For all the criticism, cheap-shots, and fawning praise I dole out on a regular basis here in this column, there is one element of not only hobby games, but all games, that really matters above and beyond anything else I’ve ever written about them. There’s just one simple factor that trumps whether or not a game is creative, unique, passionate, boring, derivative, or just plain crappy. And it’s something that sometimes gets lost in rhetoric: fun.
Fun automatically invalidates all criticism I’ve ever levied against any game, and it is really the one thing I look for more than anything else in my pursuit of the hobby. Regardless of how much I say I hate a game, I’ll still play it with the right people. I can still have fun playing terrible games. I might have more fun at the expense of the game than because of it, but I’m going to have fun one way or another. I love gaming, and my love for gaming is more than the sum of whether or not a particular game is worthless or not along critical lines.
I play games to have fun and honestly I don’t care what game it is as long as I’m having a good time. I’ve had good times playing some of the most dreadful games on the market- some of which I’ve reviewed here at Cracked LCD. When I review or comment on a game, I am almost always taking an objective position where I assess what is actually in the box. Sometimes a game can create fun by itself and what you get in the box is fun- a lot of dexterity games such as the brilliant WEYKICK or the fiendishly addictive TUMBLIN’ DICE and highly interactive games like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and COSMIC ENCOUNTER are like that. That can be measured and quantified in a review, I think, in contrast to games that actively discourage fun by smothering everything in calculation, procedure, and structure such as WEALTH OF NATIONS or PLANET STEAM.
Un-fun games can certainly be interesting, mechanically successful, and even good but ultimately I find that I always come back around to the ones I laugh with and at, and at that level even total garbage such as the god-awful MIAMI VICE board game represents better play value than something like CAYLUS. Even games that maybe aren’t really so good at a critical level, like FAMILY BUSINESS or WAR ON TERROR are fun to me regardless of how sloppy the design is or how goofy or clunky they may be.
The fact of the matter is that if you have good friends that you enjoy being around, any game is going to be fun in some way even if what’s in the box doesn’t promote or encourage fun at all. I had a fun time playing WEALTH OF NATIONS with some good friends, but the game itself wasn’t fun at all. In fact, I think it was about as fun as filing tax forms.
It may come as some surprise, but there’s an awful lot of people out there who play hobby games for reasons other than to simply have fun. Some people get into hobby games because they want to feel a sense of belonging to a group, they need games as a kind of intermediary that gives the socially awkward common ground. Some people play games to win—they feel that winning a game demonstrates their cleverness and mental superiority. And still others get into hobby gaming because they believe that “sophisticated” themes and “elegant” gameplay validates their interest in what is essentially grown up playtime. There are people who track the games they play, their opinions of them, and the games they want to play so it’s really a trainspotting exercise for them: they may as well collect stamps or butterflies as far as I’m concerned. And then there’s the people who pursue the hobby solely to collect, amass, and consume. Maybe you think that what “fun” is falls somewhere into those categories. I don’t, and I think if your definition of fun doesn’t include laughter, blowing up all of your friends’ pieces, stealing their money, and good-natured trash talk then I think you’re totally missing the boat while you’re busy scratching your beard and patting your belly in satisfaction at the cleverness of your strategies.
So I say to hell with all of that, let’s just play a game, have a laugh, and devil take the hindmost. I don’t play games for any other reason than to goof off with my friends and have a good time so even if we’ve got some garbage like GOA or PRINCES OF FLORENCE on the table I’m going to try to find something to enjoy, even if it’s not the game itself. I’ve had this attitude actually get me in trouble at a few tables- try cracking jokes and making good-natured fun of a game when everybody is silently staring at player boards and calculating optimal auction bids. It’s just not the ‘done’ thing. I’ve seen actual internet discussions on whether table talk is “proper” etiquette or not. I can’t believe people are so stuck-up about playing games; it’s one of the reasons that mainstream crowds steer clear of the much-too-serious nerd elite that represent the bulk of the gaming community.
It’s funny, looking at the back of a box like THUNDER ROAD or a lot of other mainstream games you’ll see these pictures of kids (and adults, sometimes) cheering, yelling, pumping fists, and having a good time. People look like they’re having fun. It’s a total contrast to the scene you’ll see at almost any hobby game gathering, where quiet, polite, and strictly in-game conversation and intense focus on THE GAME is par for course. It stands to reason though, given the way a lot of modern hobby games present themselves. Turn over the box of PUERTO RICO and there’s a fishing net, a pile of oregano, some gold coins, and a couple of dreadfully dull looking game components in that god-awful brown-and-darker-brown Eurogame color palette. It’s like the game dares you to make fun of its components. Add to that the fact that a lot of modern games only look fun to people who are already entrenched in the hobby and you start to get a sense that gaming isn’t supposed to be fun at all.
