As with any game review blog, the best content you will find is in the actual text. That being said, I often find myself frustrated by not knowing what kinds of gamers other reviewers are. The simple fact is that everyone has different gaming tastes. This blog is an attempt to appeal to gamers of all types by saying specifically what it is that I do and do not enjoy about particular games. Maybe you find that you agree with my assessments of game flavor, but that I have different tastes from you in strategic content. It is my hope that by breaking down a game into 5 separate components, everyone can take something away from my reviews.
FUN: Fun is the most important factor. In a way, it is my "overall" score, because the fun category will primarily describe how my experience with the game was. As a rough guide, I will happily buy games with a 4 or 5 fun factor, consider owning a game at a 3 fun factor, might play a 2 game once in awhile, will reluctantly play a 1, and will never play a 0.
STRATEGY: The strategy rating is to show how strategically deep I think a game is. A game like Chutes and Ladders will get a '0' on the strategy rating scale. Getting a '5' is much more complicated. I think that some games with a lot of luck also have a lot of strategy. Conversely, some games with almost no luck contain no strategy. When I talk about strategy I am primarily asking myself two questions: 1) Does it feel like the decisions I make actually matter in this game? 2) Are the decisions I make dynamic or is there generally a "right" and "wrong" answer? For instance, in Tic-Tac-Toe, you have a variety of options, but there are clearly "right" and "wrong" choices in that game.
SOCIAL: I read an interesting article recently that suggested board games were becoming more popular as a social backlash against the solitude of online gaming. The fact is that video games can do so much more than board games can, but the social interaction of board games is highly appealing to players. Is the game dynamic and interactive or are we playing solitaire while other people are around?
FLAVOR: Or theme, whatever you prefer. The flavor/theme of a game is how the game is marketed, and if I feel like I am having that kind of experience. Additionally, does the theme add to the game? For instance, the Adventurers is a game that is almost entirely influenced by the theme of pulp archaeology and it really adds to the game. On the other hand, Battle Line has very little to do with battle formations.
MISCELLANEOUS: I waffled on this category a bit because there were so many other factors I wanted to include. I decided to cheat and include all those factors here. You can consider this my "fudge factor" category. Maybe I really enjoyed a game but worry about its Replayability. Perhaps I thought the plastic pieces, or other Contents, were particularly awesome. Some games have really well written Rules, which is always good if you aren't being taught by someone in the know.
So those are my 5 bases for judging a game. Now, I work as a data analyst and know that everyone wants one simple visual takeaway from any given presentation. With that in mind, every post will contain a chart that looks something like this:
This should capture my overall feeling for a game. The imaginary game above was rated very well on Social and Flavor aspects, but it looks like it had pretty low Strategy, resulting in a game of medium Fun level.
One thing about my ratings - I am extremely stingy with giving away 5's unless something really impresses me. To some people, a 3 on a scale of 5 means the game is hardly with your time, but I consider a 3 to be entirely respectable.
One final thing - I would like to be able to respond to requests. If there is a specific game you are looking to get reviewed and have feedback on, maybe I have already played it! Feel free to email me at nickofthehennings@gmail.com to request reviews, and my apologies in advance for times when I haven't already played a game.
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