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Lifestyle Games
1. Do you currently have a lifestyle game? What is it?
2. Have you had any lifestyle games in the past? What were they?
3. What aspects of these lifestyle games were so appealing? How did similar games fall short?
4. What led you to stop playing a former lifestyle game? Did you get rid of it, or is it just gathering dust?
My answers:
1. No, but Marvel Champions comes close. I have played an average of once a week for the last two years, but don't spend much time on the game aside from that weekly game. I have hooked three other people on the game, and I do occasionally post here and at BGG about the game.
2. Dungeons & Dragons, Car Wars, Vampire: the Eternal Struggle, Shadowfist, Laws of the Night (Vampire: the Masquerade larp).
3. In each case, I felt that the game was the best of its kind, at least in some respects. Actually, I didn't consider D&D to be the best tabletop rpg after I tried some other systems, but it has always been the best-supported rpg in terms of sheer volume of adventures and source books and settings. Aside from a Call of Cthulhu one-shot at GenCon, Laws of the Night was the only larp that I ever played, but it seemed like the best in terms of setting and overall appeal. The first vampire larp that I joined had about 75 players at its peak. We only played once a month, but met for coffee on a weekly basis for some additional in-character conversations as well as out of game socializing, plus the storyteller team hosted an online forum.
4. D&D sometimes bogs down under the weight of the rules, especially at higher levels. Car Wars eventually self-destructed under the weight of too many unbalanced additions to the game. V:tes and Shadowfist suffer from the classic Mister Suitcase problem. The larp scene gets terribly repetitive, as a limited range of concepts are ideal for the setting while most other ideas work better with a small tabletop rpg group.
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- Legomancer
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In the past I played Dungeons and Dragons and other RPGs and invested a lot of time in them. I eventually lost interest in RPGs completely and have never regained a shred of it. I was HEAVY into Magic in the mid-90s and spent many waking hours on it. Eventually I just couldn't afford to keep going with it. I eventually sold my cards. A couple years ago I wandered into MtG Arena and had fun with it but got to the point where, again, I was looking at both spending money on it and building decks and I lost interest.
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2/4. I used to play Heroscape and write about it all the time for like 3-4 years. What ultimately led me to leave was a combination of factors- lack of brand support from the parent company; the falling out of the community around the D&D Heroscape sets, which I helped test; and Summoner Wars coming out.
I've quit Magic a few times for various reasons. Even though I started when Black Lotuses were only $250, I never had one and probably would have sold it if I did.
I played Warhammer 40k briefly and most played against one friend. I wasn't into the painting aspect and was only 12, so never got into tourneys or anything. My time with this and Magic got me to be really excited when I came across pre-painted Heroscape though.
If we extend this list to include Video Games, my list gets a lot longer.
3. I like the tinkering of building decks and lists and the conversations around them perhaps more than actually playing. It's a sort of gamed form of self-expression that I find fun. Warhammer and similar games seem prohibitively expensive to do much experimentation and I have very little interest in painting.
In general, I prefer to play one or two games a lot over playing a lot of games 1 or 2 times.
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2. I used to play MtG pretty much exclusively, and kind of resented it, but my friends didn't want to play anything else. I was also a Street Fighter fanatic during the halcyon days of 1991-1994, gradually lost interest after the Street Fighter Alpha (1995).
3. When a game is sufficiently deep and has a lot to explore, there's a satisfaction of plumbing the system and really digging into it.
4. For MtG, I stopped thinking that it was particularly deep; I began to see endlessly printing cards as broad but not deep. For Street Fighter, I felt that I had mostly explored what there was to find out about the game; plus the design aesthetics of the newer releases stopped appealing to me -- flashy combos, flashy supers, but moving away from the tight gameplay and getting in the head of the opponent. Sold all my MtG cards years ago, haven't had a video game console in a decade or so.
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I guess mine would be Arkham Horror LCG and Spirit Island. I've played both around 150 times and get all the products for them. They both have the benefit of being coop or solo, so it's easier to be in the mood for them as an activity. They also have lots of little twists---different investigators and spirits, different opponents and campaigns, etc that make them both almost endlessly replayable.
I love it, honestly, it's been super positive to just play a game you're right in step with that you don't learn rules for. It's mostly what I buy these days.
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- fightcitymayor
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EXAMPLE: I've always wanted to get an actual % of people who buy all of Poots' Kingdom Death Monster stuff vs. actual "lifestyle players" of that game who play it, explore it, paint it, discuss it, critique it, and love it to the exclusion of most all else. He always seemed to be selling a dream of being in some fictional in-crowd, as long as you keep giving him money.
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2. I played a lot of Magic for a few years. Mostly constructed formats, although I'd get dragged into Sealed or booster draft sometimes. I also played FFG Netrunner for a little bit. I liked it, but never got any good at it.
3. For me the favorite part was the head to head competition. I brought my deck and my plan and you brought yours, let's see who wins. I'd play multiplayer, but people would come up with too many bullshit combos to let it be fun.
4. My fellow players and playtesters for the most part moved on, and my newborn daughter started taking a lot of free time. Not complaining, but raising a kid does take time. And for me, I had to play a lot to play well. So I got tired of sucking, and moved on too.
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- san il defanso
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2. I played D&D 5e to the exclusions of just about everything else for a couple years in the Philippines. I DM'd a group of characters from level 1 all the way to level 20, cobbling together a number of pre-written campaigns. We had such a great time with it, and I miss it dearly.
3. Certainly the common frame of reference with other people made 5e appealing for me. It's hard to get into good conversations about the board gaming world anymore, just because there's been so much balkanization in the hobby. But with 5e I felt like I was really engaging in something that was part of a larger community. It also really simplified my purchases. I didn't feel compelled to buy lots and lots of new boardgames, just a couple of sourcebooks every year. That's about the level of financial investment I want to put into the hobby, so that worked well for me.
4. Covid killed our group and it never recovered. We put in some genuine effort to play on Roll20, but it was never the same. I know that my own personal DMing style was antithetical to how you run games on a VTT. It required way more prep than I ever put into face-to-face games. So I would still play if I had an in-person group. I don't see that happening any time soon though.
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1) Hahahaha, no. I'm no longer in my teens or twenties and have a ton of life responsibilities. Plus my career sort of excludes it (moving every 2-4 years).Shellhead wrote: 1. Do you currently have a lifestyle game? What is it?
2. Have you had any lifestyle games in the past? What were they?
3. What aspects of these lifestyle games were so appealing? How did similar games fall short?
4. What led you to stop playing a former lifestyle game? Did you get rid of it, or is it just gathering dust?
2) Started off with Warhammer, shifted to Magic the Gathering when it hit.
3) For Warhammer at that point in my life my hobby group turned into my social circle. Those were the people I hung out with even when not playing. Warhammer is certainly not best in class, I guess it was then because there wasn't much else outside of historical which didn't interest me. For MtG, the depth of strategy was just (and still is) best in class. I had lots of time, and was able to devote it to exploring that particular hobby.
4) Sold all my MtG stuff when I joined the Army. Get rid of my last Warhammer stuff when I joined the Foreign Service. Those types of things just don't work well with my career choices. Boardgames are just easier, shorter, easier to setup and store, and easier to get others interested in a game. I still play Gloomhaven online on Sundays with my Warhammer group from my teen years though, spread out across the country as we now are. After I "retire" in six years I might pick up a lifestyle game again. Might be an online MMORPG though. Experimented with those a bit through the years, just never had enough time to commit.
I let my boys play some MtG (11 & 13 years old) since they picked it up at their last school, but I don't think I am interested in subsidizing them playing semi-competitively. The Friday night Magic set and a few Commander decks for birthdays and holidays is enough.
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I went to a boarding school for a stretch and Supremacy was BY FAR, the dominate board game, even Axis and Allies took a distant back seat (though if the grand anniversary edition had existed for us back then I'm sure it would have been a permanent feature in the lounge). Took all damned day but what else are yah gonna do over a weekend? Talk to scary girls????
Never could do the card games, probably too rich for my blood.
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- hotseatgames
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- SuperflyPete
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No.
2. Have you had any lifestyle games in the past? What were they?
I played tabletop games for a long time but they were pickup war games, not any one game..,,until Attacktix. I got sucked into the tournament world. Then Heroscape when that ran dry. Then I started writing and the influencer gig led to me not ever playing them again.
3. What aspects of these lifestyle games were so appealing? How did similar games fall short?
The people, for sure. I liked the games a lot and they were fun and competitive, but those people became lifelong friends. Many would be invited to my wedding if I had one.
4. What led you to stop playing a former lifestyle game? Did you get rid of it, or is it just gathering dust?
Mostly, waning interest in travel to tournaments and lack of variety after a time. I love games but I am only good at a small subset of them, and those games interest me least. I love the ones I’m bad at.
I still have Heroscape galore. Only a few Attacktix
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I think without this piece it doesn't work. I'd probably fall into a Babylon 5 CCG lifestyle game if it was possible. Alas the group collapsed too early.SuperflyPete wrote: 3. What aspects of these lifestyle games were so appealing? How did similar games fall short?
The people, for sure. I liked the games a lot and they were fun and competitive, but those people became lifelong friends. Many would be invited to my wedding if I had one.
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Magic came out when I was the right age to have weekends free and disposable income so that was the next lifestyle game. Hit tournaments and pro tour qualifiers pretty regularly. Still own most of my cards. Still play a little bit here and there but mostly pauper or canadian highlander with my 23 and 12 year olds. Lately me and the 12 year old are playing Jumpstart. We enjoy it, it's hard to convince his it shouldn;t be our new lifestyle. Reason I quit: got too fascinated with miniatures games.
Moved over into Warhammer Family of games after about 5 years of heavy M:TG play. Was super serious about Wathammer/Warhammer 40K tournament scenes, hosted events at area conventions, attended Grand Tournaments, Adepticon etc like those people do. Stopped playing right around the time of the Ard' Boyz torunaments GW promoted. Reason I quit: GW constantly pushing things and the endless grind required to keep up become tiresome.
Around that same time my Warhammer group was also treating WoW MMO as a lifestyle game! Reason I quit, one day you realise the exploration phase is over and you're just grinding stuff out of habit.
Lately though I find I don't have the time or energy for a lifestyle game.
Try to play Kill Team or War Cry to re live some of the Gw golden years but they are still too "Life Style"-ish for my tastes. M 12 year old is fascinated with the universes and miniatures, my basement is full of, but I find he and I both hardly have the patience for any of the games and excessive rules. We tried to play War Cry and Kill Team, as well as warhammer underworlds, but GW bloated them all in GW fashion as quickly as possible. Really only a Barnes and Noble boxed release is all I can handle from GW at this point.
I have never quit my love for miniatures games though and my current (post covid schism) group still plays GW LotR miniatures game, specifically becaue it doesn't have the lifestyle game requirements that other miniatures games have (rules bloat, quick rules shift, constant FAQs etc) and we don't play official event, so you have a big spider and you call it Shelob, ok nobody cares and enthusiastically embraces it if you've got it painted and in a thematic force. We also all really love the theme: LotR!!
I dabble in Bolt Action, which I suppose looks like a lifestyle game from the outside, but it isn't. Much like GW LotR above, it just doesn't have the rules bloat AS A REQUIREMENT to participate. In Bolt Action every soldier is almost identical. Tanks and guns come in light/medium/heavy classes that tells you everything you need to know. It can get complicated of course, but it is also many tiers down from most Warhammer Family games. I can pick up Bolt action and play it through a local game day or tournament without having to read rules or follow developments in between events.
I'm still very stuck on building terrain and miniatures. Mostly enjoying Lotr, we play at the battle companies level, which is essentially Mordheim but LotR warbands. Since LotR doesn;t have GW's focus they don't mess with the ruels and base sizes etc etc liek they do in their other games.
I also play a bit of:
Super Mission Force, (Beer and pretzels super hero skirmish/Light RPG) which is on drive through RPG type sites. We repaint ol heroclix and write a comic book batle recap after each game.
Walking Dead Miniatues game, really enjoyed modelling and painting for this game
and I am willing to pick up any of the little Warlod Games blue book skirmish games like gaslands and give them a try.
Still play board games between all of this and I suppose it was a lifestyle somewhere in there. But it was always along side something else. I used to follow SDJ awards and such but really have enough good classic games I rarely need to buy a new one and usually research a lot before doing so. Like many , a lot of the est games I bought I never played enough or found good opponents for.
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But because I love the concept - mostly due to the depth of product/options - I've really fallen for lifestyle games that are casual friendly. Ones which are easy to setup and don't require a bunch of people to commit to regular weekly play
Stuff like Godtear, Mythic Battles, Wings of Glory, Gaslands, Core Space, and Marvel Crisis Protocol can all be picked up with minimal rules refreshing, and I can provide the material needed by my opponent.
I do still have Warhammer Underworlds, Android: Netrunner, X-Wing, Sergeants Miniatures Game, and Warcry which never get played due to how difficult they are to play casually. Well, Netrunner does occasionally but only because I have an opponent who has bought in.
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