Against popular opinion (popular games you hate)

That’s what surprised me, the theme is absolutely my thing but something about the mechanics per hero just seemed very simple. (And that’s from someone who like Marvel Champions).

I might be wrong, and it was years ago when I last played, but I’m not spending money on Sentinels until I can try it again first.

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Me as well. I really don’t understand how it is so popular (not trying to be snarky; I literally cannot understand why so many people like it)

I’ve found 7 Wonders to be an odd duck. I feel like it’s too much game for its intended audience (casual gamers), and not enough game for the more serious/heavy-focused gamers. I’m not sure where it’s supposed to sit. Maybe as an appetizer for the evening, or as a closer… but I have many other games that pack more interesting decisions and more interaction into about the same time/weight as 7 Wonders. Sushi Go has less crunch to it and I think out-7 Wonders 7 Wonders


Machi Koro – when I first got Machi Koro, it was fine. But over time, my freetime became more scarce and suddenly I realized that while Machi Koro is fine for lazy afternoons with a beverage of choice, seated around a table with some friends, it’s not a game worth filling that time with; all of the fun I’ve had with it were based on the friends around my table rather than the friends. It’s a slow, meandering game where some people will be more lucky than others – it’s not fair and it’s not strategy and, most importantly, it won’t get off the table in a timely manner.


King of Tokyo – I’m sure its fine. I probably would have loved it when I was a teenager. “King of the hill” is a tough mechanism for a game, and I suppose King of Tokyo does it better than most, because it doesn’t necessarily suffer from the “A fights B, C wins” problem.


Generally speaking: Rolls/Flips and Writes

Just because we’re all reacting to the same roll of the dice or flip of a card doesn’t mean there’s substantial player interaction. But, more importantly, they usually lack an arc, and often put you in a position to regret any given prior turn throughout the rest of the game.

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Yes, I’ll add King of Tokyo and Smash Up to my list of nopes.

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I think it’s why many games are popular. There’s a pleasant build your own engine and run it. Minimal player interaction but a little through drafting and tile placement.

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I think King of Tokyo is just too light.

7 Wonders was intended as a quick game I think. But it got bloated with expansions and just like Terraforming Mars, people love the game buy the expansions and do not necessarily love the game better with them…

Maybe we ought to have a debate about those as well. Which games really suffered from expansions. Definitely 7 Wonders after the first 2 and Terraforming Mars has more meh ones than ones that genuinely improve the game… and then there is Wingspan Oceania or the Terra Mystica trading thing I own but have never played. Expansions are like movie sequels… and yet I watch all of them.

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Oh yeah, Smash Up as well. I really thought I would like it. But the one time I played, I had a great first turn and then the rest of the game couldn’t draw any cards at all that were helpful. Straight from the top of my wishlist to the bottom.

I discussed with the game’s owner (who has a complete Smash Up set, I think) about doing a “constructed” tournament or something… where you smash up your own combination of decks, play a game, and then rotate the decks and play again.

Suffice to say, we never really got that excited to shoehorn more rules and structure into the game.

It’s a crazy, funny luckfest. And maybe that’s fine. But crazy, funny luckfests shouldn’t stay on the table longer than 30 or 45 minutes, in my book.

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Same. They just all feel so samey to me and there’s nothing compelling about them. I own two: Kokoro because it’s super simple and the small deck means you can actually strategise somewhat around what might come up. Welcome to Dino World because it lets me draw terrible dinosaurs.

Another general one: Dungeon crawlers - Why would I ever want to play an RPG with all the opportunities for creativity taken out?

Specific: Dominion - Just wildly unbalanced in favour of anyone who’s more familiar with the game.

It expects players to familiarise themselves with all the cards and what they do (without any kind of symbolic simplification or player aid - so you have to fully read every fucking card), then work out how they interact, then work out how to build a deck that will take advantage of this.

Then, once you’ve played a game and lost miserably, your friend will change all the cards because it’s only fun for them if they vary the game, so you have to learn all this over again. (And that’s even without expansions.)

And you can’t interact, so you don’t even get to have fun messing with your friend’s perfect plan while you lose. The best you can do is just keep buying the really cheap cards so the game ends quickly and they complain that they didn’t their engine going fully.

All wrapped up in the blandest theme imaginable.

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Dominion is a surprise but I totally agree with everything you say and now having not played it in a while wonder if I still like it.

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I think my opinion is very much coloured by playing two games against friends who loved it and had played it relentlessly before introducing it to the rest of us.

But I’ve played other deckbuilders since and enjoyed them much more because they don’t have these problems. I can’t see myself ever warming up to it.

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Kingdom Builder. One of the dullest games imaginable. Like, even Monopoly has its “bwahaha gimme all your money” moments, this is just “you got the canyon, so you cut me off and score 24 points, I got the flowers again so imma just fill out this worthless field and take a nap”. Thankfully DXV created the immaculate eminence of perfection which is Dominion 2nd Edition. :smiley_cat:

Oh wait, apparently everyone hates that now. :pouting_cat: Fortunately, wrong opinions on the internet is a problem that can be solved if you just argue long enough :farmer:

It expects players to familiarise themselves with all the cards and what they do (without any kind of symbolic simplification or player aid - so you have to fully read every fucking card), then work out how they interact, then work out how to build a deck that will take advantage of this.

To be fair, this is entirely accurate; it just happens that this is why I enjoy the game. Different pokes for different folks, I guess. As a new player, I loved getting all the weird new cards, reading them, figuring where they’d fit. Now that I’ve learned all 600, it grows a little dull… but to me this game fills out the niche that most people hold a CCG/LCG, where the expansion process is the fun of the game.

(And I loathe iconography. If arrays of tiny pictures were easier to understand, we’d all be speaking ancient egyptian right now!)

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I despise Catan. As in, I would rather play Monopoly than Catan. That’s the main thing about which I am highly passionate in my dislike off the top of my head.

I own all of Terraforming Mars, including the fancy 3D tiles and the spin-off “card game” that is TM crossed with Race for the Galaxy. I have played a great deal of Terraforming Mars in every imaginable combination of every expansion mixed with any and all other expansions. It’s an ok game. It’s not great. It’s not terrible. It’s just ok. So why have I played so much of it and own so much of it? My number one gaming buddy a.k.a. my husband loves it and thinks it is one of the greatest games ever. At least I don’t hate it.

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I’ve played half a game of Catan (we ran out of time as the shop we were playing in was closing) and that was still too much Catan.

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If you’re ever inclined to give it another go, this video is a brilliant, clear explanation of the game. I don’t think I’ve ever fully read the manual - just used it for reference.

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I’m sure I’ve said it here before, but I really can’t get on with The Mind. It’s fun to watch other people play, but having to rely on nonverbal communication is excruciating.

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I dislike Catan so much I forgot about it.

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It’s funny, reading through this. It’s like, Yes! Yes! NOOOOOOO! Yes! NOOOOOO!

But I appreciate it. There are many games where I can’t reconcile the popularity:my experience ratio. Nice to know everyone has that and it’s even for many of the same games.

Terraforming Mars: to be fair, I am happy at the end of a game. But I can’t play too much. It seems to me like an incomplete design that covers its less-than-mediocrity with carefully inserted dopamine hits.
Through the Ages: SUSD articulated it perfectly
Puerto Rico: I think I just don’t get it. But also, imbalance, repetition, static setup, dominant strategy.
Carcassonne: I still don’t know why this is a game. I hold onto my copy because other people like it and I think I must be wrong, but I still can’t find the game.
Wingspan: So slow so much text. And despite the ostensible variety, the cards all feel the same (oh yeah, that’s a TF Mars thing too).
Scythe: Ok so I have an anti-Stonemeier thing. Tapestry too, but seems like that’s a more common opinion. I did stick with Scythe long enough to find the game, and it pleasantly surprised me in the end, but the final conclusion was “Istanbul does this better/faster.”
Raiders of the North Sea: I’m seeing a trend here - games with ostensible variability that all coalesces into a repetitive experience. A bit surprised by this since I like the West Kingdom games so much.
7 Wonders: Like Puerto Rico, I just don’t get it. I read a strategy guide and played again and had a good time for the first time. But I generally just don’t like drafting. This also felt like it resolved into the same game every time (or one of two archetypes).
Pandemic: I’m holding on to this one for the right person to crack the puzzle with. I don’t like the genre but I’m warming up to it with Spirit Island and Burgle Bros. Part of me is mad at Leacock on principle for releasing the same game over and over and over again and getting away with it.
Twilight Struggle: This is more of an in-club out-club thing. I tried to learn it but found the community had already memorized it so well that the learning curve was a vertical cliff. I’d kind of like to try again with someone else with zero exposure.
Voyages of Marco Polo: I did give this one a fair shake and in the end it was just too many closed doors. It felt like a bag of Nope that you won by getting less Nope than everyone else.

Dominion is an odd duck in that I first played it (gifted to me) and straight up spat it out. It sat unplayed for probably 15 years. Something brought me back to it. I think it was the 2e upgrade pack, and I tried playing with the default “menus” rather than random, and that cracked open a little light on the puzzle. I really love it now but I didn’t always. The pleasure out : effort in ratio is superb. However, the money in : game out ratio is hideous. It needs expansions, and when I tallied all I’d spent I had to sell off a few. I don’t like it that much. Androminion ftw.

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That one should have made my list. Tried to learn it on a friend‘s copy with my partner… we both failed. Later tried again on the app and I just noped out after a few tries.

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Catan only recently left my top 10. Can we still be friends?

I have a treatise somewhere on Reddit, the thesis being that Cities & Knights gave everyone what they thought they wanted but actually ruined the game.

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I’d never considered Scythe to be remotely similar to Istanbul :thinking:

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Well, I just exiled my copy of Isle of Skye :wink:

Catan was ruined for me back before 2000 when it was still called Die Siedler. Had nothing to do with expansions more with this one friend who always won (and still does his family recently complained).

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