I had an interesting experience early on; I started buying games with my own money around 2016, and, as many of you have experienced, I immediately wanted all the things. I would see reviews, and instantly want whatever it was. One such game was Space Alert.
So I got myself hyped, and went on eBay, where I saw a great deal! I could get 8 games for only $23 each, instead of their individual costs of $40-60 each. And so, instead of getting Space Alert, I got a bundle of
-Space Alert
-Galaxy Trucker
-Power Grid
-Dominion 2e
-Dominion: Adventures
-Puerto Rico
-Mogul
-Carcassonne: The Discovery
And only paid $180! (I didn’t tell anyone that, they would have flipped out. Instead it was always, “oh this game was about twenty bucks.”)
It was kind of a terrible idea, really, since I didn’t know games that well, and could have just as well ended up with 40 volumes of Exploding Kittens or something. But I don’t regret it in the slightest. Because ultimately, the variety was a lot more effective at hitting the target than trying to figure out the perfect thing, and failing.
In the end, the game I was most skeptical about (Dominion) became my #1 game, and Space Alert? It got listed for trade halfway through the first training mission. I had thought it would be great either as a family game or a solo game, after my research, but it turned out that understanding the game wasn’t as important as understanding the people involved. But as with any skill, it took dozens of tries before I had enough practice to do it effectively.
So my main points would be this:
- Don’t put to much emphasis into one game. You should always be willing to say “we aren’t having fun, let’s do something else.” Don’t get caught in a sunk cost fallacy.
- Don’t spend to much money on a game you don’t know. Things like acrylic tiles, extra expansions, solo modes, etc can be very enticing, but until you’ve played the game and want to play it with those things, you shouldn’t pay any more than you absolutely have to (could even use TTS, if that’s your thing)
- Stay away from Kickstarter, if life and love mean anything to you! Seriously, 97% of my boardgame regrets come from there. Specifically because it forces you to contradict the first two points by putting you on a time limit, and giving bad information. If the only data you have on a product comes from someone trying to sell it to you, you shouldn’t buy it. Same with TV commercials, door-to-door sales, etc. This has been established for decades, but somehow been forgotten in this specific corner of the universe.
(And if anyone’s wondering, Puerto Rico and Mogul also got the boot almost immediately, but I’m similarly glad to have experienced those. And I secretly think Carcassonne Discovery is better than the original! Especially since it has no expansions. But don’t kill me, I promise I won’t propagate this heresy! )