Games, What Are They Good For?

I like Battlestar Galactica and yet I have found myself largely unable to join in the seemingly endless torrent of love and praise that it has garnered during the short eighteen months that it has been in existence. I’ve had a lot of fun playing it and yet it seems that each and every time I sit down to that board (and I’ve never yet been dealt as a Cylon), and set about passing those skill checks, there’s something strange niggling at the back of my head. “There’s something wrong here” it seems to be saying, “this game is fooling you into having a good time when you shouldn’t be”. At first I thought this was some strange piece of residual guilt about the fact I should probably be mowing the lawn or learning ancient Latin or putting up shelves or something else that is rather more mature and constructive than pretending to try and save humanity from evil robots, but if that were true I’d get it every board game I play. And I don’t. So what is it about BSG that niggles so?