Welcome back gang. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is fully stuffed with Turkey. Next week I’ll be publishing an article that centers around gift ideas from the different employees here for what to get that Board Gamer in your life (or what to ask for if you are that Board Gamer), but for today I want to talk about something that I’ve been mulling over in my mind the last week or so. That is the the delta between enjoying a particular game, and how much you spent to acquire a particular game.
This all started about a week ago when I saw the new Kickstarter for Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5. My first thoughts were elation, I might finally get a chance to own, what many call, the white whale of the gaming world. However my elation was short lived as I scrolled down the many options for backing I noticed something. As the totals began to get higher and high, my interest in the game began to decline at a similar rate.
Mekong or Math Problem, you decide
This is when I came to the shocking discovery. That I had found my delta where the cost of the game would outweigh any enjoyment I could get for owning it; an apparently it is right around the 200-300 dollar mark. Now there are exceptions and addendum to this rule. This first of which is how often I’d likely play the game. Something like Kingdom Death would be only taken out for very special occasions. Its not something I could play on a Saturday Night game night, both for its mature themes as well as its comparative weight (both in complexity and the number of physical pieces it has).
Now you might say, “Tom, why don’t you just play it at home, where you can leave it out and stretch playing it out over a series of several days rather than all at once?” To which I’d respond first by saying, “Stop reading my thoughts.” Then I’d start to wonder about all the other times I’ve made the same argument looking at games that cost far less than Kingdom Death: Monster, and how many times I’ve played those games over the years.
This one leaps to mind
Now I’m not saying anything particularly bad about Kingdom Death: Monster. I look forward to hopefully getting a chance soon to break out the few models I personally own for it and giving it a go with someone else’s copy (hint hint). But I just think it falls into the category of games that while I’m playing, I’d be too focused on trying to make sure I was getting my money’s worth of enjoyment rather than actually enjoying the game. This is where my mind goes into a “convince me” mode, a la Alec Baldwin from Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross. Board games need to be able to convince me that my money will be well spent, and I become more discerning as the price tag grows higher.
My new dice cup
What are your thoughts? Are there some games out there that are too expensive to own? Or are you able to enjoy any game no matter what the circumstance? Sound off in the comments.