You forgot one Pro: You wont be mistaken by your brother ;-)

One more disadvantage (IMO): many players on BSW refuse to play anything other than two-player games (presumably for metagame-reasons).

My BSW usage has been fluctuating a lot, just like yours. That depends on time available, other interests and short-term addictions to a particular game (Puerto Rico a few years ago, Dominion last year). I’m still keeping an eye on the site for an opportunity to try out new games (or expansions), but it will never replace fact-to-face gaming.

Marcel (BSW alias: Mac-S)

I like the CONCEPT of BSW, but find the execution of it not the best. It is clunky and hard to navigate for newbies. Plus, the whole system isn’t streamlined.

I’d REALLY like to see a well designed version of the site for a global audience, with automatic match making, constant updates of games, and all the modern improvements people have come to enjoy from online game play (stat tracking, friend lists, ect). I’m sure if someone charged something like $10 a month for a service like this it would do fairly well. The only problem would be getting the rights to put popular games up and to set it all up (managing it wouldn’t be so bad).

One major advantage is that you can play from home, even if you’re the only adult there.

We’ve managed some great game days with participants all over the world. The downside, of course, is that we don’t get to game together in real life all that often.

"Con: It removes a lot of the social aspect of gaming”

I only started playing on BSW last year, and one of the things I like about it is that I can often find someone from Germany or France to play Dominion with, so I can practice my German or French.  And usually, the people online are very nice and indulge me in my basic language skills.  But just last week, when I asked my opponent, “I’m from Chicago.  Where are you from?” they replied, “I’m only here to play, not talk.” Ouch.

@Scott: I think that is weird. I mean, you play to be social, don’t you? What kind of people play that way?
Do they ever play FTF?

@Patrik - It might seem weird to you (and to myself) - but I have also run into people like that on BSW that really have no interest in chatting—they simply want to play the games.

Of course, I have no idea what their motivation is.  Maybe they are a single parent, and they’ve managed to find 30 minutes where their children are all sleeping or otherwise occupied, and all they want to do is get in a game of Power Grid—so any chatting/talking will only slow things down and make it less likely that they finish.  Who knows?

Anyways, when you ask them online, they never take the time to answer you! <g>

Dale

It’s great that BSW exists, Dale, but for me, it’s far from a Killer App.  I only tried to log on once, found the interface too confusing, and logged off after only 5 minutes.  But even if the interface was crystal clear, I doubt I’d use the site much.  Like you, I miss the interaction in a non-FTF game.  It’s not like I’m chatting all the time when I play with my friends, but the total lack of any other humans in the room is just too much for me.  I also find I tend to take longer in any game that’s shown on a computer screen, rather than on a board in front of me.  Maybe that has something to do with the graphics, or the lack of atmosphere, or maybe the different pacing of a PC game, but it’s pretty standard for me.  Consequently, I’m always aware of slowing the game down, which is an unpleasant feeling.  As a result, I prefer to play such games against AI players, who don’t care how long I take.

Finally, it seems to me that there’s a global groupthink on BSW that can affect how some of the games are played.  Without direct access myself, I can’t be sure of this, so it may be an unfair characterization, but I hear so many things from BSW veterans that don’t match what I find in my FTF games.  Maybe they’re more skilled or possess more insights into the games, but I haven’t ruled out the possibility that certain styles take hold on the site and can warp the way that certain games are played.  At any rate, I do just fine without BSW.  Limiting myself to FTF games limits the amount of gaming I do, but I appreciate the games I do get to play that much more.

I really liked BSW when I was entering the hobby.  Neat place to try out some more games.  I learned a few games totally online before buying them myself (Attika springs to mind).  The barrier to entry was steep as the English-speaking audience didn’t have as easy a time setting up as they do now.  But I had fun.  Over time, I’ve soured on it.  The metagame kills it for me.  All of the two-player gaming drives me nuts and it’s really hard to get anything else going unless the game is fairly new.  Now I really only consider going there for Tichu. That’s the only game that you can constantly count on having a good game.

Great article, I concur on most of your points. I do want to disagree with the characterization that people quit games because of the won-loss stats. In my experience, 99% of the time when there’s any sort of a problem with a BSW user, that user is unregistered. Unregistered users don’t have stats beyond their current session. They also have no accountability connected to their account, which is why they’re far more likely to behave badly and why many of us refuse to play with them. It’s a great mystery why BSW even allows unregistered users.
As for avoiding sharks (and unregistereds)… Just check the other players’ stats before starting a game.

BTW Dale, I bought Dominion as soon as it was released purely because of it being on BSW. I’d ignored the hype and had no intention to look into it… until it showed up on BSW. A 2-game tryout was enough to sell me on it.

I love BSW, although my usage also waxes and wanes.  The ability to play games at 3 AM when not sleepy is great.  Fortunately, I cannot get to it at work, so I only “waste” time here and BGG.

Lately, it’s been mostly Dominion and often with three of us (the younger Dominion addicts and me) in the same room. :) The autoshuffling is a really nice feature.

I’ve had some interesting conversations and like Scott T. mentioned, I’ve managed to practice/inflict my German on unsuspecting users.  And sometimes you find people that don’t want to talk.  But there are people like that in real life gaming, too.

One friend of mine “talks” a lot online as a result, he usually “knows” people wherever he travels and gets a chance to play with them in real life.

The interface is often regarded as clunky, but I’ve never had a real issue with it.  Every time they change it, I have to relearn how to get in a game and sometimes that’s not intuitive, but actually playing the games has always seemed pretty good.

I am not sure if a pay to play would work.  Game Table has tried and I played there for a while, but, at least in its early days, it wasn’t as easy to find players.  Days of Wonder’s site is nice, but I’ve only used it with free time from purchasing games.

All in all, I am glad it’s available.

BSW is not a good interface. There have been improvements over time, but they are not consistent. Consider one of their latest additions, Pandemic. This is a UI epic failure. They have no sense of how to design intuitive or simple interfaces, and they don’t care. At no point have I seen any feedback about a game result in a “fix”. In fact, responses I have received indicate that they do not even acknowledge that their problems are problems.

Scott’s point on Dominion is good. I play with both my 10 year old and my 6 year old, at their request. If we play in person, the shuffling that I don’t usually mind becomes a massive chore, because I have to shuffle for everyone in the game. By comparison, on BSW it’s done for them. To play one game takes 5 minutes (with a skilled friend) to 20 minutes (with one of the kids). One game in person, with me shuffling for both girls, can take over an hour.

There’s no contest.

I don’t play on BSW as one of the big points of boardgaming is playing face to face and enjoying the company.  I have tried occasionally to connect to far flung friends and play a little on BSW but none are willing to committ to the previous difficult setups to get the thing working.  (And our schedules are tough to synchronize.)

When I would play with a friend there and open our games to others, we would get insulted and “yelled at” by others thinking we were colluding at the game when we mentioned we two were talking while we were playing (via Skype or some other VoIP method.)

Scott & Melissa - It had never occured to me to play on BSW in the same room with someone to save on the shuffling chores… I’ll have to keep that in mind as my youngster(s) get older.

Final comment: I feel “pressured” to play well and play fast on BSW since I’m playing with live people.  I far prefer to flex my mental muscles against lamer computer AI like Saint Petersburg, Puerto Rico, etc… where I can take my time and pause the game if my family needs my attention…

Good point, Matt.  The people at BSW are real, not computer players.  I realize this and think most playing there do also.  But my wife sometimes has trouble with the concept. “Can’t you just save the game and finish later?”

My most hilarious bail on BSW was a guy playing that all of a sudden typed, “My wife is home, I have to go!” and disconnected.  The rest of us had fun speculating exactly what that meant.  IIRC, we did eventually get a replacement.

First of all a little bit information about myself on Brettspielwelt. I happen to be there since 2001, sometimes more active sometimes not that active.

For me BSW is more than just an online gaming platform as I happen to know very many people there personally throughout the years. This is caused by small to big offline events, were people from the Brettspielwelt gather. The community and the people nowadays mean more to me than the pure gaming platform. i think I can truly say I found some friends for life there. Below I try to directly reply to some of the quotes..

Cheers Klaus

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First, let me explain a bit about Brettspielwelt.  It is an online site where you can play Eurogames.  The roster of games constantly changes, but there are currently 35 multiplayer games available for play on the website – the full list can be seen at: http://www.brettspielwelt.de/Spiele/?nation=en .  There is no cost to join the site or to play the games, and it is online for almost the entire day (there is a short period of time each day when the site is offline to run daily upkeep).
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The roster of games is bigger than 35, but these 35 games are prominently displayed. the other one are still reachable through the “archive”.

I think BSW right offers approximately 75 multiplayer games. The list you mention doesn´t show the full list.

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I like the CONCEPT of BSW, but find the execution of it not the best. It is clunky and hard to navigate for newbies. Plus, the whole system isn’t streamlined.

I’d REALLY like to see a well designed version of the site for a global audience, with automatic match making, constant updates of games, and all the modern improvements people have come to enjoy from online game play (stat tracking, friend lists, ect). I’m sure if someone charged something like $10 a month for a service like this it would do fairly well. The only problem would be getting the rights to put popular games up and to set it all up (managing it wouldn’t be so bad).
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A pay services won´t happen as this directly conflicts with the opinion of ARMistice the founder of the site. He “invented” it in the 90s to play settlers online and it grew from there…

Stat tracking and friendlists are available on BSW. I agree for a first look the BSW ionterface might look clunky and hard to navigate for a first timer, but getting used to it is very easy IMHO.

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It’s great that BSW exists, Dale, but for me, it’s far from a Killer App.  I only tried to log on once, found the interface too confusing, and logged off after only 5 minutes.  But even if the interface was crystal clear, I doubt I’d use the site much.  Like you, I miss the interaction in a non-FTF game.  It’s not like I’m chatting all the time when I play with my friends, but the total lack of any other humans in the room is just too much for me.  I also find I tend to take longer in any game that’s shown on a computer screen, rather than on a board in front of me.  Maybe that has something to do with the graphics, or the lack of atmosphere, or maybe the different pacing of a PC game, but it’s pretty standard for me.  Consequently, I’m always aware of slowing the game down, which is an unpleasant feeling.  As a result, I prefer to play such games against AI players, who don’t care how long I take.

Finally, it seems to me that there’s a global groupthink on BSW that can affect how some of the games are played.  Without direct access myself, I can’t be sure of this, so it may be an unfair characterization, but I hear so many things from BSW veterans that don’t match what I find in my FTF games.  Maybe they’re more skilled or possess more insights into the games, but I haven’t ruled out the possibility that certain styles take hold on the site and can warp the way that certain games are played.  At any rate, I do just fine without BSW.  Limiting myself to FTF games limits the amount of gaming I do, but I appreciate the games I do get to play that much more.
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If you like you can improve the interaction using Skype or something like that.

if you only play with a small subset of gamers you can have groupthink happening (let it be FTF or BSW). However you can learn that much playing with the “cracks” at BSW. Every game of Power Grid basically is a learning experience for me as the skill level is very high among many of the gamers.

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Final comment: I feel “pressured” to play well and play fast on BSW since I’m playing with live people.  I far prefer to flex my mental muscles against lamer computer AI like Saint Petersburg, Puerto Rico, etc… where I can take my time and pause the game if my family needs my attention…
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No need to feel pressurized, that is only a problem if you play with “the wrong people”. It is just a matter of information and agreements before starting a game.

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I really liked BSW when I was entering the hobby.  Neat place to try out some more games.  I learned a few games totally online before buying them myself (Attika springs to mind).  The barrier to entry was steep as the English-speaking audience didn’t have as easy a time setting up as they do now.  But I had fun.  Over time, I’ve soured on it.  The metagame kills it for me.  All of the two-player gaming drives me nuts and it’s really hard to get anything else going unless the game is fairly new.  Now I really only consider going there for Tichu. That’s the only game that you can constantly count on having a good game.
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You really need not to care for the Metagame. it is just an additional layer for those who like to have more to it.

"No need to feel pressurized, that is only a problem if you play with ‘the wrong people’.”

I can’t speak for anyone else, Klaus, but the reason I’m sensitive about possibly playing too slow isn’t because I’m afraid I’ll get yelled at, but because I don’t want to be unfair to the other players.  If I’m concerned that I’ll slow the game down too much for them, I’d just as soon stay away and let them play with someone faster.

Larry,

I think it is just a matter to make clear up front how you like to play the game.

I your pace will be slow, just mention it before starting, if the other players have a problem with that, they will tell you.

Pro-BSW gets the rules right the first time more often than my gaming group.

Con-You can’t play houserules on BSW.

There is no way that you can claim BSW game experiences are different from face-to-face experiences.  The skill level and metagame is pretty much the same.

On a completely unrelated note, the silver strategy breaks Dominion.

/tongue-in-cheek