Someone in BGG made a Reverse Kondo: The games I would buy again if my entire collection disappeared the 2021 version
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What’s up with Regicide at the top of the Hotness? Did I miss the SUSD review? It was on the podcast, I think. Is that enough these days? I’d much rather have the reason be: designer makes new game and new KS is coming up and you can order a deck through the KS 
I’ve been too lazy to learn the P&P rules (even though I did print them)… it’s not like we don’t have a nice deck of cards.
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SUSD podcast, and SVWAG have been talking about it, and it’s cheap, and you can get the rules and try it out instantly? (The Hotness is driven by clicks to the game’s BGG page, isn’t it, which you’d do to get the rules?)
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Just got notice that Petrichor CE is starting to go on a ship sometime soon. Part of the update was this neat ugly little paragraph:
We expect this to be a trend in general in the industry. And as our CEO David Chircop commented and explained in the comments section, our predictions is that regular square-sized board games that used to cost 45-55 USD (Like Petrichor) will likely settle to 60-70 USD in the coming months and years.
I am hoping a bit that the general trend to produce everything in China may be disrupted by this development. But as recently read in other places: all plastic and most wood components come from China right now and the US doesn’t even have significant printing capabilities… (there are still a bunch of publishers printing in Europe explaining the already significant difference in prices between some publishers). Obviously nothing new but this is the first time I see someone putting a price tag on it.
And once prices are up… they won’t be coming down.
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I’ve noticed that many games are already $65-80 MSRP. I noticed this because my FLOGS (Friendly Local Overpriced Game Store) sells games at MSRP
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As I understand it, there’s basically one boardgame printer in the US, and it’s owned by Asmodée and works for them full-time. Like shipbuilding, once your industry shuts down, you lose all the skills and it’s hard to get it fired up again in a hurry. If this situation persists, it may be worth it, but it’s a big investment and if container shipping costs suddenly go back to normal…
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I think the skillset is less of a problem than literally sourcing the materials. Most of the paper industry in the US is geared towards printer paper (and that’s probably only because we use US paper sizes). The pandemic has shown that we don’t even make our own toilet paper here.
Gaining access to raw lumber? That’s recently become more reasonable (prices are back down to pre-pandemic rates). Tooling and milling for wooden components? Probably a good 5 years away from that if a publisher with deep pockets threw money at it (currentlly there are probably 0 publishers with deep enough pockets to do it alone). Plastics? Yeah, probably won’t happen on US soil for at least 10 years – if we had the tooling for it, we would still be struggling with the on-shore production logistics.
And all of that doesn’t even account for RoW distribution. Even if US publishers do produce products in the US, there’s still the matter of shipping it to the rest of the world.
As much as I want fully-US-produced games to happen, I think it’s safe to say that for the next 5 years at least, US-produced components will continue to be limited to cardstock. If a consortium of publishers decide to kickstart a US-based wooden-components facility, it might be possible. And if that happens, maybe a roadmap could be developed for plastics production here – and that’s assuming that US plastics-production wouldn’t be hamstringed by other industries consuming all of the logistics chain (think: children’s toys)
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It’s not just location of production. I’d love to have more eco friendly production in our hobby, but I imagine price is a barrier. If costs rise across the board anyway, maybe we’ll see a move away from so much plastic
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Well, Hasbro have been trying to de-plastic even before the pandemic.
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I just stumbled across a German publisher who started a new „Natureline“… so far it is only six of their card games that are marketed as plastic free. But it is an encouraging sign. I wish we had a little more than signs but I take what I can get.
I did something I have never done before because I got curious. I wrote an eMail to the publisher to find out if those card games are also produced locally. I wonder if they‘ll answer.
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Indeed I got an answer already 
All their games are printed in Germany. I like this. Obviously they are a card game publisher so that makes things a little easier no weird components to worry about. I am really wondering though why the publishers who are producing locally aren’t using it for marketing purposes?
My first theory is: they are clueless? Rather unlikely.
My second one is more of a “conspiracy”: the local industry has a gentleman’s agreement not to use their local production for marketing until everyone had a chance to improve their supply chain and use more local production and then they could make a big splash announcing together that “the German publishers are now all producing locally” which is sure to reach more people … like the other day there was an article how the “Portuguese bicycle producers are all producing locally now”
I don’t kow. Or maybe it is just me who thinks shorter supply chains would be a nice thing and unnecessary transport should be avoided.
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I am quite disillusioned. I thought it was bad, but not this bad. I thought that more of my games from local publishers would be made somewhere around here… NOT.
Random sampling of non KS games. Printed in...
So my copy of Tash Kalar from 2013 is printed in the Czech Republic. So is Alchemists. Yay. I have no recent CGE games on hand. I think they still print their own games… I hope? Not optimistic… see below.
My first printing of Terra Mystica was printed in Germany, Arler Erde a few years later is in Poland.
My relatively recent copy of A Feast for Odin was also printed in Poland. Feuerland ftw… but they are suffering paper shortages. Viticulture which is not their own design is printed in China.
Next up: Pegasus. Hansa Teutonica was printed in China (Whyyy? It’s just paper and a few wooden cubes and Pegasus Printing still exists somewhere near Berlin -.-) My 2014 copy of Istanbul is still printed in Germany. Kyoto (2020) was printed in Germany. As was (weirdly) Roll for the Galaxy though I am sure that is more of an assembly thing…
Rattle Battle Grab the Loot (Portal) is made in Poland. Bought at Spiel Older of course.
Concordia (PD Verlag) says “Made in Europe”
2F Games: Faiyum. Made in Germany. I expected that. I need to buy more 2F games.
El Dorado (Ravensburger): recently Made in Czech Republic As was Carpe Diem (recent printing) and my Ravensburger copy of Calico
Seasons (Libellud > Asmodee): this is not even a new game still Made in China.
Cash and Guns 2nd (Repos), a little older: Made in the Netherlands
Gingkopolis (Pearl Games) was apparently printed in Germany because that is where the replacement parts came from…
Merv (Osprey), Renature (pegasus, deep print games worse even because they act like they are more aware of these issues for that label), Polynesia (Ludonova), The Estates, Ishtar (Iello), Vampire Vendetta (Horrible)… random sample of recently acquired games all of it is from China -.-
Res Arcana and Seasons of Inis I couldn’t figure out, which probably means China.
Meh. Disappointing. And none of those are Kickstarters. From those I don’t expect better. Le sigh. I need to either stop caring or stop consuming and I am having trouble with both -.- Maybe I need to send letters to all the publishers asking them why why why?
What I learned: to cherish my older games and Beyond the Sun which is made in Germany… at least my copy is.
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That’s what’s weird about international trading. You don’t know how efficient/inefficient a production line is until you check under the hood.
What’s also opaque is the chain itself. You can have a game branded “Made in Europe”, but have the majority of the components made in China, but does the final assembly in Europe.
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I think Made in (insert your local place) or assembled locally is still an improvement over Made in (far far away), even if some of the components were transported. In some rare cases f.e. Formosa Tea, I purposely look for games from far away. But that is absolutely an exception.
I mean it’s the same with other products. I am currently wearing a T-Shirt made in Portugal from recycled Jeans and a pair of Jeans produced in Tunisia. Because that’s as close as I can get. And more often than not I don’t. Too much of my clothing was produced (far far away) even though I think I buy responsibly (and way less than games oO)
The first year we saw Panda Printing at Spiel was either 2017 or 2018. I think that there was a concerted push to get more publishers to print in China. I can by now tell from the look of the box.
I am considering writing emails to more publishers about this. Nice, polite emails. Because maybe if enough people ask… I do think the current transportation crisis will motivate some to do more of the production closer to home and I am sure we will see a few games with simpler components–at least outside of the Kickstarter things. If games need to be more expensive, I’d rather pay those extra Euros for something like higher wages at the printer than “oops the containers got expensive”
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Or the raw materials are from further afield. Spent 3 hours debating sustainable manufacturing today.
I left the discussion with a sense of utter doom at the enormity of the problem. We would need 3 earths to sustain our consumption if the global population was the same as the UK (we aren’t the worst offenders, but definitely not the best).
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Sounds like a manufacturing version of the Malthusian Trap. Sorry to sound skeptical on this one. I’m far more worried on things that we are/have been slacking on (e.g. climate change). Mainly because this operates on the assumption that technology will remain stagnant as more developing countries converges with developed countries. How many tons of coals do we need to burn today if we only have late-1800s power plants?
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Agreed. More of an example to show how behaviours within countries are impacting the planet. I thought it was quite powerful but obviously a purely hypothetical scenario.
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Yesterday I was introduced to this online tool which lets you more easily compare your ratings and reviews with those of your geekbuddies on BGG. I mostly learned that if I knew @lalunaverde in real life, we’d probably spend the whole time playing Pax Pamir, Terra Mystica, and Food Chain Magnate 
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You can add in Gaia Project too!
I had a look and Im a willing tag-along for Root, Tzolkin, BTS, 1862, Scythe, and Brass Lanc.
I also have a copy of Antiquity as well 
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It never worked for me all the times I tried. Now it did, but I have a hard time figuring out the closest matches in games and also it is showing me a bunch of people I don’t know?
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