have offered Wallace credit and royalty on the 2009 edition; they wouldn't have had to. I don’t think there is any proof either way and I don’t care. Who owns what is not my concern as a consumer. I haven’t decided about the KS as I’m unsure how often I could get AoS to the table.
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Mar 9, 2019 21:32
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 03:01 |
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John is the fine upstanding gentleman that ships his yearly releases as gifts to dodge taxes so it's good to see him taking a principled stance on the part of the law that benefits him.
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Mar 9, 2019 22:41
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Between that and him requiring people to send their BGG rankings before he lets them buy his games,  forever at this shitshow.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:02
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Bottom Liner posted:Between that and him requiring people to send their BGG rankings before he lets them buy his games, Don't forget when he cyber stalked a bgg user. It's really too bad his games are so good.
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Mar 10, 2019 00:13
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So it sounds like John Bohrer is a jerk, Martin Wallace is a crybaby, and EGG are profiteers, and to get a really great game in a cool new edition, you have to piss off at least one of these people and give money to at least one other. There really is no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism.
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Mar 10, 2019 05:21
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I played Escape Room in a Box today. Really good attempt at mimicking real escape rooms, but it doesnt really get close to the quality of an escape room and is $22 for half an hour of non-repeatable gameplay, so its probably evidence that boxed escape rooms arent a format that works. It also left everyone wishing that there were multiple scenarios, so what sorts of scenario mystery/puzzle games exist? I already know about the Sherlock games (+ the other games that copy the format) which Ill probably pick up, and TIME Stories which I probably will not. Are there any others that arent as well known?
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Mar 10, 2019 06:21
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Finally got to play Terraforming Mars today for the first time. I expected it to be a middle of the road Euro style game based on some opinions that I read in here after it first came out. It was not an enjoyable experience. I bowed out 3/4 of the way through (after like 3 hours or so of playtime) because it was pointed out that I broke an action rule, and as it turns out I had been breaking it for several turns. I doubt I'll play again, because even if I had been playing correctly, the game is just an overall bad experience of pushing fiddly cubes around to play meaningless cards just to get a few more building symbols.
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Mar 10, 2019 08:10
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What rule did you break? Also, 3 hours seems awfully long even for Terraforming Mars.
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Mar 10, 2019 10:06
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Control Volume posted:I played Escape Room in a Box today. Really good attempt at mimicking real escape rooms, but it doesnt really get close to the quality of an escape room and is $22 for half an hour of non-repeatable gameplay, so its probably evidence that boxed escape rooms arent a format that works. If you have access to a mobile device, Unlock! is pretty solid, though imo it suffers when it has you listen to audio recordings for puzzles from the app because sometimes the audio just sounds like gibberish and it's hard to figure out what you're meant to take away from it. Exit: The Game is another that works pretty well, but it also utilizes a lot of things that require destroying the game in order to play through it (folding, cutting, writing on, stuff like that) and I absolutely refuse to permanently mark anything so my fiancee and I end up going through a lot of extra steps to avoid marking anything (scanning stuff into a computer, making copies of stuff, sometimes just skipping a puzzle entirely). We've had fun with both and both are one-time affairs that you'll use once and be done with but with the Unlock! series you can always sell it to someone else or give it to someone else after you're done with it since you don't do anything to the cards to permanently alter them. You can do the same with the Exit: The Game titles assuming you jump through the hoops to keep from destroying the components of those games. You can also GM them for other groups if you'd like once you're finished with them so that now the group will have a dedicated person to run through the cards for them and you can watch them solve and work their way through the puzzles if you like that kind of thing. They are also relatively cheap. Unlock tends to be around $12 normally and Exit: The Game tends to be $11 if you buy them online.
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Mar 10, 2019 11:17
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Spermando posted:What rule did you break? Also, 3 hours seems awfully long even for Terraforming Mars. Seems reasonable to me, but then again when I last played it we hadn't discovered that a good way to win is to, you know, terraform Mars, rather than dicker w/ your engine.
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Mar 10, 2019 11:20
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Mr. Squishy posted:Seems reasonable to me, but then again when I last played it we hadn't discovered that a good way to win is to, you know, terraform Mars, rather than dicker w/ your engine. Yeah, there seem to be a lot of people that miss, in TM, that the best way forward is to... terraform Mars. It accelerates the end of the game, brings you income, and brings you points, all things you want to do. Making engines and hunting point combos is rarely worth it, and you can win with very few cards; the best way to lose is to buy too many cards. I bought one extra card last game and drew instead of winning as a result. It's definitely going to be a bad game if nobody actually tries to win.
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Mar 10, 2019 11:30
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Spermando posted:What rule did you break? Also, 3 hours seems awfully long even for Terraforming Mars. A lot of people who love terraforming mars want it to go even longer or complain that it’s too short when people actively try to end the game. These are the same types of people who don’t like splendor for being too short and like “epic” games of MTG commander. Since TFM is likely to be one of their gateway games as a generic midweight euro, they get hyped about its quality with no other point of comparison. Especially vs race for the galaxy or San Juan. I hear Ginkgopolis is the game mars fails to be with area control (unlike race) but I haven’t played it yet. Chill la Chill fucked around with this message at 14:51 on Mar 10, 2019 |
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Mar 10, 2019 14:48
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werdnam posted:So it sounds like John Bohrer is a jerk, Martin Wallace is a crybaby, and EGG are profiteers, and to get a really great game in a cool new edition, you have to piss off at least one of these people and give money to at least one other. It's more complex than that. Bohrer claims that he was sole designer on Pampas Railroads and allowed Wallace to put his name on it because Wallace was, to paraphrase, a one-game designer desperate to get famous. This is a straight up lie; Bohrer had worked with Wallace on Ferrocariles Pampas in 1997, but even then Wallace had already broken into the German market with Und Tschuss! and four years later when Pampas came out he was absolutely a name designer. Even if the original idea for Ferrocariles Pampas was solely Bohrer's it's indisputable that Wallace was creating award-winning games on his own when they worked together. Now, Wallace acknowledges that Bohrer did some developmental work on Age of Steam. EGG agree with this, but historically they also agreed that Wallace is due a co-creator credit while Bohrer claimed he was the sole developer of AoS. This is a provable lie from what Bohrer himself has said; part of his statement regarding the design of Pampas Railroads is that when he worked with Wallace in 1997 Wallace already had his own rail game, Lancashire Railways, and it's that game - not Pampas Railroads - which evolved into Age of Steam. What it all boils down to is that Bohrer is trying to steal the credit for designing Age of Steam. His knowledge of IP, patent and trademark law has allowed him to fight the case for free, and Wallace cannot afford to contest it. EGG are caught in the middle as much as anything. They want to publish the game, they have the rights to do so, and last time this came around they were willing to pay everyone their fair due. Wallace just wasn't willing to accept it because he doesn't want Bohrer to profit from it, which is on the one hand a bit selfish considering nobody including Wallace ever disagreed that Bohrer is entitled to do so but very understandable when Bohrer is claiming that Wallace isn't.
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Mar 10, 2019 15:11
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I think that’s a good summation. It would be nice if Wallace got his cut, as it was supposedly offered to him, but humans have pride and it got in the way. That’s the only real fault I give Wallace now: you can’t complain about not getting your cut if it was offered and you turned it down anyway.
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Mar 10, 2019 15:20
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Control Volume posted:It also left everyone wishing that there were multiple scenarios, so what sorts of scenario mystery/puzzle games exist? I already know about the Sherlock games (+ the other games that copy the format) which Ill probably pick up, and TIME Stories which I probably will not. Are there any others that arent as well known? If you’re not wedded to the full co-op thing and don’t mind dealing with an extremely poorly written instruction manual, a lot of people (myself included) really loves Tragedy Looper. It’s also dirt cheap these days.
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Mar 10, 2019 15:22
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Spermando posted:What rule did you break? Also, 3 hours seems awfully long even for Terraforming Mars. The rule has to be that you can only use action cards with the red arrow once a generation.
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Mar 10, 2019 15:49
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Chill la Chill posted:A lot of people who love terraforming mars want it to go even longer or complain that it’s too short when people actively try to end the game. These are the same types of people who don’t like splendor for being too short and like “epic” games of MTG commander. Since TFM is likely to be one of their gateway games as a generic midweight euro, they get hyped about its quality with no other point of comparison. Especially vs race for the galaxy or San Juan. I hear Ginkgopolis is the game mars fails to be with area control (unlike race) but I haven’t played it yet. I'm not sure who told you this, but it is very off base. Ginkgopolis does not feel like TM. I guess if you boil them down to their core parts they are both games that contain area control, drafting, and engine building, but all of these aspects are very different than how they are presented in TM, and the games do not feel similar at all in action. In my opinion Ginkgopolis is overrated and not a very good game due to high levels of luck & how overbuilding works removing most of the strategy from the game. I hear it's better at player counts below 4, but I'm not really interested in a game that only works at 2 & 3. I'm very late to the game with Terraforming Mars, having playing it for the first time last month (in large part because I would avoid based off what I read here). I'm only 2 plays in now, but I actually really like it and can see why it has the acclaim it does. The group I play it with are all experienced gamers so no one is trying to overbuild their engines and everyone keeps their eye on the prize.
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Mar 10, 2019 16:01
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Jedit posted:It's more complex than that. Bohrer claims that he was sole designer on Pampas Railroads and allowed Wallace to put his name on it because Wallace was, to paraphrase, a one-game designer desperate to get famous. This is a straight up lie; Bohrer had worked with Wallace on Ferrocariles Pampas in 1997, but even then Wallace had already broken into the German market with Und Tschuss! and four years later when Pampas came out he was absolutely a name designer. Even if the original idea for Ferrocariles Pampas was solely Bohrer's it's indisputable that Wallace was creating award-winning games on his own when they worked together. Unless some objective third party was there while the game was being designed, there's no 'proof'. Only what people say happens and yes John has changed what he says is true multiple times. From the newsletter he sent out, it's clear he hasn't had free counsel since 1999 so I don't know what's up there. The whole entire issue happened because Martin and his (in my opinion stupid) business manager did not get a written contract. That's basic business, you get a written contract for work done. And the fact that Martin had a business manager who didn't insist on a contract probably hurt him because it then looks to a court that his failure to get a contract was done under advisement from his business manager who apparently was a business manager in title only. I don't feel sorry for Martin in the slightest, he doesn't seem to know what he's doing and fails to address this by getting some truly expert help.
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Mar 10, 2019 16:29
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While digging through one-time playthrough stuff, I saw something about 7th Continent being a really good puzzle/exploration game. Has anyone played this?Boxman posted:If you’re not wedded to the full co-op thing and don’t mind dealing with an extremely poorly written instruction manual, a lot of people (myself included) really loves Tragedy Looper. I saw that one but I dont know if Ill be able to convince other people to deal with how anime it looks.
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Mar 10, 2019 17:28
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7th continent is choose your own adventure the boardgame but it fails to do either well. It’s a giant slog that can take tens of hours to get through a single scenario then the rng tells you you failed and you have to backtrack and go through more rng and try again. It’s even worse than time stories because at least that has the courtesy of being brief (if tedious).
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Mar 10, 2019 19:01
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I finally opened my copy of Charterstone after over a year and started a campaign with four players. The game (so far) is much better than I was led to believe! Everyone really enjoyed it and is looking forward to getting into game 2 and beyond when we can get together again.
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Mar 10, 2019 19:04
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I played a 6 player game of Root yesterday, one of everything instead of the recommended mix. It became a claustrophobic, chaotic game. It ended up only really being a competition between the Woodland Alliance and the Vagabond (I was neither), I think we would have had a better game if we removed the WA and added in the second Vagabond. That way there's a big check against the Vagabond by the other one and everyone else would have been much more competitive. Still a fun game, but I'm not in a hurry to play it at that player count again. Took a while too; almost 3 hours.
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Mar 10, 2019 19:52
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Spermando posted:What rule did you break? Also, 3 hours seems awfully long even for Terraforming Mars. One of my friends claims it takes 4 hours for the first teaching game. He has offered multiple times. Literally every other person in my gaming group has warned me that I will hate it.
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Mar 10, 2019 20:08
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Four hours is right for a teaching game. All those cards seem so cool and so important, that everyone wants to read their cards and play them. This drives up the game time. There is remarkably little in the game that indicates the cool sci-fi abilities are mostly useless, and the basic, relatively boring board actions are the key to winning the game and making the game short.
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Mar 10, 2019 20:20
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Just found German railroads expansion for MSRP. Is it best to use all the modules or just coal?
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Mar 10, 2019 21:31
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Controversy aside, is it actually worth backing the AoS Kickstarter?
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Mar 10, 2019 21:46
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dishwasherlove posted:Controversy aside, is it actually worth backing the AoS Kickstarter? I'm not 100% enthusiastic about the art, but the maps, chips, inserts, and add-ons are all good value. If you think you would enjoy Age of Steam (or already know you do), and don't already own a copy, it's worth backing.
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Mar 10, 2019 21:53
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garthoneeye posted:The rule has to be that you can only use action cards with the red arrow once a generation. That is correct. I'm sure the teacher mentioned it during the rules, but I must have missed it. It's also not listed on the summary cards that I was referencing. Again, no fault but my own on the mistake, however at that point I was several turns into breaking the rules and it was easier for me to just pull out of the game rather than try to rewind or compensate in any manner. Some of the other people in here are right, no one was using the on-board actions, everyone was focusing on buying and playing cards. That aspect might be the fault of the teacher, who emphasized the card play and just briefly mentioned the board actions.
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Mar 10, 2019 23:54
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Big McHuge posted:Some of the other people in here are right, no one was using the on-board actions, everyone was focusing on buying and playing cards. That aspect might be the fault of the teacher, who emphasized the card play and just briefly mentioned the board actions. Yup, this gets people. Games of it I've played where we're actually Terraforming Mars I love it, games where we're Building Engines that Might Terraform a Bit of Mars as Spillover, not so much.
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Mar 10, 2019 23:59
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Bruceski posted:Yup, this gets people. Games of it I've played where we're actually Terraforming Mars I love it, games where we're Building Engines that Might Terraform a Bit of Mars as Spillover, not so much. The board actions aren't the key point, they're inefficient generally compared to card actions. The key point is that you win the game by having the most points when it ends, so if you think you're ahead you should be pushing to end it. If you think you're behind, you should DEFINITELY be pushing to end it, because *ending the game is the best way to score quick points*. Terraforming Mars is not an engine builder, nor is it a tableau builder, it's a game where you try to be the person who pushes those terraforming dials most and hardest. The engine and tableau building aspects are more or less incidental.
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Mar 11, 2019 00:11
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What was the consensus on Architects of the West Kingdom?
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Mar 11, 2019 01:58
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We got in a three player game of spirit island today. Two relatively new people and a friend who had never played managed to win by generating a ton of fear. I might have to ease out of easy mode. Spirit island Has proven to be a really good game for me at player counts of 1, 2, and 3 players. Maybe the hype isn’t always wrong. Terraforming Mars May not be the greatest game on earth but I find it an enjoyable experience, and am always willing to play. I am backing AoS because the one game we have played both my wife and I enjoyed the experience. Sadly the person who introduced us to the game just moved back to Europe with his copy.
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Mar 11, 2019 02:04
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Jejoma posted:What was the consensus on Architects of the West Kingdom? Very simple worker placement game, gorgeous art, and the imprisonment/taxing systems are a neat twist on the formula. It's probably a good introduction to the genre, but it's pretty much just "fine".
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Mar 11, 2019 02:26
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Jejoma posted:What was the consensus on Architects of the West Kingdom? Don't know about the consensus but it's one of my favorite games at the moment. Plays in about an hour and is simple to play but punches above it's weight in terms of depth of strategy. If you like worker placement games then I would think you would enjoy it.
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Mar 11, 2019 02:44
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Ok, thanks for the impression on it. This is for a lighter group so I think I'll bite.
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Mar 11, 2019 02:48
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I bought The Estates the other day. Absolutely no idea why, I'm terrible at auction games and only played it once with my gf (though I did like it) and I'll be surprised if I can get it back on the table. Good game though.
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Mar 11, 2019 13:48
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Lol, oh nooo! It is a good game though. And nicely produced!
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Mar 11, 2019 14:38
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Mr. Squishy posted:Lol, oh nooo! It is a good game though. And nicely produced! Yeah, I wouldn't say I regret it, per se. I'm just looking at this game and thinking "It is going to be a long drat time before I get the chance to play this"
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Mar 11, 2019 14:42
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In both my games of the estates I made the mistake of getting 3 business cards. Never again!
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Mar 11, 2019 14:44
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Hey guys, tell me what you think of the board game titled Revolution! It's hard to google the name and I'd like to hear opinions on it from a group that I, kinda, know their preference.
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Mar 11, 2019 15:02
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