Sustainability in Games

I have recently become less pessimistic on climate change. I think it will be bad overall, but not civilization-ending.

Lots of good points made here- talking about it is definitely a positive step.

One of the reasons I’ve been so down on games lately is because of the sheer waste of it all. I saw on MM today some new games based on fucking T-shirts. And I’m like “70% off in 3 months”. Publishers today are just throwing out shit left and right WITHOUT factoring in the Kickstarter pallett-fillers. And it’s virtually all to fill demand for BUYING games. Not playing them. Because nobody really gives a fuck about playing that T-shirt game. But they may throw it into an order because it looks funny and to clear the free shipping threshold on the three other items they are buying.

There is just so much JUNK product out there now. Back when I had my shop, there was a lot…the sales rep at the distributor would kind of sheepishly ask if you wanted a couple of cases of some doof ass CCG that had no prospects or even GW would pretty much beg and plead you to carry LOTR at a time when nobody was playing it. They’d even go ahead and ship it to you “by mistake” and try to get you to pay the invoice rather than ship it back. And I saw endless junk pop up and fade out on to my clearance table. It’s so much worse now. Not just the games, but also all the accessory junk.

I am almost completely shutting off all game purchases in 2022 because of how the industry is heading. There a handful of things I will continue to buy (anything with the word Battletech on it, indie RPG stuff, Unmatched, whatever Descent add on comes out, and maybe a couple of other things) but I am actively and purposefully saying no to more than ever. I saw the new Horrified at Target tonight and I was like nope, don’t need it. And I kind of surprised myself on that one but it was easy to walk out without it.

This whole industry is just a shit pile right now and I’m sick of it. I never want to get another giant box of plastic and 25 punch boards and ten decks of cards and 10 different boxes again. That is absolutely not the kind of game I want anymore. I think back to when I used to be delighted by a FFG coffin box and how that was overwhelming…and todays games have five times that much stuff out of the gate. And it’s just -waste-. So much garbage that for most people sits on a shelf.

I saw a post from someone on Twitter yesterday urging consumers to return games with missing pieces rather than seek out replacements from the publishers…and I’m like, don’t you know that those returns wind up in a landfill? Just more waste, waste, waste.

Surely, there must be a better way?

A deck of cards is enough for many to game a lifetime. Anything else is hypocrisy. No action will happen on climate change without major governmental regulation of industry, and that's not going to happen.

In other news, Don't Look Up on Netflix was awesomely omniscient.

Everyone's seeking a magic bullet that'll result in some sort of ill-defined "sustainability" while ignoring the one (only?) solution that actually works: stop buying stuff.

This isn't a problem that you can buy your way out of. It doesn't matter if the thing you're buying (boardgame or otherwise) is made of "naturally sourced bamboo" or whatever the latest "eco" solution fad is -- consumption itself is the problem, not the specifics of the product's manufacture.

But nobody wants to hear this because it means having fewer toys.

And if you REALLY want to help the environment -- don't have kids. (Or, at least, have no more than two.)

I must admit I'm fairly skeptic when it comes to the topic, not because I don't think it's important but because it's focused on some sense of personal responsability regarding a few actions with extremely small impact overall.

Take shrinkwrap. Much of the discourse centers around it and I can see arguments for its removal. But it's nothing. The average gamer will pollute a hundred times more once they get into their car to go play the actual game than they'll ever save by not having shrinkwrap in. Just a trip to McDonalds will produce twenty times the amount of garbage that shrinkwrap does.

Frankly, the "discourse" on the topic, like all boardgaming topics, has a very strong consumist bent. It's not so much about reducing pollution as it is about buying morally improved products. Hence why the discussion centers about shrinkwrap and not replaying the games you already have. Have you seen the debate around sleeves? They get this weird demonization as an example of wasteful plastic. People argue that sleeves are not necessary because people "only play games a few times". Well, perhaps the issue is not sleeves, but that you keep buying games you don't actually play. Why not focus on that instead of sleeves?

Either way, I think this is beyond the responsabilities of the public. I believe the solution to climate change starts with building nuclear power plants and stopping the massive subsidies given to private cars. Buying different board games won't change that. All we can do is to support legislation that addresses the issue, like emissions trading, stricter building standards or building bike lines. I think we can all contribute a little but it's important to keep in mind it's going to be extremely minor compared to legislative action. We cannot let companies make it a personal responsability problem.

Virabhadra wrote: Based on my three plays of Bios: Megafauna, climate change will kill us all quickly and unexpectedly unless we learn to swim.

It's funny because Eklund stops the rules midway through to deny climate change lol

Ever since I joined this Facebook group:

www.facebook.com/groups/131774610911239

I have lost enthusiasm for buying new board games.

That was eye-opening. FB is sort of the new Tanga Trash, it looks like.

I remember having fun, in my early years with the hobby, poring over Geeklists about "The most OVERPRODUCED games ever!" and seeing weird stuff like Full Metal Planete. These days, if a game doesn't have plastic where cardboard works just fine, you buy the game, trash the original bits, and replace them all with streaky unpainted 3d-printed pieces from Etsy.

I wonder if, as a response to rules bloat, component fatigue and sustainability concerns, we'll start seeing a trend towards... gasp... self-contained games, with succinct rulesets and minimal (mostly wooden) components, that know their ideal number of players and support that many out of the box. Like, I don't know, ye olde Eurogames.

Is sleeving cards a net sustainable move?

Virabhadra wrote: That was eye-opening. FB is sort of the new Tanga Trash, it looks like.

That group disturbs me for multiple reasons. So many games. So many shovelware games from Kickstarter, often unpunched. Games where they went to the trouble of sleeving cards and still didn't play it. Someone recently put up Room 25 for sale and is charging extra because they sleeved the tiles. (I normally think that tile-sleeving is a symptom of mental illness, but Room 25 tiles are a good candidate for sleeves.) Games that I've never even heard of, with several expansions. People putting up a dozen or more games at a time. People thinking that they can turn a profit on their overproduced and unplayed games just because they quickly went out of print. This is our hobby's Dutch Tulip bubble.

I still belong to the group because I plan to eventually sell some of my games, and I already sold my first edition Mansions of Madness there last year. I even sometimes post a favorable comment when somebody is selling a good game that I already own.

There is some good news on sustainability. Venture capitalists have gotten into wind and solar because their long-term yields are so good. So there’s a huge influx of money into zero emissions electricity. Green energy taken as a whole may be the #2 energy producer in the U.S. in 2026. That’s kind of moving the goalposts, but much better than what people had thought possible even a couple of years ago. I am a big pro-nuclear guy but this news changes things quite a bit.

Pounds of plastic/pounds of cardboard don’t matter much if the games are produced with carbon-free power. Yeah, more shipping containers, but honestly, I think the cultural issue is bigger than the environment issue. There’s two kinds of players — casuals who just don’t care how thick the cardboard is and . . . uh . . . “enthusiasts”? . . . who seem to see everything in terms of throw weight. With each passing day I find myself firmly in the former, in spite of playing esoteric games. They are the new casual titles. The result is a big disconnect in the hobby, our own sort of gamergate.

I just got my game crafter order of Tin Helm, Desolation, Gate, and some Iron Helm boosters. Happy to say that there is virtually zero wasted material, minimal plastic junk, and it was all made here in the USA so no exorbitant shipping pollution (though I'm sure some of the components like the resin crystals are probably imported).

Obviously, such minimalist game design wouldn't carry the industry as it is now but at least there are options out there.