162 – Your Game Collection – The Family Gamers Podcast

Apparently, there are 162 games in a season of Major League Baseball. So, we’ve reached that milestone now – yay?

We’re going to talk about collecting (kids are natural collectors – or maybe hoarders) and “improving” your collection in various ways.

What We’ve Been Playing

Brainwaves: The Astute Goose – a memory game that actually improves your memory!

Spy Club – the “mosaic” mode (5 games makes a storyline) makes it shine.

Arraial – Tetris party. Rotate the “pinwheel” of available pieces and “drop” pieces in to your board space to make “parties” of a single color. Has a very casual look (reminds us of the Curious George picture books) but ends up being a pretty thinky game.

CABO – fast moving card game based on “Golf” with a memory element.

Jetpack Joyride – remember our very first SNAP review? Kickstarter backers (like us) are now getting their copies, and it’s even better than we expected it to be! We highly recommend taking a look at the unboxing done by One Board Family.

Sparkle*Kitty – silly fun as usual, even with a group of older men.

Imhotep – still one of Anitra’s favorites, even though she lost.

Draftosaurus – so approachable, so cute!

Monopoly Deal – not a great game, but good enough. It distills the back-and-forth nastiness usually associated with Monopoly into a 10-15 minute card game.

Andrew confesses that he wishes he had more time to play games.

Panic Island – we want to open the “Do Not Open” envelope, but the requirements are really hard. We keep getting closer, though!

Rescue Polar Bears: Data & Temperature – we won! This game is so hard, but by playing strategically (and counter-intuitively) we managed to squeak out a win.

Board Game in the Middle

Play along with us! We picked 3 boardgames. Guess which one falls in the MIDDLE when ordered by “geek rating” on BoardGameGeek.

Let’s rank the 3 cooperative games we mentioned:

• Spy Club,
• Panic Island,
• Rescue Polar Bears: Data & Temperature.

Andrew predicts Rescue Polar Bears. Anitra predicts Panic Island.

Vote in our poll on Facebook!

Games as Collection

Andrew and our boys attended “Batman Day” at our local game store / “pop culture emporium” (Thanks, That’s Entertainment!) It got Andrew thinking. He doesn’t want to simply collect stuff to have more stuff.

It makes us think of the video Rodney Smith did lately: Am I a Collector?

Some people are so protective of their games that those games don’t get played or enjoyed.

Games that Look Good Get More Play

We think it’s really important for a game to look good if it wants to draw kids (and adults) in. Some games do this on their own (Century: Golem Edition comes to mind), but some games also lend themselves to being “blinged out”. We here at The Family Gamers don’t add accessories to games often, but the ones where we have, have been very worth it!

For example, our Imhotep playmat, the Lords of Waterdeep box organizer, Roll Player (organizer, metal coins, etc.)

Kids! If your parents have a game they really love, an upgrade or add-on makes for a great gift! (And a simple and cheap way to upgrade games that have lots of little “bits” – a set of silicone muffin cups to hold the piles handy.)

The Deep Meaning of Your Game Collection

So what makes a board game collection different from someone who can’t stop buying board games?

A collection is curated – you’ve put thought into it, and everything there has a purpose.

We talk a lot about the “shelf of shame” or sometimes the “shelf of opportunity”. If you notice that your “shelf of shame” keeps growing, you may becoming a hoarder.

It’s hard! We talked about how hard it is to say NO in our FOMO episode and also a bit in our spring cleaning episode. Take a step back and ask yourself, “Is this game significantly different from the other games I have? Is it going to replace another game I have?” If the answer to both questions is “no”, maybe you shouldn’t get that game right now!

All of the games on our shelves are there because we want to play them!

Anitra

And you don’t want to be the parents that have huge shelves of games that our kids aren’t allowed to touch. Even the more “adult” games that our kids aren’t ready for yet aren’t completely off-limits: because games are meant to be played with!

Upgrading Games: Choose Wisely

Bringing it back around, some of what makes kids want to play games are beautiful components. The more you upgrade a game, the more attractive it’s going to be. Why not pull other people into helping you upgrade your game? And maybe when you’re curating your collection, you’ll realize you don’t need the base copy of a game you always play with the same friends – help them bling out their copy instead!

Think about who you play games with! That should inform your choices as you examine your collection.

And if you play games with your kids, don’t feel like you’re limited to “kids” games, especially mediocre! Play games that you’ll actually enjoy playing.

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