The Quite Entertaining Game of Q.E. - A Board Game Review

Back in 2009 I wrote a blog post claiming to...

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Holy Shit! Auctions!

I would entirely play a game called Holy Shit, Auctions! Really looking forward to QE fulfilling from Kickstarter, it sounds just great.

This sounds fun, I'll keep an eye out for it.

Count me down for another copy of Holy Shit, Auctions! I can't wait to waste a bunch of time nickel and diming for every single little thing. Actually wait, I think that's just Modern Art.

QE looks great. It's very much a twist on High Society, but why not riff on the best? I actually backed this one and they just confirmed addresses. Should show up soonish I reckon.

I got to play Dave’s handmade wooden copy of this at the last Trashfest. It was certainly a fun and different take on the auction genre. I’m looking forward to playing it again.

Going to go into the weeds here because I think it's fun when a game is actually trying to make a point through play.

Quantitative easing does refer to a form of stimulating the economy by printing money, but I think the sublety of the term is worth poking here. Quantitative easing is specifically a way to bolster the economy not by altering interest rates by buying and selling government bonds from government supply (normal way to do this) but by *buying large amounts of everyday normal market assets with newly printed money*. Modern QE was practiced in the wake of the great recession as countries ran out of interest rate leverage (you can't set nominal interest rate below 0) and still needed to stimulate. The Japanese government has done a huge amount of QE for a long time so the government has this huge and nutty balance sheet of things it technically owns.

Why mention this? Not as an "actually," but I think it's making the game more thematic when you think of how it plays. It's encouraging players to think about what "value" actually means for everyday assets and not just in terms of currency numbers. What QE is referring to here is the idea that every asset's nominal value in a fiat money economy is an arbitrary number ultimately grounded in trust both that the government will pay back its loans, you will need/be forced to use the money to pay your taxes, and that ultimately others within your country will accept the money for goods and services. So a sort of elaborate social contract based on trust, somewhat coerced by the government (re: tax payment specifically). The value of actual assets in nominal terms is completely arbitrary, and I think that's what this game is trying to illustrate.

Then there's the inflation angle on this but the game isn't really out to teach a big lesson on inflation stuff, which is fine.

Thanks for the review.
I can't remember the exact math off the top of my head but when a 5 player version with only 15 rounds was tabled I worked out that the 'view winning bid' was the simpliest solution to getting the correct balance of information. Of course, a pure 5 player game would have 25 auctions without 'View Winning Bid'.

My worry about the game is that it might be a little "insider" to the board game community. Is it only really cool and interesting if you've already played a zillion auction games, and the new twist appeals? Or can someone that's not steeped in MODERN ART, MEDICI, POWER GRID, &c see how cool it is?

Also: can't wait for the expansion: INFLATION STUFF.