#170: What Prompts Our Purchases

Boardgames So Very Wrong About Games
1

2021-05-25T10:00:17Z

Walker’s got this friend with a problem–not Walker, no not at all, a friend, you see, his name is… Bike Docker… and Bike has this problem that he judges a game by its cover art. Mike I mean Bike is so blinded by his prejudice that it causes him to rag on games like El Grande or GMT’s entire catalog just because the cover doesn’t appeal to his sensibilities. Luckily, there are enlightened people like Mike Walker to guide those like Bike Docker.

01:33 AYURIS: Tapestry (Jamey Stegmaier, Stonemaier Games, 2019)

Games Played Last Week:
03:09 -Street Masters: Aftershock (Adam Sadler & Brady Sadler, Blacklist Games, 2019)
04:38 -Fast & Furious: Highway Heist (Prospero Hall, Funko Games, 2021)
11:46 -Imperium: The Contention (Gary Dworetsky, Contention Games, 2021)
15:23 -Four Gardens (Martin Doležal, Korea Boardgames, 2020)
18:12 -A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition) (Christian T. Petersen, Fantasy Flight, 2011)
19:30 -Spirit Island: Jagged Earth (R. Eric Reuss, Greater Than Games, 2020)
19:59 -Cryo (Tom Jolly & Luke Laurie, Z-Man Games, 2021)
23:21 -The Initiative (Corey Konieczka, Unexpected Games, 2021)
25:39 -L.A.M.A. Dice (Reiner Knizia, AMIGO, 2021)
27:40 -Good Puppers (Chris Cieslik, Asmadi Games, 2021)
29:43 -Codex Naturalis (Thomas Dupont, Bombyx, 2020)
30:31 -Calico (Kevin Russ, Flatout Games, 2020)
33:57 -Anachrony: Doomsday Enhancement Pack (Dávid Turczi, Mindclash Games, 2017)
34:54 -Rajas of the Ganges (Inka Brand & Markus Brand, HUCH!, 2017)

News (and why it doesn’t matter):
35:41 Portal stream: Publishers avoiding GenCon
37:23 Horizon Wars: Infinite Dark launches this week
37:55 The Goonies: Never Say Die by Prospero Hall
38:48 Follow-up to Versailles 1919: Triumvir
39:23 Zombicide: Army of the Dead
40:15 Bizarre gatekeeping alert: Bruno Faidutti doesn’t trust you if you don’t drink

42:40 Topic: What Prompts Our Purchases

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I really like the topic. The Geekbuddy system is what shapes my wishlist nowadays. Geekbuddies on average rated the game highly? In the wishlist.

I pretty much did the same on building up my geekbuddies.

  1. I look for games that I love but not too popular, in order to have a smaller sample. There’s no way I’m checking all the 10/10 ratings of Tigers and Pots.
  2. Check out their profiles and see if there’s good overlap.
  3. And then, ba-bam!

Designers/publishers are also what pushes me to buy a game. Mac Gerdts, Michael Schacht, Splotter Spellen, Amabel Holland, Carl Chudyk, and Kramer & Kiesling (or just Kramer). 100%. No question. Vlaada might be too, but haven’t made one for quite a while.

Knizia is there too but I have to be more selective with him. As well as Rosenberg, Cole Wehrle and Andreas Steding: Gugong was a big disappointment to me, and Stroganov seems to be of the same type.

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I have yet to listen to this episode but curating geekbuddys to get recommendations through their ratings is a brilliant idea.

I have checked out other people’s collections in the past and I can tell quickly where my overlap with people is these days… I should do that more :smiley:

Always hunting for the secret overlooked “hit” game…

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This has reminded me that Tapestry is exactly the sort of game I get super excited about, but reviews saved me from spending really quite a lot of money.

5

coughthisforumcough

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Oh, I’ve also said on here in the past that a good half of my collection is ENTIRELY the fault of this forum.

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After listening to the episode…

Major culprits:

  • FLGS new games shelf
  • FLGS staff
  • BGG Hotness (less and less, this has betrayed me in the past when I didn’t realize how one review might catapult a game to the hypelist…)
  • Reviewers (especially Dan Thurot, Zee Garcia and SUSD)
  • SPIEL
  • Spiel des Jahres (especially older ones, also nominees and recommendations)
  • BGG Rankings
  • this forum
  • Browsing Kickstarter
  • Online Shops „this just came in“ category
  • r/boardgames
  • certain designers
  • certain publishers (less and less)

No particular order…

I have been going through my collection adding comments recently. It is slow going because I find it hard to sum up a game succinctly but I am trying to write useful things for someone checking out a game.

Also: Games should be pretty and have beautiful covers and components that look tasty. The question is what do I think is pretty?

4 Likes