Alfred Wallace: Moving, and a Brief Ode to Dexterity Games

Well, I’m moved.  I chose those words carefully—while I’m in State College, most of my stuff is not.  I packed my little Scion to the gills, but the great majority of my books and games are entombed in a warehouse in Springfield, awaiting a truck to bring them hither.

I do have one tip for anyone moving.  It’s generally not a good sign when one’s lead mover has three tattoos—one of the Confederate flag, another of an Iron Cross, and a third of a marijuana leaf.  It becomes worse when the second thing he says to you is “I’m really sorry about what I just did to your bathroom.” Still and all, my things reached the truck without too much difficulty, and I remain hopeful [f/x: God laughing] that sometime ca. Monday or Tuesday I’ll have the rest of my things.  It will be especially good to have my shelves again.  Right now, what I have is sitting on the floor in a series of piles.  My organizational state, never good, has reached “parlous.”

I have about fifty or so games with me now.  Among them are my nice go and chess sets, Combat Commander (my current wargame obsession), Age of Empires III and Leonardo da Vinci (two of my recent favorite euros), and my full Subbuteo kit: seven teams, two sets of goals, three pitches (one homemade), two sets of balls, fencing, and two sets of rules.  It’s a good game to play without a table; I think crouching on the floor is the way Subbuteo was meant to be played.  Or at least a way. 

When I started rating games on the ‘Geek—a task on which I am far behind—I decided I’d have three 10-rated games: One for my favorite wargame, one for my favorite Euro, and one for my favorite abstract-strategy game.  That mix represented the three main strands of my playing and collecting at the time.  Since then, I’ve been getting more and more into dexterity games, and I’ve begun to wonder whether I should add a fourth 10—for my favorite dex game.

The question is which it would be.  Subbuteo and Bamboleo would be tops in the running, I think.  Both require a skilled hand and no little thought.  Both share with many dex games the ability to draw a crowd.  Dex games have a visual appeal that leaves almost all boardgames, and even many miniatures games, in the dust.  The balance games—such as Bamboleo—are especially strong here.  Besides the physics of it all, everybody wants to know when it’s going to fall over, and the tension can be palpable.  With Subbuteo, there’s a little part of many people’s brains that can connect with almost any sport—at least for a little while—and people can get involved that way.  Also, a finely-polished Subbuteo player gliding across a nice, smooth pitch has its own visual appeal.

Dex games also tend to be fairly short, with equally short rules.  You can get people playing quickly and cycle bystanders in.  They engender good table talk—and sometimes not a little trash-talking.  They can be almost cooperative; in many games of Bamboleo, the players confer with each other over what piece to go for.  I’m curious whether they could serve as gateway games—could you lure someone in with Bamboleo, then coax them into regular board games?

Finally…

I mentioned earlier that I had three 10s on the ‘Geek.  The one for Euros is currently held by Amun-Re.  It’s time for a game of that.

WHERE:  Spielbyweb.
NAME:  JoePa’s Finest
PASSWORD:  bgn

See (four of) you there.

© 2007 Alfred Wallace

---

Comments:

You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free!

Everyone does what he likes off course, but I don’t get the “no more than X(%) 10’s” thing. I give a 10 if I feel a game is absolutely outstanding and I see no way of improving it. I currently have rated 5.1% a 10 and I guess a lot of people think that a lot. Maybe I do good pre-selection? Maybe I’ll only get into a game if I know I’ll like it, so my average score will be higer? Dunno, but if a game deserves a 10, give it a 10, not a 9 because you already have a 10. Well, at least that’s what I think :) Posted by Surya Van Lierde on Aug 3, 2007 at 04:49 AM | #

I have found that dexterity games can serve as gateway games… to an extent. There are some folks who are going to play them that will never play anything else. A good analogy is the casual party gamer - someone who will play a party game, but has no interest in playing anything other than party games. In fact, they might be the same people, since, in the right crowd, a dexterity game can be a good party game. So, the question on Bamboleo (from someone who has watched it but has not played or purchased it): Kleeblat or Pizza - which design is better or does it really make a difference? Good luck on the rest of your move - I know how annoying it can be waiting for everything to arrive. Posted by David Reed on Aug 3, 2007 at 07:39 AM | #

What do you think of Crokinole, Alfred?  That would seem to fit your criterion of a dexterity game with some thought.  The strategy can be quite interesting.  It’s about the only dex game where the game itself can hold my interest.  Unfortunately, I suck at it, just as I do with most dex games. Posted by Larry Levy on Aug 3, 2007 at 09:22 AM | #

< Back Home