Why do we play boardgames when PC games are available on the same topic?

[mirth]

I've never really worry about AI "cheating". Years of experience with dice driven results has taught me that hugely improbable results will happen, most often when it seems like I can't possibly fail. The phrase 'just don't roll a 1" will haunt me to my grave.

[calandale]

1:  Where to place the game such that it won't be hated by loved ones, assaulted by children or pets, and yet accessible by all who wish to play it?

Priorities. If board gaming is important to your life, you arrange it to support your hobby.
Depending on where you live, getting the space for a decent table will probably cost less
than maintaining a good gaming rig for the newest and greatest.

2:  Assuming one can digest the rules -- "Case Blue" runs to how many pages? -- each one of us can tell long stories about having hours of play undone by misunderstanding one obscure but important rule in paper games.

Why take such a monster as the focus? But, IF you must, you're not going to get anywhere near
the experience of having that whole map laid out in front of you on some computer screen.

As to fucking up a rule, so what? I consider the cost of such an oops to be well worth it when
compared to the inability to tinker with a piece of software easily. If I want to do some what if -
or even more difficult to tinker with the core system, I'm SOL on most computer games without
learning something a lot more complicated than the rules to Case Blue.

3:  I like to consider myself a social fellow, but do you all have such a circle of friends that permit playing games of this magnitude face-to-face?

CSW Expo. 'nuff said.

But, what 'social' aspect is there to being on the computer playing?

4:  In know some folks have taken up Vassal as a remedy to some of the above (notably not #2), but this only adds to my perplexity as now you're definitely playing a PC game, only now without rules arbitration.

Gotta agree here. I find the idea of playing on the little screen impossible to comprehend for anything more than a
fairly tiny game.


And that's really the heart of it. I get just about nothing from playing on the computer.
Even games that I really like on the computer (EU and the paradox line) only served to
placate me temporarily when I couldn't have board games, due to life choices. They drew me
in and had an unpleasant control of my life to a degree which playing a board game solo never has.
A very unpleasant feeling - probably what any addiction feels like.

[Cyrano]

Gotta agree here. I find the idea of playing on the little screen impossible to comprehend for anything more than a
fairly tiny game.


And that's really the heart of it. I get just about nothing from playing on the computer.
Even games that I really like on the computer (EU and the paradox line) only served to
placate me temporarily when I couldn't have board games, due to life choices. They drew me
in and had an unpleasant control of my life to a degree which playing a board game solo never has.
A very unpleasant feeling - probably what any addiction feels like.

I think you're mad re: the trade-off between forgetting rules and the inability to tinker with PC simulations, but that's assuredly courses for horses.  The above, though, is something I've been staring at with the suspicion that it's true and I want to know why.  I've put over 100 hours into several of the TW series.  I've got I can't tell you how many hours into various MMOs (from MUDs through LOTOR).  I've played the Dawn of War series until Hell wouldn't have it.  And, yet, last night, when I finished my fourth game of Marvel Heroscape with my son...each game taking less than an hour or so...I felt far more rewarded.  Heck, when I rage quit DAoC, I nearly swore off the form.  Surely this is the social business you otherwise suggest is not your particular cup of tea?

...and the addiction business...

More thinking required.

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

[calandale]

The addiction is a big part. If I play computer games, even turn-based ones, I simply
CAN'T break myself away easily. There have been a few solo boardgames that that happens
with (18xx back when I was first getting into it for example), but usually I take them in
bite-sized pieces.

I end up cranky and irritable from playing these things, and they degrade my life
overall. Obviously, that doesn't happen to everyone. But outside of a great feeling
when I first get hooked on the games, overall it's just miserable.