Ryan B.:  How I Rate Designers and Other Quibblings

Work has been crazy busy as of recent, but at the same time it has been a lot of fun. My parents were in town this week, so we got to play a couple of games of Mystery of the Abbey and a game of Ticket to Ride: Europe.

I briefly got a chance to read over some articles and was able to peruse Larry’s column about rating designers he likes. I admit mine is a much simpler rating system – it’s just called “gut feeling.”

So Bruno, never fear. You will get your props from me this week. Bruno Faidutti is one of my favorite designers, but I think he does his best work in collaborations. Larry is right in saying he is Mr. Chaos (which is different than saying he is Mr. Luck) and the amount of chaos Mr. Faidutti inroduces is refreshing...to a point.

When partnering, Bruno’s seemingly inate desire for chaos is mitigated with a sense of structure making his games always worthy of note. Mystery of the Abbey is now probably my favorite game and the idea of the rotating die from the monk who last used the confessional is still one of the neatest ideas I have seen introduced to a game. Diamant, from the two times I played it, was a lot of fun, too. Both were collaborations for Mr. Faidutti, respectively with Serge Laget and Alan Moon. In saying this, Bruno does just fine when working on his own – I just happen to like the work he has done in partnership.

I also like the work of Sid Sackson. What an all time great designer, who has offered us the likes of I’m the Boss and Acquire. And he took the like-minded business theme of both those games and yet brought completely different focuses to each game.

Christophe Boelinger gets credit from me for his A Dog’s Life. Although it needed a fair amount of work to be viable, I am looking to see his next effort in a similar genre because I think he brings something classic, yet special to the table in the way he designs.

Reiner Knizia is also a favorite, but I do think it quite funny in one sense. I always thought his best work was in card games more so than board games. Lost Cities and Poison are two of my favorites there.

Finally, I leave for your pondering, the one person who I believe shows an incredible design versatility and is the heir apparent to Mr. Sackson for bringing simple, elegant and intelligent games to the masses: Alan Moon. Ticket to Ride is the pinnacle of such effective, engaging and readily understandable strategic boardgame design.

But as much as I keep on the lookout for these designers, I also keep sight lines to the companies which manufacture their games, so here is my side journey for today. Try as I might, I finally will raise the white flag publicly. I just don’t think I am a “gamer,” per se. I enjoy the experience of board games, particularly with people I know on some level personally, but I have noticed that I have no great desire to buy more than two or three games that strike my fancy in a coming year. And I own only about 20-25 board games, period and I am pretty happy – whereas I have seen the typical “gamer” collection easily run over a hundred games and the gamer feel his collection is still too unsatisfyingly small. I have also noticed that some people (mostly gamers) are quite comfortable sitting down to a board game with people they don’t know. I guess for them it is about “the game.”

I am not comfortable in that situation, however. I don’t criticize it, certainly, and there are a couple of people I have met through a game group in my area that I think are great guys, but on the whole, it’s not my usual cup of tea. For instance, I just don’t get any sort of overriding desire to go to BGG.Con .

And BoardGameGeek?

For me it is a resource, a tool. Nothing more. I don’t get caught up in all of its nuances, although I do enjoy it and think the upgrade they did was long overdue. Hmmm, that statement should fan the flames of dissension! (But yes, I think it is a great site.)

The experience of games is about people for me and I guess I would much rather play a game with one person that I know or have an active business or personal interest in, than six people that I don’t know from Adam. I guess being in sales, the human experience of games interests me far more than the game experience. Hopefully, that doesn’t sound arrogant because it is not meant to be. But I also think that some “gamers” automatically have the expectation that for you, too, it should always be about “the game.”

24/7.

© 2006 Ryan B.

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