2w ago

Single-Use Games - the board game hobby's throw-away attitude

tabletopgamesblog.com Single-Use Games - the board game hobby's throw-away attitude (Topic Discussion) - Tabletop Games Blog

Let's be honest. Most of us in the hobby buy games that we play once or twice or in rare cases, three or four times. In fact, the term "shelf of shame" is a thing, describing games that people have bought but not yet played. The thing is, these games sit there unplayed for months on end and may neve...

Let’s be honest. Most of us in the hobby buy games that we play once or twice or in rare cases, three or four times. In fact, the term “shelf of shame” is a thing, describing games that people have bought but not yet played. The thing is, these games sit there unplayed for months on end and may never see the welcome sight of a table, let alone a board game table. So in this article, I want to look at this a bit further and investigate why we don’t play the same games more than a handful of times.

4 comments

A lot of the games I play only once or twice are "cute" and "fun" the first one or two times, then get very ... predictable. And naturally some are just games I don't like at all. I play them once, then never pull them off the shelf again.
Some games I really like, even after multiple plays, but they're too much a chore to set up. Or they're too hard to get the right number of players together for. Or they take more time than I usually have. Or they take more space than I can spare.
Then there's the "new shiny" problem. I could play some games over and over and over again, but the people I'd play with have seen this new game and they want to try it. And so many board games are being published weekly (it seems) that there's ALWAYS a new shiny that keeps people running toward them.

I'm big on the cult of the old. I'd rather play one game ten times than ten games one time, and I think that if a game can't hold up to at least five plays it isn't worth owning. Of course, if other people want to spend their money on that kind of stuff, it's fine, but I like to keep my collection small and replayable. In my opinion, the best board games get better with repeated plays because that's when you can really get into the strategy.
Side note, but I also really hate the idea of legacy games where you just have to throw the thing out once you're done.
- In my opinion, the best board games get better with repeated plays because that’s when you can really get into the strategy.
  I feel you. My game club got into Dune Uprising recently and we played dozens of games in a month. You could see the skill level rising so starkly. Looking forward to the Bloodlines expansion!
  Side note, but I also really hate the idea of legacy games where you just have to throw the thing out once you’re done.
  Yeah, I finished Pandemic Legacy recently and it really seems like a waste. I wish there was more focus on making the games resettable, and not making components single-use.
  
  I enjoyed the experience of Pandemic legacy, but yeah, it feels so wasteful. We started a game of Betrayal legacy (got shelved indefinitely due to life and scheduling) but it was much the same. More immersive, but everything was intentionally permanent.