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The Expert: You buy board games as often and as many as you can. You play them alone or with friends. It‘s your favorite hobby.
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The Collector: You buy way too many games, but actually play only a handful of them.
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The Hermit: Your prefered way of playing is playing alone.
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The Specialist: You own a specific but small collection of games, carefully curated for every opportunity, heavy games included.
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The Casual: You play from time to time with friends, enjoy it, but you are just getting started.
I want to get to know you better! Have I missed a kind of gamer here?
(English is my 2nd language, sorry for my mistakes.)
What I don’t like about your categories is that you’re focusing on the buying and owning games part.
THANK YOU.
I’m sort of peeved that boardgames has gone from a “hey, I get to sit in meat space not staring at a monitor and doing something fun with friends” into a consumerist dog and pony show.
I was hoping this was going to be “you take the PRR and run it over the B&O” and “you try and get your train company to Chicago” or “you never build, only auction or develop” but yeah, it’s mostly about what you own and what you’re buying.
I’m sort of peeved that boardgames has gone from a “hey, I get to sit in meat space not staring at a monitor and doing something fun with friends” into a consumerist dog and pony show.
I feel like part of the problem is that the people participating in and boosting the consumerist aspect are the ones with the shiniest toys to show. Like, sure, 1830 is an awesome game (even if I still can’t get a regular group to play it), but you won’t get more upvotes for showing off your 100th game of 1830 than your first game of <insert the newest game>.
An look, I like having new games. I enjoy the feel of new puzzles to try. But in the end, it’s as you say, the best part of the games is getting together with friends and doing soemthing fun for a few hours. Having a collection as a backdrop in my video calls is not the point of buying games.
The collector. Mainly because of FOMO.
There are a handful of times where I pass on “game of the year” level games, whether due to time or money. Months later, when I’m ready to purchase it, I find that it’s out of print already and nobody has it in stock. I’m can only hope that the publishers do another print run and that my memory will remember to check on it in the future.
I love to research new games to death. I’ll read pdfs of rules, purchase them, look for expansions, etc. But I don’t play as often as I would like. I don’t have a group of friends and I mainly play with my SO. The games that hit the table most often are light to medium weight and games that work well with 2 players. I’ve loved games since I was a kid and have trouble culling my collection, but sometimes I exhaust my enthusiasm unfortunately.
I’m more of a specialist and a rule lawyer.
I mostly have a small collection of games ranging from easily explained to really huge. Like, I have Flashpoint, or Pandemic, or Betrayal at the house on the Hill. All of these are games you can understand well enough in 1-2 rounds of going if you know boardgames a bit. And then there are things like Junta, Arkham Horror, Eldricht Horror, Battlestar Galactica, considering to get the new dune game. Those are great, but a lot harder to get into.
But that’s a quality my current gaming circle likes. I can pick up a lot of rulesets and digest them decently quickly, because I’ve played a lot of games, and a lot of complicated games over the years. Like, if you’ve dealt with MtG and Dominion, you’ve seen 90% of deck building concepts and rules. Some P&P RPG experiences in 2-3 frameworks cover a lot of ground for a bunch of game rules. You kinda learn how rules tend to be written, how rules tend to be designed, and how rules are usually intended to be and that helps processing rulesets quicker.
I’m a specialist. I played a decent amount of different games, enough to know what I like. My collection is small, around 30 games, ranging from Boonanza to Frosthaven. I have a game for every occasion and I really like them ALL. I buy a new game every year or so and every couple of years I do a ‘clean up’ and sell a few game that I’ve lost interest in.
I must admit: I keep a few games that I should part with, but I just can’t do it (Catan, Monopoly).
Only about one game in a year? You own around 30? That indeed sounds like a refined collection. If you find the time you should post one of those „This is my collection“ pics! I‘d be interested!
Collector and Expert-ish. I just started getting my friends to play every week, so we actually play them. Each week is also themed, so I try to get people to play different games at the meetings instead of just playing game x for the 50th time. Unfortunately, not all the games are condusive to gatherings (some of my favorites are 1v1). I also don’t really play solo games, though.
I would say I am a Specialist, maybe becoming a Collector.
We do not have so many games and enjoy playing the games we have as much as possible. It is our favorite hobby and we do not shy away from heavy games, in fact, we prefer a healthy mix of some easy to get into games and harder games.
We probably have something like 30 games. we thought about selling some but its almost more hassle than just keeping them around.
Apparently I am “Expert” but I don’t feel like one. I just like playing lots of games. I have too many games but very few unplayed. The “as many as you can” is bound by money, space and time to play.
Who made these categories?
