Busy Lives Prompt Speedier Board Games 153
BusylikeBum writes "Michelle Hastings admits she's sometimes cheated to get through a game of Candy Land with her 5-year-old daughter, Campbell. The board game can take just too long, she said. Disney Monopoly is another big offender.
'A game like that, it could literally take you days,' said Hastings, of Holliston, Mass. 'A lot of times, you don't play games because they take so long.' Board game makers are heeding pleas of parents like Hastings and introducing games tailored to busy lives and shorter attention spans that take only about 20 minutes to play." This is especially interesting to me, given the US adoption of more serious, lengthy German board games in the last few years.
Speaking of German Games (Score:3, Informative)
Well, first, it is more than the past few years. Settlers of Catan was one of the earliest BIG cross over games. I was playing it since college, means the cross over started about a decade ago.
Secondly, I get the distinct impression that the original audience doesn't take these games nearly as seriously as US players. Settlers says on the packaging that its running time is about 1-2 hours (If I recall correctly, my original packaging has been lost to the sands of time), yet my games regularly run 3 or more hours, as trades and debates and discussions of beat-the-current-leader happens. This ratio of about twice-as-long seems to be consistent with most of the German Board Games my group plays/played.
(On the other hand, it could just be false advertising. Witness the order of the Stick game that takes ages to play, despite the packaging).
And I STILL can't find anyonre to play Kingmaker with me, and very few who play Magic Realm.
Re:Days? (Score:5, Informative)
It's CLEARLY in the rules, but somehoe that rule isn't followed, which slows down games because all the properties are not bought as fast as they should be.
Re:Speaking of German Games (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Lengthy German board games? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:From my experience... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Lengthy German board games? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Lengthy German board games? (Score:3, Informative)
The World of Warcraft boardgame is also surprisingly decent, heh.
Re:It is true! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No-one ever wants to play Monopoly with me.. (Score:2, Informative)
And I've successfully paid hotel rent on Boardwalk before, its easy when you own all the Red and Orange properties! People obsess about getting Boardwalk and Park Place, and are willing to trade you Red and Orange for way less than their market value should be. Statistically, they have the highest possibility to be landed on, and the orange properties have some of the best payout:hotel cost ratio on the entire board.
Re:From my experience... (Score:4, Informative)
http://richardwilding.tripod.com/monorules.htm [tripod.com]
This one says that the bank auctions off all the belongings of bankrupt players. It also says that the limit for late rent is two turns later. It also says that a whole color must be un-house'd before one of the properties can be mortgaged (a sensible rule, but the rules I have read only required that property to be empty, meaning one house could remain on the others). Contrary to the grandparent-linked "Official Monopoly Rules", it says you can unmortgage property for 110% immediately upon buying it, instead of paying the (unheard of) extra 10%.
There is no single set of "Official Monopoly Rules". There are many variants, many of which are or were official at some point in some place. There are many rulesets. Some are good, some are bad. Some people make up house rules (like auctions) that happen to be printed rules in other sets.
Re:From my experience... (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf [hasbro.com]