Errata: Disparities in Enjoyment
With the number of reviews I’ve done for the Robot here, it should come as no surprise that I like to share my opinion. I’m not afraid to give great reviews to a game that other critics have hated, or to give a big “meh” to a game that others have enjoyed. I thought this week’s question was particularly intriguing, because it deals with my rating disparity from other reviewers.
Norm asked, “I’ve noticed that my opinions tend to line up with yours. But they don’t always line up with most of my friends or other reviewers that I read. Can you list off your biggest games that you think are overrated?”
The game site Board Game Geek actually has a stat counter that does this. It compares a user’s rating for a game (out of 10) to the weighted average for the game across the whole site. Of course, BGG tends to be dominated by euro-lovers rather than wargamers or ameritrash fans, so it does skew the scores somewhat. But I think it’s an interesting tool.
A quick glance through my overrated games shows that I depart from the pack when it comes to Lost Cities, Tikal, and Kingsburg. I just don’t get the love for these games, other than nostalgia. Lost Cities has few meaningful decisions and I always feel like there’s a best move given my current hand. Tikal’s action point system is annoying and can be a chore if playing with a Captain Takeback. And Kingsburg has precious little to combat bad die rolls.
On the other hand, BGG says I think Sentinels of the Multiverse, Tammany Hall, and the Resistance are underrated. Sentinels is, hands down, my favorite co-op. The Resistance is one of the best, if not the best, hidden loyalty game. And Tammany Hall is a wonderful mix of deep strategy with straightforward rules. I’m surprised that each of them is not higher rated on the Geek. Then again, with the exception of Tammany Hall (which suffers from fewer players), the games aren’t all that “euro-y”.
Hope that helps.
Got questions about strategy, specific games, or the hobby in general? Post them in the comments here, email me at geekinsight at gfbrobot dot com, or send them to @GeekInsight on Twitter and check back next week for answers!
Indeed, I have a similar feeling towards The Resistance. I love ShadowsOverCamelot and BSG, yet my love for them is motivated by thematic and mechanistic reasons, while TR is able to condense hidden loyalty in a 15-20 minutes tension-dense experience.
Unfortunately, my group appears to be in love with The Castle of the Devil, which takes the hidden loyalty mechanism, strips it of any relevance and buries it under a pile of slow and useless card exchange and voting-combat, without providing any structured experience like BSG and SOC, while at the same time failing to be intense or short as TR is.
Best
Geki