Georgia Boardgames Association

I’ve played a few games of this now and while I like the game components. I’m not sure I understand why the game is rated so high.  Is it because I have only played two player games?  I’m not really getting the strategy here.  For example, the roles are random so what good does it do me to build one color or another?  About the only strategy I am discerning so far are two things.  One, because of the randomness, one must use logic to determine who might be whom and this would be better with more players.  And, two, whether or not to build large districts with good purple cards.  I have played a lot of San Juan, so I do not know, yet, if I like the random roles.

This is a session report from the boardgame / card game For Sale by Uberplay:

For Sale

While searching for a game with auctioning, I was directed to UberPlay’s, For Sale.  Since this is a session report and not a review, I will not give details here on the game’s theme or rules, unless necessary for the game play report.

Our first game of For Sale had three players (Player1, Player2, Player3), and after beginning the game by turning face up three cards from the top of the draw pile, we were faced with cards valuing 28, 22, 26.  Though I did not understand the importance during this first game, hindsight shows the close value has importance.  In our case, Player1 bid $4,000.  Player2, bid $5,000.  And Player3 passed and took the 22.  At this time the strategies that could arise were clearer than before and Player1 passed on the next bidding round, taking back $2,000 and giving the other $2,000 back to the bank.  Player2, of course, put all $5,000 back into the bank as the winner of the only remaining property.  As simple as is sounds, and it is this simple, the quick cycle of bidding and purchasing continued until all properties were bought.

Phase 2, the redeeming of money (or checks) for those properties, was also a quick, but equally fun part of the game.  When I first read the rules, I thought that phase two was ancillary, but I was wrong.  In fact, everything begins to make sense in phase two, and the “highest card” mechanic, or “trick-taking,” is an elegant method to decide who best played the auction and bidding phase.  Again, now, I am trying not to digress into too much review.

The summary of this session was my loss, but a ten year-old’s win, which I am happy about.  Now I don’t always want to lose, but it was nice to see the youngest player have a chance to win against his older sibling and his parents.

We immediately played three more games (I even got to win once), and subtle strategy began to emerge.  For example, one session, where the high Spaceship card (30, the top value) was played caused a player to spend too much money too quickly with serious ramifications later.  Another time when not monitoring trick-taking closely enough, and not remembering what was won in phase one, and by whom, two Void checks were “won” by a single player causing a loss at the end (okay, it was me.)

I’m tending to review again, but do not let this quick session deter you from playing the game or assuming it is a filler.  If you really feel that way, just play it a bunch of times and you’ll feel full and think of For Sale as a fuller instead a filler.

John Marchant

Georgia Boardgames Association

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“I’ll be the shoe.  You draw seven letters.  Don’t touch the side or his nose lights up.”  I remember these from my childhood.  Much of this was replaced by a joystick and later a keyboard and mouse.  Now that I have children and discovered the new board game phenomenon, terms like First person shooter are being replaced with terms like game mechanic – from real-time strategy, to over the board economic development –to “Daddy, can I play this game,” to “Daddy, will you play this game with me.”  There is new excitement in our home when a new game arrives, not because it’s new, but because we will soon be playing that new game together.  And board game excitement is not simply for children.  There is a huge culture on and offline of 20 – 60 somethings that are forming board game nights, clubs and associations all over the world.  And like video games, board games range from simple to complex and can take anywhere from 20 minutes to eight hours to complete.  Board games are raging back into style, and they are different from anything your father ever knew, rivaling video games in intricacy and ingenuity.

Over the past ten years, an explosion in the board games industry, which has largely been European in origin, has slowly caught fire in America during this decade, and if only the marketing resources were present, we might see a revolution of “analog” games that would cause concern for its digital industry counterpart.  Video games were once seen as “geeky,” but now are the centerpiece of the home.  But besides a console’s technological abilities, what is the point of the “media center” as the central hub of the home?  What are the manufacturers of electronics trying to capitalize on?  In a word – togetherness.  This last element that video games attempt to hurdle, every board game has inherently, and, “together time,” cliché as the phrase may be, is still true.  Friends and family are naturally together.  It is what makes them what they are, and board games, not unsurprisingly, take advantage of this.  In fact, there are no social exchanges like over the board face to face interactions, and though live video game services and split screen multiplayer games attempt to mimic being together, something is still missing.  Much like talking on the phone, instead of in person, engaging someone personally over an internet connection, as opposed to a tactile experience in person, the electronic cannot capture the essence of what it means to be human and relational.  There is something socially natural to board games missing from electronic games.  The ironic effect of video games is the world it creates causes a world of isolation, and it causes us to wonder what we can do to get back those relationships we lost in the playing of the game.  We are incomplete in isolation and desire to share our experiences.

To create that memorable experience lost to video games, board game makers are creating higher quality productions than anything in the past fifty years.  And if you think merely throwing dice and moving characters around a square board is all that’s out there, you’re mistaken.  Not only are many games “diceless,” but many are “luckless.”  There are also ingenious game makers creating board games based upon cards, auctions, patterns, tile placement, secret deployments, farming, trading, and even negotiation.  Economic development, for example, is a common theme in modern board gaming.  Games like Rio Grande’s Puerto Rico base their entire gaming system around building an economy, complete with producing, selling, and shipping resources to the New World.  Another publisher, Queen Games, created the board game Shogun, which uses economy and military might to decide the victor in over the board conquest.  Even video game makers are seeing the board game market as a new and viable income source.  Ensemble Studio’s computer game Age of Empires III, a fascinating real-time strategy game, has allowed board game maker Tropical Studios to create a board game by the same name.  And while even the best video game attempts to create re-playability, they often fail.  Beating a first person shooter on the sixteenth level is often unable to bring someone back to the game once it’s over, and the time in isolation to meet that goal is difficult to share.  But re-playability and social interaction are standard components of board games.  And the secret is that people like that interaction and want to come back to it.  In my own experience over the board, being together is the most attractive part of the experience.  Fun games are still required, of course, but instead of “I beat that level,” I hear, “I’ll trade you wool for ore; We both get to collect wood and wheat; String beans for stink beans!”  These are the new mantras from my kids now, and I am with them when they say it, understanding all they mean by it because I taught it to them and learned it with them.

Now, if you think that I am someone who simply hates computers or video games, then you are mistaken.  By trade, I am a computer programmer and server administrator and have literally carved my way into jobs by my fervor for that machine.  And I do like technology.  But there comes a time when stepping back and looking and reflecting reveals what is missing by staying on the digital side of our culture.  I encourage you to step back away from your computer, yes, even the one you may be reading this article on, and take the time to buy a board game, learn the rules on old fashioned paper, physically (yes, labor) set up the game and play a game.  Play a game with someone.  Play with your friends and children and spouse.  Play Mom and Dad.  But remember that you’re doing more than moving pieces on a board – you’re together.  Spending time with one another is the goal – together time all the time.

John Marchant

Georgia Boardgames Association

“Together time all the time”™