Catan vs. Monopoly

As I was exploring cyberspace today, I came upon this blog post about Settlers of Catan. One of the first things I noticed is that it's by a baseball writer for ESPN.com, Kieth Law. Ooh, I thought, board game news from ESPN! Unfortunately, the article has no drawn out comparison between sports and board games besides a short economic comparison at the top of the article. Law does, however, go into a nice history of Settlers, including it's relationship with games America had to play before Eurogaming worked its way to the US. Indeed, The Settlers of Catan was the first German-style board game to become popular in the US.

Law mentions in his article two aspects of the Euro-genre of games that I believe are too important to pass up. First, the games are competitive and fun from start to finish, although they rely WAY less on luck than anything that had been popular in the US before. Second, and related, there is no elimination from a game as there would be, for example, in a game of Risk. Allow me to make a quick note of my own on each subject.

First, I'll address the competitive nature of the games. Klaus Teuber, the designer of Settlers, hit this nail on the head, finding a perfect mechanic to keep everyone interested in the game. In Monopoly, once someone has landed (by a roll of the dice) on the correct spaces and made enough money, his victory is eventual, almost all the time. In Risk, once someone has a big enough army (and rolls 5's and 6's), there's little stopping her. In Settlers, however, the roll of the dice is far from the final say. Trading is an integral part of the game, and I've played plenty of games where a player is in position for the victory and the other players then boycott all trades with this person. The best player and the robber often become well acquainted by game's end, oftentimes only to see someone else pass him up for the victory. In other words, the game is designed to let players who fall behind make the ground and even snatch up a victory. Many (though not all) of the Eurogames do this, which make each game interesting from start to finish.

The other subject of note is the lack of elimination. As I said, it is related to the discourse above. It's importance is this: previous to 1995, when American board gamers wanted something of more heft than Monopoly, they had to resort to war games. War games take hours to play, and often a person will be on the brink of elimination and lose interest, else they will be fully eliminated and have to wait hours until they can get involved with the group again. Eurogames are not only played in a significantly shorter time span, but there is, as I mentioned above, involvement from start to finish.

In conclusion, that is why Eurogames are way better than American games. Just kidding; that's not what this post was about. But I do hope you found my rant in favor of Settlers of Catan to be helpful.

To Win or Not To Win...

I would certainly love to win every game I play. It's not going to happen, though.

In an opinion article from a Georgia newspaper, Terri Hintz attempts to answer a friend's semi-serious question, "should I always let my kid win at board games to avoid the tantrum?"

[aside] You may be thinking, I don't have kids; of what use is this article to me? Well, you can store it in the vault for later, or, like me, you can reflect on what your own childhood was like. What fun! Now back to the question at hand:

The short answer is "no." The long answer sheds some light on the ideas of competitiveness and grace, in addition to the opportunity these qualities might afford a person later in life. If a child's parents let him win all of the time, will he or she be spoiled or have an overly competitive attitude? Hintz says:

Instinct tells me that competitive drive is largely innate in one's nature. Gracious composure as one wins or loses however, I contend to be a result of nurture.

Thus, board games provide opportunity for valuable life lessons, even at an early age. I love when that happens! Is "avoiding the tantrum" important enough to throw a game? Probably. To throw every game? Maybe, but the scales probably tilt in favor of winning some of the time, doing it with grace, and teaching the tot to tame the tantrum. Read it, and decide for yourself!