Valerie Putman: My SdJ Pick—The Thief of Baghdad
On May 20th the Spiel des Jahres jury announced the nominations for the 2007 German game of the year. They were: Arkadia, Jenseits von Theben, The Thief of Baghdad, Yspahan, and Zooloretto. I’ve played all of them and of the five games, Arkadia is by far my favorite. But the other columnists and I have already discussed that the SdJ isn’t an award for the best gamer’s game. Based on what I’ve been told by SdJ jury members and based on their track record of awards, I think that The Thief of Baghdad would make the best game for the prize this year.
First of all, the game fits all of the presumed criteria. It’s produced by a company, Queen Games, that knows how to play the SdJ game. They can crank out hundreds of thousands of copies and discount them for sale in every grocery store and department store in Germany. The game is beautiful to look at; the moment I saw it on a demo table at Essen with its colorful thieples (meeple thieves?) and guardples (ok…I’m stretching it) and its simple but artful board, I wanted to play it. The rules take, like, a minute to explain and then before you know it you’re playing. I’ve always thought that the game screamed SdJ, and I put it on my list of SdJ nomination picks in a previous article.
The big question is…does the game have that certain something special called “fun”? For me, as a game that I might want to teach to non-gamers over and over and over again, the answer is yes. Of course I’m not going to play this every weekend with my gaming group, but this and Ticket to Ride are my first choices for my next trip home to see the family. What do I see in the game that you might have missed? First of all, it can be played with as little thought as Candyland. If someone is disinterested in playing games, they can make their obvious placements. They have a guard in the white palace and they have a fistful of white cards so they place thieves and then simply draw cards until they get enough white cards or wild cards to steal the treasure. If you get a table full of non-gamers who are just looking for an experience to happen to them, they can all play that way. The game won’t break down. Based on the luck of the draw someone will eventually win. They might even profess that they had a great time because really, they spent the whole time drinking wine coolers and gossiping about the latest breakup at school and the game served its purpose. It was the watering hole that brought the group together.
What The Thief of Baghdad has that Candyland doesn’t is the opportunity for clever plays. I’m racing against another player to steal the treasure in the white palace but I have no white cards. Instead of collecting wild cards and hoping that I get it first, I use a purple card to move my guard to the purple palace. I then use my last two purple cards to place a thief. I then use a green card to move my guard and my thief from the purple palace to the green palace. I finally use another green card to move my guard and my thief into the white palace. Yes, it is inefficient, but my opponent is sitting there with the same handful of purple and green cards complaining that there is nothing he can do without more white cards and I have won the game. I like ToB because a clever player will win against players who are just experiencing the game nearly every time. Also, the non-gamers aren’t “ruining” it for the clever player by making suboptimal plays. (In other words, the winner isn’t simply the player to the left of the non-gamer). So I can teach this game many times and rejoice in the clever plays that I can devise and rejoice even more when I see the light bulb go off and another player makes intricate moves. Most importantly, even the least involved player is unlikely to be miserable playing.
Perhaps the game is too simple. German non-gamers are certainly exposed to more complicated games than Candyland. Many of the SdJ winners are closer to gamer’s games. I was disappointed when Around the World in 80 Days or Verflixxt didn’t win the SdJ in 2005. I thought that both were far better introductory games than Niagara. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see in about two weeks. Whether it wins or not, ToB will be in my stack of go-to gateway games from now on.
I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman
Posted by Valerie Putman on Jun 10, 2007 at 01:00 AM in Columnists, Valerie Putman / 1561
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Great mini-review to support your position. I have to admit that ToB has slipped under my radar so far. Based on what you said I feel inclined to check it out. We’ve had a nice steady flow of new gamers showing up to check out our group and a few more games in this category are welcome. Posted by Brian Leet on Jun 10, 2007 at 09:22 AM | #
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My pick for SdJ is Zooloretto, although my favorite from the nominees is probably Yspahan, with Arkadia a close second. I’ve played Thief of Baghdad three or four times and found it to be much less engaging than you, apparently. What you describe as clever plays seem pretty plain to me. You can use the cards in different ways to get around with your guys, but at the end of the day you either have the ones you need or you don’t. I guess in one sense the game can be somewhat like a puzzle to solve, with you working out how your hand of random cards can best be used. That style of game is just not one that I particularly enjoy, so ToB is a miss for me, personally. I suppose I am being a little to hard on the game, which, as you say, is probably a great choice for non-gamers or extremely casual players. I’d still rather play Zooloretto, though, which I think is equally accessible and has a cuter theme. Posted by Kevin Gonzalez on Jun 10, 2007 at 11:16 AM | #
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Gutsy pick, Valerie. Most prognostications that I’ve seen tab Baghdad as the dark horse, as one that’s just a little too simple to win. Although its nomination wasn’t shocking at all, it was probably the least likely of the five games to make the short list. Still, you make a good case for the design as a gateway game. Although like you, Arkadia is my favorite of the games that I’ve played, none of the nominees have particularly blown me away, but SdJ games rarely do. Despite that, this has to be one of the strongest group of nominees we’ve had in a long time--all of the games have a shot at winning and none would be a bad pick. So we crystal ball gazers have a little harder time than usual this year. I really don’t know how Queen is viewed by the Jury. I had heard that they annoyed some industry insiders with the aggressive way they “played the game” after Alhambra won. Still, they can’t have pissed people off too badly if they managed two nominated games this year. Even though Days of Wonder’s pricing policy after Ticket to Ride won may sound more principled to us outsiders, it may have had more lasting damage than anything Queen did. The past couple of weeks have done nothing to change my initial impression that, for reasons of complexity and game length, the two front runners are Yspahan and Zooloretto. And most of the insider gossip I’ve heard supports the pandas. But it’s still early in the process and it remains a wide open selection. It’ll be fun to see which game actually grabs the brass ring. Posted by Larry Levy on Jun 10, 2007 at 12:56 PM | #
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All I know is that I was one of the few people on the ‘Geek “Guess the Shortlist” thread to pick it.
As with BMC and T&T last year, I wouldn’t want to have to be making that decision. I think that Yspahan, Zooloretto and Thief are all excellent games that are equally good and interesting in their own ways. I personally prefer Yspahan, but I wouldn’t be upset if either of the other two won. Posted by David Brain on Jun 14, 2007 at 09:52 AM | #
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