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Note: page under heavy construction!
My Games InventoryBelow you see the 'Paradise of Toys&Games' also known as 'Het Speelgoed Paradijs' as we store all our toys and games in this garage box. To the right you see (a part of) my stored games (year 2000). As we moved in 2002 to a house with a cellar, all the games are now stored there nicely in MY cellar.
About BoardgamesBoardgames have been around for ages. The last couple of years board games have become more popular then ever. Analyst have a number of reasons for this phenomen:
I guess my main reason for buying games is that i'm interested in game-mechanics. In general I try to avoid buying games with more or less the same mechanic, unless it has a specific value (theme). I started collecting games since 10 years or something. Unfortunately I have sold off / given large numbers of games as I had space-problems for a while. Indeed, the condition of my storage room are not optimal either. If you ever want to buy an 'adult' game (adult in this context means: entertaining, requiring adult thinking (strategy, etc) and a good look&feel), you will have to pay about 40 Euro's or more for a good one. This also goes for most CCG's. This is a general guide line, I haven't come across many 'adult' game below that price (Set! is positive exception). A cheap way to get your games, is to visit flee markets. I recently aquired about 10 (board) games for a grand total of 1 (ONE) Euro! Ok, there was no Aquire or Warhammer involved but nevertheless (hey: I saw a complete second hand Risk game for 10 eurocents though!). Collectable Card Games and Customizable Card Games (CCG's) are part of a very interesting concept. In general the concept is as follows. A CCG contains about 300 different cards. You can buy a starter deck (usually about (random distributed) 60 cards). This deck allows you in general to play against another player (who at least has one starter deck also). Note that you alway play with your own deck, cards never get mixed up between players. Most games require decks of at least 40 or 60 cards. The next thing you can do to make the game more interesting is buy more starter packs and/or booster pack (usually 9-15 additional cards / booster). In general the cards are packed random, more important, some cards are common, some are uncommon and some are rare. As you may guess the rare cards are usually more powerful (usually in combination with other cards, so called 'combo's'). When you have enough cards, you can think out a strategy how to make up your own deck, as you can 'specialize'. Now, you know that you can't have all the good cards (unless you have an awful lot of money spent on the game) so it restricts you and your opponents on the choice of cards. This also brings in the second important characteristic of CCG's: you can collect the cards. A typical example are the Pokemon cards. Another variant of CCG are Collectable Dice Games. Dragon Dice is propably one of the most common ones. This games was dead from some time but had been re-released. Unfortunately, some games are discontinued after a while, that is, no new releases are being added. In such a case the game is 'dead'. That does not mean that the game itself has lost it's attraction, merely no new cards/dices will be added (for a while???). Most of all I enjoy the concept of the CCG's: getting people to buy silly paper cards for a lot of money. But hey, it is addictive. If you, for instance, search for Magic the Gathering on the web (use keywords such as MtG and Magic), you will find thousands of hits. The game is into it's sixth edition and has many additional extensions, there are few different thousand cards around. I must say thought that Magic is an exception, most CCG's do never make it into a second print and die rightaway. See my CCG+DD overview of some of the CCG's around (I own). From a game mechanic point of view: most CCG's are based on transivity and traveling. Lots of CCG are based on TV-series / Movies, this does not make them any better as game, but surely more interesting as collectables. As gameshop keeper described 'Star Trek, the Next Generation' on my question whether it was any good "It sure helps if you are a Trekkie". In general, if a CCG is based on TV-series, a movie or a book, the TV-serie/movie/book is a lot better... About Table Top gamesA desktop game is game that requires a lot of desktop space, for starters. Secondly, other than that, the game does not require an fixed board, you make the game board of any size (your complete living room for instance) with any kind of obstacles if required. You move by actual inches/centimeters. In many cases (99%) a table top game is a wargame. A typical game in this genry is Warhammer or Warhammer 40K, more generic the Games Workshop games series. What is really pro on these games is the look and feel, where you can actually design / customize your models (in look and by paint). The models (and in some cases the game field) are really impressive and cool (and expensive!). Note that many of the desktop games are not just games, they are a full hobby. People spend hours on painting, scenerybuilding, prepations, etc., they will leave you no time (and budget) to play other games (once you really get into it). As a general note on Games Workshop: since GW created a detailed 'fantasy world', it enables them to use the mechanics over and over again to make new games, such as Warhammer Quest (a kind D&D game), Space Hero (quest), Bloodbowl, Mordheim, etc. The different miniatures can be used in the various games as long as they stay within the theme (Fantasy vs Science Fiction). Mordheim would be a great (and relatively cheap, that is 50 Euro) start if you want to explore the Games Workshop games. |
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