Settling for Almost

I used to spend some time over Thanksgiving weekend editing my game wish list. The list used be long, filled with games about which I knew only a little bit, but which sounded interesting. 

I was looking for something. I wanted something like a game I already owned and loved, but different or better. Maybe my best loved game had been over played, or maybe I needed something that had a shorter play time, or could be played by a different number of players, or maybe we were just tired of a certain theme. Throughout the year, when ever I heard about, or read about, or even saw pretty pictures of a game that might possibly fit the bill, I'd put it on my "maybe" list. 

When I sorted through the "maybe" list, I always hoped I would be able to recognize one or two wonderful, perfect games. However, I kind of already knew that I was looking at a list of "good but not great." Over the years we settled for a lot of games that were almost what we wanted.  Often times we would open our overflowing game cupboard, looking for something to play, and conclude that "there was nothing good ." Sometimes we might settle for something, like when your hungry and settle for that yogurt, when what you really want is a sandwich. Sometimes we'd just close the cupboard and go do something else. 

Over the past couple of years however, that has changed. My cupboard is now full of really good stuff. We open it and can usually pull out two or three great games that we really want to play. 

So this year my list is short. The one game on it, Cosmic Encounter, I already know is great. This is not a sad a thing, or a call to stop buying games and play what you already own. This is a happy thing. The realization that really good games, at least by my standards, are being published. I don't need to buy three "maybes" and hope that with a few house rules and a little tweaking, one might become an almost satisfactory game.  Instead I can get ONE great game, and ignore all the almosts.

This however, means my wish list is kind of short. So I've started eyeing juicers. Anyone have any opinions on commercial grade juice presses vs electric extractors?