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.

What I don’t like about your categories is that you’re focusing on the buying and owning games part.

My process used to be:

1. Read the rules before everyone arrives
2. Play the game and have fun
3. Read the rules again
4. Email everyone with everything we played wrong

Now that I have kids I don’t always have the luxury of reading the rules the same day we play the game, so what I usually do is I read the rules a few days in advance, which means I won’t remember as much when the time comes to play, so then I end up complementing that with a rules explanation video.

TtR first journey is great because it’s easy to transition to the “full” game after they outgrow it. Catan junior is similar in this. That’s also my main complaint about Stone Age kids, it’s not really the same game.

The problem with this is chatgpt is shit at facts. You ask it a question and it might just give you bullshit, and you tell it to provide a citation and it will happily invent one. There’s no easy way to verify whatever it says to you, other than going to the source, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of this exercise.

Through the Ages is probably the best example of a boardgame that works better in digital form. Asynchronous in particular.

This looks incredibly shady.

The problem with a single spirit is that the different spirits have different strengths and with just one you’ll be missing something. Like, for example, there’s the storm thing that is super powerful and destroys buildings, but it doesn’t do much against single explorers, and if you don’t have a way to contain those somehow even with your superior building destroying powers you won’t be able to keep up.

That is, it’s actually harder with one than with two.

Seconded Flashpoint. I’ve had success with that game with people from 8 to like 80.

That could be it. Something like Catapult Feud but Worms themed.