Hype in board games

How much cred does my 45 game collection give me? I should buy some empty boxes if I ever do a video review maybe

Buy a bunch of Queen games on Amazon. They're like $2 a pop and look like real games if you squint.

I always saw the wall of games as an insecure fallback for street cred. When you're losing an argument, you point to your wall (or your particular hobby's equivalent) and say "do you have one of these? I think that's a pretty good indication that I know what I'm talking about." In a lot of ways that wall is a sign of insecurity. Given how garish walls-of-games usually are they're an awful choice for background from an aesthetic perspective.

I've always joked that if I did a video podcast I'd stand in front of an empty shelf save for one copy of Monopoly. But I'm a middle-aged white male, I get street cred for free, and I don't really give a damn what people think of me anyway.

Makes sense, Jexik. Learning is fun. Losing forces you to learn. But then, I would say that, since my day job is as a professor.

Vysetron wrote: Buy a bunch of Queen games on Amazon. They're like $2 a pop and look like real games if you squint.

I have a friend who has become inundated with games from a company once they saw his photography skills. I don't know what his endgame is, but he is getting tons of crappy review copies and started doing video reviews.

And he hates Settlers of Catan because it has dice in a strategy game, so I don't even respect his opinions on games that aren't D&D.

Gary Sax wrote: Makes sense, Jexik. Learning is fun. Losing forces you to learn. But then, I would say that, since my day job is as a professor.

I also seem to care about more visceral learning experiences (combat, etc). Point salad games determined by less than 5% of the total score annoy the heck out of me. Or anything with seemingly arbitrary mechanics that are central to success... or focusing on turn order. Basically any Feld and I give Power Grid a pass because the overall trappings make so much sense.

I think it depends on the circle how much people respect the winningness. One of the clubs I used to frequent had a bunch of guys in their 40s and 50s who basically all had games and have been playing stuff since the 90s. The guy who seemed to have the most unspoken respect is the one who just by sitting at a table became the favorite for whatever it was. He really has a knack for winning. The guys with well-curated collections but never seemed to win just seemed kind of sad. But maybe that's just the vibe that club gave.

The only time I ever took a picture of my "wall of games" was when I was trying to convince people to COME PLAY SOME FUCKING GAMES WITH ME! Because many of them hadn't moved off that shelf in eons.

Jackwraith wrote: The only time I ever took a picture of my "wall of games" was when I was trying to convince people to COME PLAY SOME FUCKING GAMES WITH ME! Because many of them hadn't moved off that shelf in eons.

Might have been intimidating for those not interested in gatekeeping.

Among plebs my closet and a couple of shelves half full of games seems like a problem. I wanna say it's under 30 unless you count expansions as new entries.

I finally got a couple of Billy bookcases for my boardgames about three years ago. Not to show off my games, but just to make them accessible. Before that, playing a game meant going into a basement storage closet and rooting around in various storage totes and cardboard boxes. I actually to either sell 1/3 of my games or get another Billy, because 1/3 of my collection is still in totes.

Sagrilarus wrote: I always saw the wall of games as an insecure fallback for street cred. When you're losing an argument, you point to your wall (or your particular hobby's equivalent) and say "do you have one of these? I think that's a pretty good indication that I know what I'm talking about."

Yeah, so the hierarchy still remains with "in the know" being at the top, but the wall o' games is really just the dressing that underpins that. That makes sense.

Jexik, if I could go back in time, I'd have done video reviews instead of written reviews. It's so much more fun to talk shit out of your mouth than out of your fingers, so to speak. I'd also have made a convincing and easily identifiable clay phallus and hide it among the wall of games, in a different spot each time, like an Easter egg, but an Easter dick. Just to trigger people.

Gary Sax wrote: Makes sense, Jexik. Learning is fun. Losing forces you to learn. But then, I would say that, since my day job is as a professor.

Well, if this is the case, I am the smartest gamer on Earth, because I never win. Anything. Ever.