Friday, July 29, 2011

Increasing realism in abstract eurogames, is it really necessary?

In my previous post, I commented that Glen More's wooden cubes leave a bit to be desired.

And Mayday Games has this set of nicer-looking cubes that match the GM resources.

The question I have is: Is it really worth $10 (plus shipping*) to replace the wood cubes in a game I will probably not play as often as I think I'll play it, for an aesthetic benefit that most people won't care about?

The funny afterthought to that question is: In what other games could I use these tokens?
Just to get some use out of the bits of wood, would I replace the BSG civilian ships with cattle? Power Grid uranium with sheep? ;)

Seriously, though, I'm thinking about it. But not until I actually get a chance to play a few times and see how annoying it really is.
(The legitimate argument for replacing Glen More's cubes is actually that they're a bit too small and may be hard to handle/easy to lose)

P.S. They also have this "mega-set" of meeples which would cover all of my eurogame needs for a long time, but I realy know I don't need that.

* side note, I wish I had thought of this sooner, because I just made a big order of Sleeves from them a few weeks ago, which would solve the shipping-cost question.

3 comments:

  1. I've never understood the lust for ever extravagant game pieces... For D&D I have giant pads of 1inch graph paper, and for characters I use the cheapest most generic plastic figurines.

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  2. I wouldn't call these wooden bits "extravagant". :)

    But really, it's easier to learn a game (especially for non-gamers, who are part of my target audience) when you can actually pick up a wooden sheep instead of a white wooden cube.
    And also with Glen More, there is a definite issue with the cubes being smaller than your typical wooden cubes and I just know I'm bound to lose a couple under the couch...

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  3. And as a separate thought.. some games live or die on their components, especially "pure theme" games like BSG. The switch from cardboard to plastic basestars is notably pleasing.

    Aren't you a graphic designer? :)

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