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Pandemic

Let’s talk about one of Z-Man Games best releases of recent years. No, it’s not Agricola (despite the fact it’s been hovering around the top of the boardgamegeek Top Ten since pretty much the beginning of time) – I’d like to talk about Matt Leacock’s fantastic co-operative game, Pandemic.

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Research Review: Article Investigating Factors That Impact Appeal of Board Games

By Jeremiah Dwyer

This is a review of an article published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing (2007). It is entitled, “An inquiry into the factors that impact on consumer appreciation of a board game.” It was authored by Alain d’Astous and Karine Gagnon, both of Montreal, Canada. Normally I review articles that have more direct relevance to psychology, specifically clinical or forensic (which I post on my blog). However, I also have an interest in blogging about other things (when I blog at all!), and that includes games. I figured I’d see what kind of research was out there about board games, rather than the usual things, such as examining whether video games lead to violence. Thus, one literature search later, I was able to identify a few articles addressing various aspects of board games that I thought might be interesting, including this one. However, this article is much more of a business analysis of board games and board game preferences, rather than a straight examination of the psychology of board games, so to the extent my understanding of particular business terms and concepts is lacking, I apologize.

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Small World Review

Small World was one of this year’s Meeple’s Choice Awards, and with good reason. This game, similar to Days of Wonder’s other juggernaut, Ticket to Ride, combines simple rules with a focus on strategy to create a game that’s easy to learn, but provides a challenge each time.

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Summoner Wars

You all know that I love Summoner Wars from Plaid Hat games, so when the opportunity arose to pimp out my game by getting the Vanguards, Fallen Kingdom, and Premium Board, I was all over it. The day I got them back home from Gencon, my daughter and I were laying out the board and ready to wage war upon one another, summoning not just new units on a fresh, new game board, but also summoning such smack-talk as “oh, man…that had to hurt! Not only did I waste your Common, I transformed him into a zombie!” There’s a whole lot new to the game now that the new factions are out, and I, for one, welcome our new Summoner masters. The new stuff is friggin’ awesome, and that’s that. I can also share that I finally beat my daughter at the game, using my new love, the Fallen Kingdom against her Tundra Orcs! w00t!

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Dominant Species

Once in a while, wargames publisher GMT decides to zig when everyone else zags, and prints a game that doesn’t fit their usual line-up. They did it years ago with titles like Winds of Plunder and Conquest of Paradise, and more recently with the cute Leaping Lemmings. This time around, GMT takes out the big guns: acclaimed wargame designer Chad Jensen (of Combat Commander fame), one of the biggest boxes and boards ever to roll off their assembly line, and a mammoth leap back in time to present us with Dominant Species, an evolutionary battle that’s roughly 90,000 years old. (Talk about a different breed of conflict simulation!)

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The Hobbit

The Hobbit is a light “roll and move” game with simple conditional ”success vs. failure” mechanics. There is very little player interaction to speak of, reducing the game to little more than a race to the finish line.

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Julius Caesar

My reviews will not focus on the rules of the game. There are better reviewers on that format than I could ever contribute. The purpose behind my reviews is to highlight one, and only one, overriding aspect of any game: fun. That’s it. As a big kid at heart, I play games in order to have a good time. In the end, all I really care about is if I’m going to want to play the thing again, and will anyone else. Hence, I’ve chosen five areas to highlight that are all aspects of the game’s funness. Examined from this paradigm, these are all aspects that I believe should be enjoyed during the whole experience of playing board games.
All right already, enough philosophizing, on with the review…

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