And Now...*I* Rant. Agri-f'n-Cola.

Seriously.

What the hell is going on here?

People are giving the game positive reviews but pointing out a few minor things they don't like.  They're getting browbeat on just how wrong they are and just how fucking perfect Agricola is. 

Seriously, a guy gives it an 8 and people are criticizing him.  Then I've got to deal with this "Divine Shadow" guy who, when I point out that the 'action selection' or the 'I take this, you suddenly can't' mechanic is not player interaction, other than in an incidental sense--the guy goes off.  FLIPS HIS MIND.  You'd think I just called his family a bunch of whores, or devil worshippers, maybe.  What...the...hell?

Someone starts up a thread about feeling ripped off--paying $70-80 and getting some cubes and some cards.  The dogpiling is MASSIVE.  Note that these are the same people nodding their heads and clucking their tongues and starting "Gee, GMT games are overpriced threads" every so often, where you spend $70 and get some chits and some cards.

It's sad because here's the rub--I think I might actually have enjoyed Agricola.  Yeah, it's not a theme we were all dying for but hey, it's a Euro that actually ties its shit together with something really happening.  That's been our big complaint with many Euros, hasn't it?  How they don't really touch their theme very much?

Hey, you buy a stove so you can cook your animals up.  You feed your family.  You expand your house.  The cards look like damned Magic: The Gathering cards to me with little symbols of grain and animals instead of fire and death magic, but by golly my mind is wired to like little cards with activation costs on them.

Seriously, I've been on BGG for over three years and I've never seen anything like it.  I wonder if the early days of Puerto Rico weren't like this, but on a smaller scale.  Even the mighty Caylus didn't get this much open hostility from its fans toward anyone who didn't drink the Kool-Aid.

And that's why I'm pissed.  It's like when I acidentally read the spoiler for The Sixth Sense.  The movie was ruined for me.  Here's a Euro that I might could actually stomach as it has theme and CCG-style stuff going on, but people have put all this damned baggage with it.  I keep 30 of the most recent posts in the game forums on BGG visible; last night FIFTEEN of them were Agricola.  FIFTEEN.  Not to mention the ones where people realize a week later, "Oh, hey, Agricola is #1!"  Say, thanks for that, no one's mentioned it already.

Frak.  FRAK FRAK FRAK.