One boring thing I think about (at embarrassing length) is the nerdiness level of board games. Whenever we have new people over, Charlie and I are always debating how nerdy of a game we can subject them to. "Are these guys Runebound-nerdy? Or are they more of like a Quirkle kind of family?" So in my mind I have all our board games rated from nerdy to pedestrian. So useful.
I thought I would be considerate and allow you to do the same with your own games. So I made a graph. This would also help if you are in the market for nerdy games, and would like to know just how nerdy the game you are getting is.
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| Boardgame Nerdiness |
So the vertical scale is Theme / Immersability. Some games like Quirkle have no theme; most party games fall into this category. This is a zero on the horizontal scale. Some games have a theme, but not a nerdy one: such as monopoly. Theme and immersability are both important here. So it should be a theme that nerds want to completely immerse themselves in. Tens on the theme scale are usually scifi and fantasy. You know: elves, starships, super heroes, or nerdy TV show themes are usually gonna be right at the top. Charlie and I played a game once that was pirate themed. And even though this isn't typically a particularly nerdy theme, I would still rate the game fairly high on the theme scale because of how immersive it was. The game created a very intricate world for players to dive into. So even within the most nerdy themes, there is a range of nerdiness just from how immersive they are into their created world. If you want to be able to judge game nerdiness just from the box, you can often spot nerdy- game artwork because it is usually detailed and complicated and fairly dark (not to mention other-worldly). On the surface, Munchkin is nerdy in theme, but it isn't all that immersive. You can tell this will be the case by the artwork, which is cartoony and comedic.
The horizontal scale is Learning Curve / Time. Games that are the hardest to master rate the highest on this scale. You can usually judge by the size of the instructions. There are games out there (a lot of them) with such complicated rules that it takes a novel size rule booklet to explain. The Mistborn Role-Playing game manual is larger than the books. On the other hand, some games take barely a page of instructions. Games like Bananagrams can be explained by a friend in less like 10 seconds. And like many other games that rate low on the learning scale games; players rarely refer to the rules after learning. That isn't true of high learning curve games. I have played Runebound more than 20 times probably. I still look at the rules every time I play. Keep in mind, this scale doesn't refer to the difficulty of the game itself, only the difficulty of its rules.
Time should also be mentioned here, because it is a factor, but it is easy to judge. Quick games are often less nerdy than long ones. Which is partly why Monopoly is slightly nerdier than clue, even though the theme of clue is nerdier than monopoly.
So for example, lets take chess. Theme-wise, I would put it at like a 5. It is about Kings and epic wars, but it isn't at all immersive into that world. The learning curve is about an 8.5 in my mind. Although the basic rules are fairly simple, it is a strategy game. Which means strategy is a big part of the rules. The strategies to chess are extremely complicated and take a lifelong dedication to learn. The length of the game varies, so its hard to judge. So that would make the game about a 6.7 on the nerdiness scale. (I should point out at this point that I mean the kind of nerd that is interested in nerd culture, not the kind of nerd that we use to mean smart. Although lots of nerds are also smart, there are plenty of smart people who aren't nerds, and plenty of nerds who aren't smart.)
Now, don't get me wrong, most gamers play and enjoy games all over the graph, not just those that rate high in nerdiness. Its just that while the good games that are low on the scale attract everyone, the good nerdier games only attract a certain kind of people.
So now you know. Aren't you glad you stuck it out? And didn't fall asleep?....Hello?
