CW: article contains swears
Each one of these items and tokens and sheets is important. Each one of these pieces have been carefully considered by brilliant designers. Their role is clear. If I looked right now, I’m sure every token is explained somewhere in a game manual that unfortunately reads like a VCR repair guide that’s been run through Google Translate eight times. ‘Remember to put the second deck over the initial deck so the last piece from the regular meeples pool does not cross into the irregular meeples pool before the dice rolls a zero’. That’s not an actual line in the manual; I’m too lazy to dig through a board game box that’s larger than the ones I use to move furniture. Someone will get mad at me about this and, honestly, they are right.
I completed Gloomhaven. It was a MONUMENTAL undertaking, required diligent organization and a dedicated table that was never used for anything else. You also need a bachelor’s degree in the rulebook (or just get comfortable with house rules that fill in)
I’m 15% of the way through the expansion (Frosthaven) and am utterly exhausted. There’s so much to do and so many opportunities to put something back wrong and now my draw pile somehow has the discards in it. Fuck.
But it was a glorious journey. Gloomhaven added a welcome interface layer that classic DnD was missing for me. And the combat system is so colorful! That said, the game basically demands a companion app for tracking health. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but immensely rewarding.
I am not into board games. What you describe sounds like Gamification, but in reverse. Do you people not have exhausting, tedious day jobs to fill that space? Why even attempt something like this? Honestly curious.
Do your hobbies not have some less exciting but necessary aspects? I liken it to maintaining the gears or motor on a bike, motorcycle, or boat. Or perhaps running drills or stretches to improve your sport performance. Or fiddling with settings to get a PC game running just right. People can find enjoyment in even the mundane tasks of their hobbies.
That said, Gloomhaven leans into that aspect hard. But once it’s setup, there’s a rich and complex game to play. It was just hard for my group because of busy schedules.
I don’t have that many hobbies. Most games run on my PC just fine on their own, and I don’t do the stretching that is usually recommended in my sport because at my level, that#s not what’s holding me back/I have no health issues. I do fun things for fun. If something isn’t fun, that’s work, not a hobby. That might just be me, though.
Man, feels like you’re being a little pedantic. Stretches are to prevent injuries, not just for the injured. Maybe you’re not doing them, but you should be. You also concede not all of your PC games run fine out of the box. Do you ever travel? Do you enjoy the packing/unpacking just as much as the trip itself? Do you enjoy the shuffle into/out of the venue when you’re seeing a game/show/concert? It’s not bizarre for enjoyable things to have some mundane but necessary aspects.
As I said, I was curious about how other people feel, I was not judging. For me, the ratio of tedium to enjoyment has got to be right. I don’t enjoy alpine climbing because you gotta do 4 hour approaches to get 2 hours of climbing, then walk down 6 hours. That ain’t my thing. If packing took a week for 3 days vacation, you would feel the same, I am pretty certain. Same thing with some boardgames: If learning the rules and setting everything up takes longer than the game itself, why bother?
Because it’s fun! The actual gameplay of managing your incredibly flavorful class hand that evolves as you choose when leveling up is immensely satisfying. Bring along some friends, and you can drop entire weekends into this game over many months.
Easily my favorite board game.
But I’m also tired of the depth of complexity lol. Very similar to raiding in WoW - Fun. Exhausting.
I have a theory that people seek what they’re missing in their lives through their hobbies.
Specifically, in my own life I’ve noticed that the times I’ve gone deep into rich, complicated, and demanding hobbies, are the times when I’ve felt understimulated at school or work.
Conversely, at times when I’ve felt overstimulated at school or work I only want to watch TV or play simple party games to unwind or destress.
I am curious if other people feel this way.
That’s a really interesting thought. Makes sense to me. I don’t feel understimulated at work, so maybe that’s just not something for me then.
If we had had the space for a dedicated Gloomhaven table, I reckon we would’ve made it farther in the campaign than we did. It was a blast when we played, but it asked a lot of our time.