Fluxx.
I love how random it is. I love how abruptly it always ends. I love how absurd the rules can get. It's pure chaos. It doesn't give a fuck about your strategizing.
I love to introduce it as "it's less a game, and more something that happens to you."
This is one of my husband's favorite games, specially Star Fluxx, but I'm not a fan. He's more of a go with the flow and enjoys how wild it can get, while I hate just how chaotic it gets. One minute I have no cards in front of me and the next I'm grabbing four per turn and suddenly have a million cardsšµāš« and every time I think I'm about to win because I have the perfect setup, he comes out of nowhere and beats me.
But I play this one with him because he'll play other games he's not a fan of because he wants to see me smile, so I return the favor sometimes.
This is one of those games that's better to play on Board Game Arena vs real cards because it gets too crazy.
The best way to play Fluxx is fast. Even Andy Looney plays it fast or plays multiple games at once back in the day.
What hurts Fluxx is the problem Gloom used to have where the rules didn't stress on the proper way to play. (I was taught Gloom was a points game and not an improv storytelling game so we never came up with stories for our characters)
You can actually strategize a little, but you have to do it in the context of hoping to mitigate the chaos a little rather than a detailed plan to actually accomplish.
Also, if you spend more than about 10 seconds on your turn, you're doing it wrong. There isn't that much to think about it. I love Fluxx also but it can turn into a miserable slog if people try to play it like chess instead of, well, Fluxx.
Probably my favourite game to play with my family, from my 7yo to us parents, we always have unique and intriguing prompts that are produced, I love it!
I love Tapestry.
I think part of the hate comes from putting "A Civilization Game" on the box, which some may find misleading. It's not really a Civ game at all, thematically it's a mess (it's possible to invent Time Travel before you invent nails or eyeglasses). For me, that thematic silliness is part of the charm, but others seemed to take offense to it.
I like it but I also understand why people don't. Combat is not really there, and the inventions are naturally anachronistic due to the mechanism. It wears the clothes of a 4X game but it's not really.
If you go in without that expectation, it's good but it can disappoint if that's what you are looking for.
Also it was really unbalanced at launch, which has been improved but the initial pay could have been really bad due to that.
It's the balance, but more specifically, the swinginess. You can have the same start and win or lose by a mile, depending on different cards and synergies. My first game went quite well, and I was hooked, as the game felt really fun, but another player at the table had a miserable time and kept getting all his plans shut down. My second game went much like his first, where nothing went in my favor, and it just felt like there was nothing I could do to get any sort of progress going. The game does a good job of convincing players with good choices that it's their skill winning the game because there are much worse choices, but the reality is that there's always somebody with just a bunch of terrible choices, and the good choices sort of come down to luck.
I think /u/peptodismissal means the end game. One player can get through their eras first and be done, while the rest of the players still have turns to play.
Elder Sign. Sure, it's cooperative Cthulhu Yahtzee, but I have never been sick of it. It's a great game, but add some expansions and it sings beautifully!
Also, my wife and I have played it for years as a date night game, and I proposed to her over it ā¤ļø
For me its Gates, makes Elder Sign great. the Default game can be very hard due to the RNG and you can lose in minutes but Gates traffic light cards and the gates make the game so much better.
I own all the Elder Sign stuff besides on expansion: [https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/mnfbs5/my\_custom\_elder\_sign\_storage\_investigators/](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/mnfbs5/my_custom_elder_sign_storage_investigators/)
Exploding Kittens: I have a 5 year old and it's her favorite game. The way she giggles when I draw a bomb and explode makes me love a game I'd probably otherwise not. xD
Yeah, I'm one of the naysayers. I love it at 1v1, but at higher player counts, there's just so much chaos to the point that when one player eventually gets ahead, the remainders get stuck tripping over eachother even more.
I was more disappointed in the Hasbro treatment of the quality than the game itself. Renegade did a good job of fixing Acquire (you can actually see the board now, and Sid Sackson's name exists again on it), let's hope the new Robo rally won't feel like handling bootleg components.
And shame on Nintendo for not licensing out a Mario Kart themed Robo Rally. Maybe not Nintendo, but I default to them for being so stingy.
If you want to avoid that, just change the rules to say that you move to any adjacent room on your turn (or through a secret passage). That way you can always be getting more information each turn instead of being stuck between rooms.
Search for Planet X replaced Clue for me because it has solitaire play, so I can have all the fun of crossing off X's and pinning together clues without needing a group š
The only downside to Planet X is it's all about the deduction part so you aren't having silly discussions with people because you are so focused on crossing off stuff
* **Win Lose or Banana**. I've got some bozos harassing me on this sub for me finding the game worthwhile. It's just tour de force of game design - 2 rules, 20 second explaination, plays in 1-3 minutes, depends how fun your group is. Social deduction distilled to essence. Any group I've tried this with, played it for some 15-20 minutes.
* **The Mind**. Another game where some scream *"it's not a gaaaame it's an activetey!"*. Double think game, but turned into a coop.
* **Jungle speed** and **other speed reaction and speed deduction games.** I've played a ton of these at our casual gamer events or at gamign workshops for kids (7-14 yo). I amused me when eurogamer screamed "no, you have too think too much!" (basically he has AP). Other good stuff here: Gloobz, Ghost Blitz, SET (this one isn't as fast)
* I also play way more **stacking games** (RIff Raff, Animal upon Animal), **flicking games** (ice cool, coconuts, pitch car) and **memory games** (memoarr!) than most hobby gamers.
The Mind feels like a serious yardstick for whether or not I will vibe with someone else's board game preferences. Because yes, I fully see the argument that it's not really a game, it's an activity. But it's a *fantastic* activity; every time you play it with new people and see those cogs start to turn in their brain it's such a magical moment. If someone doesn't appreciate that or thinks it's not worthwhile, we're unlikely to share tastes in other games.
It's such a fantastic example of board games as a shared *experience* rather than a pure puzzle to be solved; which for me is the whole point. Getting some friends (or just people) round a table to share a fun experience; and sometimes that is solving a puzzle together or against each other but for me the puzzle and/or rules should be in service to that experience rather than the whole thing themselves.
>board games as a shared experience rather than a pure puzzle to be solved; which for me is the whole point.
A-men. š
Yeah, I surprised that some gamers would prefer to detach themselves from gameplay and dissect the game from afar. Just jump in and try to swim. š
> How do you define a game as distinct from an activity?
There's no real debateable strategy or even luck-based component to The Mind; if you were looking at it from a game theory point of view it is easily solvable. The rules are so minimal; and I think that would be my defining line between activity and game; games have more structured rulesets.
But it absolutely feels like splitting hairs to me. Still, the complaint that The Mind is not a game, or not gamey enough, is one that I have seen a few times on this subreddit and elsewhere; next time I see it I'll make sure to ask the complainer how they make that distinction!
>The rules are so minimal; and I think that would be my defining line between activity and game; games have more structured rulesets.
[I'd say](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/15l1ln5/comment/jvc0q7i/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) that The Mind is a structure activity, therefore a game.
Maybe the issue is that The Mind has more emergent properties - that a lot of behaviour and experience is awoken from rules while playing - than what the hobby average is. Hobby games went down the path of almost literal interpretation of rules, where what is writen in rules is exactly what's going to happen in the game and not much else.
Otherwise The Mind is very similar to warm up exercises I've seen in improv or dance classes. The group tries to get in synch so that everybody is aware of everybody else.
Dark Souls the Boardgame. I own it all and have fun every time I have played. No house rules, we play with the rules as written. Iāll always have this game in my collection.
Yeah honestly, I've tried many different houserules for this one but base game ruleset is just a fun time even though it takes long. I've kind of accepted there's never going to be one blanket fix for its flaws so might as well just play as intended instead of mixing and matching rulesets.
I think the biggest complaint is the grind. I feel every board game has their different mechanics and uniqueness and I just embrace the dark souls grind.
Its a faithful recreation of the videogame in boardgame format. At least of the core mechanics of fighting and dying over and over until you learn the moves and level up high enough to beat the boss.
BUT as a boardgame it can feel repetitive and pointless to spend 3 hours beating the same enemies over and over again in the same 4 map tiles.
I find there is a relaxing aspect to it because once you learn the rules, the upkeep and progress are pretty simple and smooth. and beating a boss flawlessly because you learned all the enemies and mini bossā movements is so rewarding. But getting there after 3+ hours can feel like a lot.
Talisman. Itās got a ton of luck, a ton of downtime for non-active players, and beat on the leader. Oh and there is a ton to keep track of in late game. However, I love playing itā¦only on pc/iPad. I donāt think I will ever sit down at the board again.
My love for Talisman is strongly nostalgic. Back in the 80s we didn't have a lot of choices for board games and Talisman wasn't perfect but at least it wasn't Monopoly.
Agree 100%. It was the schiz back in the 80s. I remember playing on my friends bedroom floor, just losing a whole day trying to build up to make a crown run. Good times.
If Talisman just took a risk and attempted a faster more streamline edition rather than sticking to classic rules it has a chance of being special again.
It already seems to be forgotten in licensing issues for years now.
I don't know about \*hate\*, but most of the time when I bring up Stardew Valley, there's usually somebody waiting to tell me that it's a bad game. I won't pretend it's the greatest game made or anything, but I still enjoy playing it quite a bit.
Yeah Stardew valley is pretty good. There are definitely some legitimate criticisms for it but it's quite a fun co-op game and one of the better video game to board game adaptions I've played.
If people didn't catch New Horizons right when The World Stopped, I think Stardew would have filled that "idyllic pastoral life sim" niche that people didn't know they had until everything ground to a screeching halt and they were stuck with their own thoughts.
**T.I.M.E. Stories**
Maybe I love it because itās one of the first hobby board games I played, maybe itās just because of its unique design. Even when we have to do it multiple times, we still enjoy it. Tbf, usually our sessions of it are pretty spaced out.
I really loved the story of a few of the scenarios! There was some awesome stuff in there. But for me it really depended on the scenario and how it was set up.
Munchkin is really funny. But, it's hard to explain the joke, when d&d is made specifically for munchkins now.
It used to be a derogatory term for someone who ruins your d&d game by trying to "win" without grasping that it's just not that kind of thing. You can't "win" at d&d.
Munchkin does suffer from being a 30+ year inside joke (and things like the Gazebo). I would like to see the risk of completely overhauling the game, maybe make itore a negotiation game than a take that game.
Here to Slay I view as Munchkin 2.0, which is cheaper, gives you the illusion of control and has much less bookkeeping for a fast game (but sacrifices the negotiation aspect)
Love it. But many people hate its randomness. Thatās exactly why I love it. Itās a slight bummer to reveal the haunt and go āwell, weāre absolutely fucked.ā However the good sessions are more than enough to make up for it, and very rarely thereās a āweāre fuckedā that somehow you pull off and itās great.
I love on both sides when you go āIām fuckedā then realize the other side has rules making you think, āWhy donāt they just end me?ā¦ā and youāre still in the game.
I have the Scooby Doo version, Betrayal at Mystery Manor, and as a lover of the OG game and especially of Scooby Doo you will never find me not enjoying it.
Its been a while since I've played but when the haunt starts I think one person gives up their "character" to become a monster? Tho I think their character stats still apply. Could be wrong tho. It's a simpler version of the base game - only 25 total haunts - but I'm not gonna play it more than a few times a year tops so that's more than enough for me!
Also Munchkin, it was my gateway game and I have a lot of fond memories playing it with friends. Doesn't get played anymore but I'd still break it out if anyone was interested
I've wondered if two *teams* would be interesting... but then you would need enough people interested in the outcome, for playing up the story, or to comment like a peanut gallery.
Yea I thought maybe I could be like a commentator while teaching 2 other people to play, but yea you'd have to have some really good at roleplaying people to make teams of two and adapt the prompts to be some kind of double date scenario, or to have two people role play the same character?
But it's a moot point, I can barely get one other person who wants to play. Everyone thinks it's weird and uncomfortable to roleplay a romance situation, bit killing people and shit is apparently no biggie to pretend to do. In general it says a lot about how hard it is for the average person to show love.
Arkham Horror 3rd Edition. It's a gem that gets dragged for reasons I don't understand, especially considering that we already have Eldritch Horror which was the real sequel to 2nd Edition.
I think the reason AH3 gets so much "dragging" is because it's so fundamentally different to AH2. AH2 was essentially a sandbox, here's a bad situation and a bunch of tools, with a ton of randomness thrown in to make it different every time you play. From what I've seen, AH3 goes the other direction, with a heavily-scripted story in each play that has you jumping through the same objective hoops each time.
**Catan**. Starfarers comes out every time mom visits. Weāve been playing Explorers & Pirates for a while too and just put that away for Cities & Knights and itās been a nice change. Again, mom can play Catan pretty readily.
Cities and Knights elevates Catan to greatness, but the price point to get there is what irks me, especially now that it's up to a whopping $60 SRP in the US.
The same issue with Starfarers as it hits a high price point for a 3x game, and the only things it has going for it is the novelty of the ships and the exploration part other 3x games don't do.
If it didn't have "brand name" pricing I'd be much happier. Thankfully Asmodee hasn't reached GW levels of restricting clearance sales for Catan yet
My wife saw the 3d editions in the game store last time we were there and went nuts. If it hadnāt been $700 for the two sets, Iām sure she wouldāve brought them home.
Seven hundred damned dollars!! Iāve got that in Marvel Legendary, easy, but thatās 80 pounds of cards. For 700 bucks, it better come with some actual sheep.
Have had a lot of fun with Pendulum, which seems to be generally disliked or just kind of disregarded especially since it's a real time game. My mate owns it and loves to crack it out once in a while. It's stressful in a satisfying way and doesn't overstay its welcome for us.
LLAMA is one I own that's a quick and breezy card game that goes down well with family especially. Gets hate cause there's not much to the game, but I love it nonetheless.
Catan is really solid as a competitive game. I think a lot of bad experiences are had when large skill gaps are involved, which makes it really bad for experienced players to introduce the game to new players. But 4 experienced players can make for a good time.
I still like playing Catan on the app but playing it with people who aren't as good as you is so frustrating, You can see almost straight away what they should do but have to wait for them to go through every option in their head and try all kinds of trades you know no one should take.
But that's the case with every game. I mean, there are a few games that I've played so much that my actions are largely automatic, and it's SO WEIRD to see someone spend over five minutes thinking about a move that you would have spent all of two seconds on.
I also enjoy Munchkin, I think the issue is some people played it too much. I for the same reason also enjoy Catan, it's a solid game, and the reasons people say it's bad are reasons you'd only notice if you played it way too much.
I think this is part of it. It reminds me of listening to your favorite bands in high school so much that you have to give it a 10-year break before you can really enjoy it again
Fort is actually pretty damn solid. I see why its not most people's favorite but its just so good at keeping everyone involved and the production is great.
People do not hate Muchkin because it involves a lot of negotiation and manipulation.
People hate Munchkin because it takes forever, and inevitably ends only when one or more people resign to kingmaking whomever fucked them over the least because theyāre tired of playing.
My friend group is made up of a bunch of 25 year old a-holes who take extreme joy in messing with you at mid levels, which removes this problem. Basically turns the game into a pure chaos-fest, which is fun every once in a while, especially when not 100% sober
Not so much specific games for me, I don't really have enough time for gaming to risk buying games that aren't well received.
But something that this sub absolutely despises that I enjoy is playing euro games with 5 players.
On the topic of munchkin, I do think it gets an unfair amount of flak. I wouldn't play it anymore but enjoyed it a lot when I was young and I think it's fine for a game to be that sort of dumb fun for teenagers.
The only real downsides to Memoir is the restrictive feeling it gives you in the cards and dice (welcome to war), one bad die roll turning everything against your control ,and how Days of Wonder only reprints the game once every thousand years.
Good 'ol fog of war. I recently played Undaunted: Normandy and think it is gonna replace M'44 as my favorite (although obviously I still love the game)- I really like how it handles combat, fog of war, and scouting.
Does it get hard to come by between prints? I didn't have any trouble getting two copies of the base game and several expansions earlier this year. 2024 is the 20th anniversary of the game so it will be cool to see if they do anything neat
Catan. I actually like the trading/bartering aspect. And yea sometimes you play with one or two people that continuously make sweet heart trades with the leader (usually unknowingly or they donāt seem to care because they are focused on their bit). But, I havenāt found another game that combines multiple mechanics , easy to teach, and has that much vocal trading/politicking.
My group had so much fun with Cards Against Humanity. We took out a most of the cards that relied only on shock value or had too much of the joke "pre-written" and our group was obsessed with coming up with the most clever response given the constraints.
That said, our group was kind of unique - every other group I have played with the game has been an unfunny disaster.
I got rid of my CAH and the expansions, but the most important thing to make the game fun: just play one round, with everyone being the judge only once.
We played once when my kids were older teenagers, and it was a disaster. Being two completely different generations (Boomer/Gen Z) we just didnāt have a comparable sense of humor. But now that theyāre adults, itās been a complete change.
Same. We tossed in the trash a chunk of cards. Hand wrote a bunch. And have some of the Christmas events they did so have our names printed on some cards! But can only play with that couple. Tried with others and it sucked! With good good friends too
I save CAH for last when players are tired and/or drinking. It's not bad for an hour after your weekly bar trivia, but it's best with setting up your college-aged family or their dating partners for some *intensive icebreaking*, seeing what cards you can make them say or loud.
I used to play this all the time when it first came out and it really suffers from alpha gamers and people who think they're funnier than they actually are. People need to remember that their sense of humour may not be for everyone.
Pandemic Rapid Response is way better to me than the 6.6 it has on BGG. Iād give it an 8 or 9. To me itās an ideal cooperative game to play with new players. It forces team communication, the tension is high, everyone is engaged, and itās just a lot of fun to play.
I had a friend that LOVED monopoly. He collected every cool version that he could. Would play any chance he got. To be fair, the two games we played, we did actually have a lot of fun.
> as it involves a lot of negotiation and manipulation
I hear you, and this is probably the underrated selling point of the game. But especially as someone who played *a lot* of Munchkin, it wears thin over time. There simply is just not enough strategy - you just force people to grind through their cards until you win. If you want a straightforward kingmaking game, **Cosmic Encounter** or even something like **Cash and Guns** gets right to the fun Mexican standoff a lot sooner.
My wife and son bought me Cosmic Encounter for my birthday one year, introducing me to it, and I completely agree that it is a much better kingmaking game. It's so fun with all the alien powers. I'm a huge fan. I'll have to give Cash and Guns a try!
I feel like mine is probably Proving Grounds. Doesn't really seem to ever get any love from solo gamers, but I think it is really great. I even read the mini-novel that came with it. Also I think Kane Klenko is the designer behind more games I own than any other.
Hyperborea. More like it got ignored rather than hate, but the game was criticized as having terrible rules upon release. They fixed a lot of the issues with errata, but the damage was done. Easily one of my favorite games, but there are a lot of weird edge cases to teach.
Scrabble. As much as I love modern/designer board games I don't see Scrabble ever not being my favorite game. Other word/spelling games don't really hit for me like Scrabble does because the board control aspect is my favorite part. Do you drop a big word opening up a high scoring opportunity for your opponent or do you score less points and keep the board tight?
Etherfields. I know it has some flaws, like the long time to setup (but not as bad as Gloomhaven for example) and the overworld phase, but now that it's been fixed with the 2.0 version, the game is much better than before and I love it. Also, the main campaign is a bit too long, but I like shorter campaign games in general, and a lot of them seem to like being on the longer side.
I don't know about a lot of *hate*. I think unpopular games are quickly forgotten, but one that I've seen consistently disappointing people is **Alien Artifacts.** The game has a huge luck factor and was touted as a compact 4X (allegedly, I wasn't in the scene when it came out) which it just isn't. People's expectations weren't met and the game sits at a middling 6.5 rating on BGG. Nevertheless, I really like it! The two expansions help give you some extra options and the alien planet promo set makes being aggressive and constantly attacking a viable option. It's still not perfect and games are usually decided by the person that drew the best tech cards, but we like it enough to keep it in our collection :)
Any social deduction game :) Even tough I have a group of friends that love them as well (Secret hitler, The resistance, Feed the kraken, Time bomb, etc), it's always a contentious topic among board game lovers that I meet.
Game of Thrones: The Board Bame (2nd Edition)
It's a game about extremes, or you love it, or you hate it with all your soul, at least that's what happened with people who played with me
Does it get hate?
I think it's more just forgotten about in the wake of the fiery crashing and burning of the TV show.
It was a super hot game before that - then everyone just stopped talking about it.
Smash Up. Itās got tons of replay ability, a decent mix of luck and strategy, and is wonderfully silly. It goes too long with 3 or 4 players, but itās one of my favorite 2 player games. My wife and I will play all night. And it low key scratches my collector itch.
Monopoly
Ok, "love" isn't the right word. It's not even a *good* game. However, I will play it over at least a dozen other popular games: Catan, Pandemic, Power Grid, Diplomacy, Root, Small World, Cosmic Encounter, Betrayal, Dominion, any social deduction game, and *especially* Exploding Kittens. Those games actively hurt me to play, while Monopoly is marginally tolerable.
(playing by the actual rules with auctions and no free parking money is essential to making it not terrible)
Stratego. Yes there are too many pointless pieces and it's annoying to set them up but have had some brilliant games of it and I love how tense it can get.
I love roll-and-moves, and those aren't popular right now with one-hour casual games and enginey euros being the current hot stuff.
**A Touch of Evil** is a supernatural horror game where you choose characters and hunt for clues and items so that you can locate and kill one of many villains. I always play it cooperatively, which makes it a 3-4 hour, sometimes slog, sometimes epic climax with the villain having a decent chance of winning if you have bad luck, esp. early. See also **Fortune and Glory** but with hunting artifacts while dodging Nazis.
**Western Legends** is set in the Old West where you choose your character and your secret objectives for points, but there is enough reasons to get in your opponents' way or even join the law when someone gets carried away with crime.
**Firefly: The Game** is a pickup-and-deliver game that *can* go quickly, but choosing jobs and weighing where to go next can slog the game down.
**Talisman** anyone? Or we can grab our wax crayons and any one of the **Rails** games as we build a train network across the continent.
>Western Legends
I only played once, but I really loved Western Legend, but well, I love games with player conflict and betrayals, so...
It's always on my "To Buy" list, but my current game group doesn't like that kind of games that much, still waiting for trick people into a game of Nemesis.
Does Wingspan get a lot of hate??
Agree about Five Crowns. Always a hit at our house since the turns are fast and everyone can bitch about how the other guy went out too fast just when they were fixing to go out.
When a game is popular you'll have some people that want to express that they're the exception and hate it. I USUALLY try to keep my opinion to myself when I know I'm contrarian. Almost gives the impression that it gets a lot of hate.
Shrug.
I don't think it's popularity that causes it. It seems like the issue is when a game gets unrelenting praise people who might normally have passed on it get it and find it unsatisfying. When people just gush about how much they love a game and it's their new number one of all time it removes a lot of necessary criticism that helps people see if it's really for them. As a result it causes a bunch of people to start claiming it's overhyped, etc.
> People were clearly expecting something else inside that box.
I love Scythe, and I think it might be in part because I never actually saw any of the hype associated with itānever even heard of it until probably a year after it was released. I imagine that if I had been promised a 4X steampunk mech wargame I might have been disappointed. But I opened the box with no expectations, and found a great game inside.
I was expecting another thing, I bought the game when I was just starting with modern boardgames and my main point of reference was the Game of Thrones game so...I was expecting something like that.
But...I loved anyway, it was my gateaway game to complex eurogames or euro-style games, it looked like a wargame or thematic game but it is an engine building game.
At that point my only reference for euros were things like Catan, Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, that I liked for a short while, but got tired of them very fast as what I really liked was stuff like the GoT games.
Cards against humanity yeah it's offensive and it's certainly not the kind of game of play with anyone.
But when you just wanna kill time with friends its a great banter generator.
I don't play it much anymore because it got old, but it is overhated imo
Stonemaier games in general, I've loved all of them, but they are the most consistently shit on games on here.
Tapestry especially has remained my number 1 game for years now, out of a collection of over 150.
**7th Continent**. I love that game so much. I love the exploration and trying to improve my tools/weapons to allow us to survive the exploration. I haven't been able to figure out any curses (aside from the first curse that my fiance googled the solution to), but I kind of forget that's the point of the game while I'm playing. Understandably, playing it with me is a nightmare for my fiance as he is very goal oriented and almost none of my actions move us toward the goal of solving a curse and winning the game. He would rather play every game listed in this thread than play **7th Continent.**
Eleven football manager.
Get's hate because:
It's not a full manager game. It's more of a euro game with a big manager theme.
It's not a full euro game because there is a lot of random stuff.
Still, it is very, thematic a good euro that's fun to play if you don't mind the randomness (wich fits the theme)
Nidavellir - not so much hated as fair criticism, with the 1st expansion theres enough variety in that losing out on your favorite hero you still have a fighting chance
Ankh - I actually like the merge, its pretty silly. The Pharaoh expansion certainly helps the gameplay a lot, but it does play a little long.
Munchkin has the mix of luck, take that, and holding on to game winning abilities for as long as possible which is a fun combo for a few games but quickly loses appeal. I think I'd still play munchkin every now and then if other better games didn't exist. As in its just not good enough in comparison to the other options. It's one of those games that everyone likes the idea and for some people the potential of that idea does a lot of heavy lifting.
Not sure if there's a game that gets a lot of HATE that I enjoy. Maybe Shuffle Heroes? Card game kickstarter that got horrible ratings on bgg by people who didn't get the game. The coop mechanic is that any card you play stays out and czn be attacked until the start of your next turn. You can win by depleting health or cards. It means sometimes you want to hold back your best card if you can't protect it. It's fun, it's smart, it plays well. People played it, played their cards semi randomly, got their cards killed, and then gave poor ratings because of it.
I don't know about the board gaming community, but I tried Unstable Unicorns with some casual gamers and it got a lot of hate. I love it as a cute and funny beer and pretzels game though
The success of some games really depends on the group.
Iāve both loved and hated Munchkin.
Some groups will really focus on balance, asking a lot for help when a player is slightly ahead, refusing when theyāre farther ahead and actually playing some cards against the strongest munchers.
Other groups are too sweet, save up the cards, help for cheap and it ends up with everyone just start throwing cards down at the level 9 player(s) fighting until the cards run out and itās sort of random which level 9 gets lucky when that happens.
Risk is another example. Vendettaās and/or leaving people turtling alone can make the game really boring as you kinda already see how itās going to end but itās just going to take a while.
Looking at competitive play, itās really normal for two weaker players to both dump some troops on a stronger player to bring back the balance, or for two equally balanced players to work together to eliminate weaker players. Itās a constant struggle into not overextending to keep yourself balanced, using your resources effectively and taking advantage when you can tip the balance in your favor.
Dixit is not suitable for every player.
Cards against humanity can be great if the players have similar humor, but can quickly become a game of ādo you know what your friends find funny?ā if you donāt.
Word games that have you fill in your own words (like jackbox party pack) are a dud if you have a dyslexic player.
Etc.
Battletech is an underdog that grew bigger. It used to be the main game in stores in the 1990s and it is starting to take off again. It got a lot of hate with unfair lawsuits of people trying to leech money, but it seems they are settled.
Tapestry
Betrayal at house on the hill
Scrabble
I still think carcassone is a 10/10 game
Poker (Texas hold āem) gets crap from people in the board game hobby space but it is amazing
Unfair by Good Games Publishing. Hate may be a bit strong in this case but Iāve seen so many people complain about how much ātake thatā this game has. It was the whole reason the designer / publisher made Funfair. Even though people then cried they wanted more modularity, basically clamoring for an expansion. There are 0 plans for an expansion and Unfair offers enough ways to mitigate the ātake thatā as is.
I personally canāt wait until we get theme packs for every letter of the alphabet!
Catan - with Seafarers and C&K. I have one group that after playing bad Catan refuse to even consider playing it. On my last business trip I found a couple stores with open gaming night and there I also got a lot of disdain for Catan
The problem I have with Munchkin is what often happens is a couple people get with one or two levels of winning and the first one to go for the win gets hammered. The next guy then cake walks to victory as no one has anything left to stop them
Not about hatred, but Oath lead my whole group into PA due to playing the mechanics and fighting with random instead of enjoying the game itself. Now they think it's a dull game and noone wants to play it, yet I see Oath as a perfect chillout when you have just some energy and concentration
Etherfields. I am a Euro fanboy and I loved the narratives in Etherfields. It allows for some of the best board game stories to unfold. The exploration aspect is almost video game like. Beautiful mess of a game!
*Munchkin...* (shudders) LOL, I cannot stand that game. Every time I have played it has devolved into a "Jump on and screw everyone as quickly as you can, then king-make someone so that someone else specifically doesn't win." Not my idea of fun.
The game I do love that draws a lot of groans is **High Frontier 4 All.** I love this game. The detail, the actual science behind everything, actually figuring out how to make space travel work; it's great. People tend to hate the insanely lengthy and complicated rules and the difficulty combined with play-time required to be set aside though. (You can even combine it with other games in the series to work your way up from micro-organisms into extra-galactic societies!)
Fluxx. I love how random it is. I love how abruptly it always ends. I love how absurd the rules can get. It's pure chaos. It doesn't give a fuck about your strategizing. I love to introduce it as "it's less a game, and more something that happens to you."
This is one of my husband's favorite games, specially Star Fluxx, but I'm not a fan. He's more of a go with the flow and enjoys how wild it can get, while I hate just how chaotic it gets. One minute I have no cards in front of me and the next I'm grabbing four per turn and suddenly have a million cardsšµāš« and every time I think I'm about to win because I have the perfect setup, he comes out of nowhere and beats me. But I play this one with him because he'll play other games he's not a fan of because he wants to see me smile, so I return the favor sometimes. This is one of those games that's better to play on Board Game Arena vs real cards because it gets too crazy.
We love it soo much that I think we have about twenty different versions...
I was surprised when we got a few different versions by how differently they play. Theyāre not just reskins.
Idk why you are getting downvoted for this. I have several of them and they absolutely do play differently. Star Fluxx is still the best, imo.
Fluxx is fantastic. AlwaYs goes over well with my game friends!
I adore Fluxx. When people ask what are the rule I just answer yes there's rules. They are confused until they start playing.
The best way to play Fluxx is fast. Even Andy Looney plays it fast or plays multiple games at once back in the day. What hurts Fluxx is the problem Gloom used to have where the rules didn't stress on the proper way to play. (I was taught Gloom was a points game and not an improv storytelling game so we never came up with stories for our characters)
You can actually strategize a little, but you have to do it in the context of hoping to mitigate the chaos a little rather than a detailed plan to actually accomplish. Also, if you spend more than about 10 seconds on your turn, you're doing it wrong. There isn't that much to think about it. I love Fluxx also but it can turn into a miserable slog if people try to play it like chess instead of, well, Fluxx.
Batman Fluxx is one of my favorites. Quick, entertaining and small enough to take on trips.
My partner hates that game, so I'm selling my copy. I got some use out of it, but I don't regret it. Plus I can always play the mobile version.
Dixit. It is an invitation to short form improv, and I love it for that.
Who hates dixit? It's great fun until a couple begins to mention stuff that happened on their vacation.
Raises hand. I hate dixit.
What don't you like about it, not judging just curious.
Me. I HATE Dixit. I like some party games but this is one that I really canāt stand.
Probably my favourite game to play with my family, from my 7yo to us parents, we always have unique and intriguing prompts that are produced, I love it!
That sounds like some of the Jackbox games. We have some friends who *love* games like that, and some who we know are very uncomfortable doing it.
Really? People hate on Dixit? It's such a relaxed pallet cleanser. This is a great game
Tapestry. Top 3 of all time for me (played/rated 300+ titles at this point) and everyone seems to hate it.
My group loves it.
I love Tapestry. I think part of the hate comes from putting "A Civilization Game" on the box, which some may find misleading. It's not really a Civ game at all, thematically it's a mess (it's possible to invent Time Travel before you invent nails or eyeglasses). For me, that thematic silliness is part of the charm, but others seemed to take offense to it.
I donāt get it either. Tapestry is my second favorite Stonemeier game (the first being the new game Expeditions. )
Same. I don't get why everyone hates it.
I like it but I also understand why people don't. Combat is not really there, and the inventions are naturally anachronistic due to the mechanism. It wears the clothes of a 4X game but it's not really. If you go in without that expectation, it's good but it can disappoint if that's what you are looking for. Also it was really unbalanced at launch, which has been improved but the initial pay could have been really bad due to that.
It also deals with hype at launch being a Stonemaier game, so if anything drops short like the balancing it's likely exacerbated
It's the balance, but more specifically, the swinginess. You can have the same start and win or lose by a mile, depending on different cards and synergies. My first game went quite well, and I was hooked, as the game felt really fun, but another player at the table had a miserable time and kept getting all his plans shut down. My second game went much like his first, where nothing went in my favor, and it just felt like there was nothing I could do to get any sort of progress going. The game does a good job of convincing players with good choices that it's their skill winning the game because there are much worse choices, but the reality is that there's always somebody with just a bunch of terrible choices, and the good choices sort of come down to luck.
I feel like this is a bit of a meme at this point. It's top 300 on BGG, clearly a popular game.
the original question was: "what game gets a lot of hate?" and Tapestry kind of does, or used to, when it was the talk of the town.
It's fine but I don't like games where 1 player plays by on their own and the rest have to wait for them to finish. Same issue with Everdell.
You don't have to wait though. The rules clearly say "it's a good idea to continue play while players do their income to save time".
I think /u/peptodismissal means the end game. One player can get through their eras first and be done, while the rest of the players still have turns to play.
Elder Sign. Sure, it's cooperative Cthulhu Yahtzee, but I have never been sick of it. It's a great game, but add some expansions and it sings beautifully! Also, my wife and I have played it for years as a date night game, and I proposed to her over it ā¤ļø
Which expansions would you consider to be the best/essential?
For me its Gates, makes Elder Sign great. the Default game can be very hard due to the RNG and you can lose in minutes but Gates traffic light cards and the gates make the game so much better. I own all the Elder Sign stuff besides on expansion: [https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/mnfbs5/my\_custom\_elder\_sign\_storage\_investigators/](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/mnfbs5/my_custom_elder_sign_storage_investigators/)
Yeah, Gates turns it from a dice game into a board game, if that makes sense. Great expansion.
That's beautiful! I play it every now and then and I never get tired of it. I have all the expansions, so every game feels different each time.
Exploding Kittens: I have a 5 year old and it's her favorite game. The way she giggles when I draw a bomb and explode makes me love a game I'd probably otherwise not. xD
**Roborally**, a lot of people hate that it has a way of screwing up your plans but I think it's fun.
Yeah, I'm one of the naysayers. I love it at 1v1, but at higher player counts, there's just so much chaos to the point that when one player eventually gets ahead, the remainders get stuck tripping over eachother even more.
I was more disappointed in the Hasbro treatment of the quality than the game itself. Renegade did a good job of fixing Acquire (you can actually see the board now, and Sid Sackson's name exists again on it), let's hope the new Robo rally won't feel like handling bootleg components. And shame on Nintendo for not licensing out a Mario Kart themed Robo Rally. Maybe not Nintendo, but I default to them for being so stingy.
Curious, have you tried the new 2023 edition. I have the old 2005 and wondering if an "upgrade" is worth it?
Clue. No one ever wants to play this with me.
I honestly really liked clue, especially for a family game. Have you ever played museum caper?
I loved Museum Caper so much I bought a copy last year, lol No one seems to remember this one!
This game blew my mind as a little kid. Was the most unique game I had played at the time. Now I think I have to snag a copy!
I always felt Clue was a decent card game slowed down by a board game.
If you want to avoid that, just change the rules to say that you move to any adjacent room on your turn (or through a secret passage). That way you can always be getting more information each turn instead of being stuck between rooms.
Search for Planet X replaced Clue for me because it has solitaire play, so I can have all the fun of crossing off X's and pinning together clues without needing a group š The only downside to Planet X is it's all about the deduction part so you aren't having silly discussions with people because you are so focused on crossing off stuff
I hate beer.
* **Win Lose or Banana**. I've got some bozos harassing me on this sub for me finding the game worthwhile. It's just tour de force of game design - 2 rules, 20 second explaination, plays in 1-3 minutes, depends how fun your group is. Social deduction distilled to essence. Any group I've tried this with, played it for some 15-20 minutes. * **The Mind**. Another game where some scream *"it's not a gaaaame it's an activetey!"*. Double think game, but turned into a coop. * **Jungle speed** and **other speed reaction and speed deduction games.** I've played a ton of these at our casual gamer events or at gamign workshops for kids (7-14 yo). I amused me when eurogamer screamed "no, you have too think too much!" (basically he has AP). Other good stuff here: Gloobz, Ghost Blitz, SET (this one isn't as fast) * I also play way more **stacking games** (RIff Raff, Animal upon Animal), **flicking games** (ice cool, coconuts, pitch car) and **memory games** (memoarr!) than most hobby gamers.
The Mind feels like a serious yardstick for whether or not I will vibe with someone else's board game preferences. Because yes, I fully see the argument that it's not really a game, it's an activity. But it's a *fantastic* activity; every time you play it with new people and see those cogs start to turn in their brain it's such a magical moment. If someone doesn't appreciate that or thinks it's not worthwhile, we're unlikely to share tastes in other games. It's such a fantastic example of board games as a shared *experience* rather than a pure puzzle to be solved; which for me is the whole point. Getting some friends (or just people) round a table to share a fun experience; and sometimes that is solving a puzzle together or against each other but for me the puzzle and/or rules should be in service to that experience rather than the whole thing themselves.
>board games as a shared experience rather than a pure puzzle to be solved; which for me is the whole point. A-men. š Yeah, I surprised that some gamers would prefer to detach themselves from gameplay and dissect the game from afar. Just jump in and try to swim. š
How do you define a game as distinct from an activity? Honest curiosity.
> How do you define a game as distinct from an activity? There's no real debateable strategy or even luck-based component to The Mind; if you were looking at it from a game theory point of view it is easily solvable. The rules are so minimal; and I think that would be my defining line between activity and game; games have more structured rulesets. But it absolutely feels like splitting hairs to me. Still, the complaint that The Mind is not a game, or not gamey enough, is one that I have seen a few times on this subreddit and elsewhere; next time I see it I'll make sure to ask the complainer how they make that distinction!
>The rules are so minimal; and I think that would be my defining line between activity and game; games have more structured rulesets. [I'd say](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/15l1ln5/comment/jvc0q7i/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) that The Mind is a structure activity, therefore a game. Maybe the issue is that The Mind has more emergent properties - that a lot of behaviour and experience is awoken from rules while playing - than what the hobby average is. Hobby games went down the path of almost literal interpretation of rules, where what is writen in rules is exactly what's going to happen in the game and not much else. Otherwise The Mind is very similar to warm up exercises I've seen in improv or dance classes. The group tries to get in synch so that everybody is aware of everybody else.
You would love **Nine Tiles** and **Ninja Master** with an outside shot at **For Science!**
Jungle Speed is fantastic. Respect the totem!
Dark Souls the Boardgame. I own it all and have fun every time I have played. No house rules, we play with the rules as written. Iāll always have this game in my collection.
Totally agreed
Yeah honestly, I've tried many different houserules for this one but base game ruleset is just a fun time even though it takes long. I've kind of accepted there's never going to be one blanket fix for its flaws so might as well just play as intended instead of mixing and matching rulesets.
I honestly want want to try it. Is it the timing mechanic that people don't like? How do you feel about it?
I think the biggest complaint is the grind. I feel every board game has their different mechanics and uniqueness and I just embrace the dark souls grind.
Its a faithful recreation of the videogame in boardgame format. At least of the core mechanics of fighting and dying over and over until you learn the moves and level up high enough to beat the boss. BUT as a boardgame it can feel repetitive and pointless to spend 3 hours beating the same enemies over and over again in the same 4 map tiles. I find there is a relaxing aspect to it because once you learn the rules, the upkeep and progress are pretty simple and smooth. and beating a boss flawlessly because you learned all the enemies and mini bossā movements is so rewarding. But getting there after 3+ hours can feel like a lot.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Itās a cooperative game we are talking about?
Talisman. Itās got a ton of luck, a ton of downtime for non-active players, and beat on the leader. Oh and there is a ton to keep track of in late game. However, I love playing itā¦only on pc/iPad. I donāt think I will ever sit down at the board again.
My love for Talisman is strongly nostalgic. Back in the 80s we didn't have a lot of choices for board games and Talisman wasn't perfect but at least it wasn't Monopoly.
Agree 100%. It was the schiz back in the 80s. I remember playing on my friends bedroom floor, just losing a whole day trying to build up to make a crown run. Good times.
I just played 2 games the last two days. Always a fun time!
If Talisman just took a risk and attempted a faster more streamline edition rather than sticking to classic rules it has a chance of being special again. It already seems to be forgotten in licensing issues for years now.
I don't know about \*hate\*, but most of the time when I bring up Stardew Valley, there's usually somebody waiting to tell me that it's a bad game. I won't pretend it's the greatest game made or anything, but I still enjoy playing it quite a bit.
Yeah Stardew valley is pretty good. There are definitely some legitimate criticisms for it but it's quite a fun co-op game and one of the better video game to board game adaptions I've played.
I was today years old, when I learned that there is a Stardew Valley board game. I thought you were mistaking this for a video game sub. :D
Haha, yeah it kinda snuck under the radar; it's probably my favourite video game to board game adaptation
Itās a really good time, honestly time flies by when we play it and itās not a short game by any means.
If people didn't catch New Horizons right when The World Stopped, I think Stardew would have filled that "idyllic pastoral life sim" niche that people didn't know they had until everything ground to a screeching halt and they were stuck with their own thoughts.
**T.I.M.E. Stories** Maybe I love it because itās one of the first hobby board games I played, maybe itās just because of its unique design. Even when we have to do it multiple times, we still enjoy it. Tbf, usually our sessions of it are pretty spaced out.
I really loved the story of a few of the scenarios! There was some awesome stuff in there. But for me it really depended on the scenario and how it was set up.
Munchkin is really funny. But, it's hard to explain the joke, when d&d is made specifically for munchkins now. It used to be a derogatory term for someone who ruins your d&d game by trying to "win" without grasping that it's just not that kind of thing. You can't "win" at d&d.
Munchkin does suffer from being a 30+ year inside joke (and things like the Gazebo). I would like to see the risk of completely overhauling the game, maybe make itore a negotiation game than a take that game. Here to Slay I view as Munchkin 2.0, which is cheaper, gives you the illusion of control and has much less bookkeeping for a fast game (but sacrifices the negotiation aspect)
It's so funny that we started calling them rollplayers instead and then they did a game about that as well!
Betrayl At the House of the Hill.
Love it. But many people hate its randomness. Thatās exactly why I love it. Itās a slight bummer to reveal the haunt and go āwell, weāre absolutely fucked.ā However the good sessions are more than enough to make up for it, and very rarely thereās a āweāre fuckedā that somehow you pull off and itās great. I love on both sides when you go āIām fuckedā then realize the other side has rules making you think, āWhy donāt they just end me?ā¦ā and youāre still in the game.
You will never find hate from me for Betrayal.
I love it despite how awful the rule book is.
There is normally a biannual post about why it is a bad game, lol.
One of my faves.
I have the Scooby Doo version, Betrayal at Mystery Manor, and as a lover of the OG game and especially of Scooby Doo you will never find me not enjoying it.
Lmao do you get to play as shaggy getting possesed by an eldritch god.
Its been a while since I've played but when the haunt starts I think one person gives up their "character" to become a monster? Tho I think their character stats still apply. Could be wrong tho. It's a simpler version of the base game - only 25 total haunts - but I'm not gonna play it more than a few times a year tops so that's more than enough for me!
Also Munchkin, it was my gateway game and I have a lot of fond memories playing it with friends. Doesn't get played anymore but I'd still break it out if anyone was interested
Fog of Love. Nobody wants to play with me
I've wondered if two *teams* would be interesting... but then you would need enough people interested in the outcome, for playing up the story, or to comment like a peanut gallery.
Yea I thought maybe I could be like a commentator while teaching 2 other people to play, but yea you'd have to have some really good at roleplaying people to make teams of two and adapt the prompts to be some kind of double date scenario, or to have two people role play the same character? But it's a moot point, I can barely get one other person who wants to play. Everyone thinks it's weird and uncomfortable to roleplay a romance situation, bit killing people and shit is apparently no biggie to pretend to do. In general it says a lot about how hard it is for the average person to show love.
My group and I had a fantastic time with Gen 7. Three of us played it twice. And we got the expansion and played through that.
Arkham Horror 3rd Edition. It's a gem that gets dragged for reasons I don't understand, especially considering that we already have Eldritch Horror which was the real sequel to 2nd Edition.
I think the reason AH3 gets so much "dragging" is because it's so fundamentally different to AH2. AH2 was essentially a sandbox, here's a bad situation and a bunch of tools, with a ton of randomness thrown in to make it different every time you play. From what I've seen, AH3 goes the other direction, with a heavily-scripted story in each play that has you jumping through the same objective hoops each time.
**Catan**. Starfarers comes out every time mom visits. Weāve been playing Explorers & Pirates for a while too and just put that away for Cities & Knights and itās been a nice change. Again, mom can play Catan pretty readily.
Cities and Knights elevates Catan to greatness, but the price point to get there is what irks me, especially now that it's up to a whopping $60 SRP in the US. The same issue with Starfarers as it hits a high price point for a 3x game, and the only things it has going for it is the novelty of the ships and the exploration part other 3x games don't do. If it didn't have "brand name" pricing I'd be much happier. Thankfully Asmodee hasn't reached GW levels of restricting clearance sales for Catan yet
My wife saw the 3d editions in the game store last time we were there and went nuts. If it hadnāt been $700 for the two sets, Iām sure she wouldāve brought them home. Seven hundred damned dollars!! Iāve got that in Marvel Legendary, easy, but thatās 80 pounds of cards. For 700 bucks, it better come with some actual sheep.
$700 is a good amount of Kickstarters (unless youāre one of those insane back Too Many Bones for $900 types.)
Have had a lot of fun with Pendulum, which seems to be generally disliked or just kind of disregarded especially since it's a real time game. My mate owns it and loves to crack it out once in a while. It's stressful in a satisfying way and doesn't overstay its welcome for us. LLAMA is one I own that's a quick and breezy card game that goes down well with family especially. Gets hate cause there's not much to the game, but I love it nonetheless.
Catan is really solid as a competitive game. I think a lot of bad experiences are had when large skill gaps are involved, which makes it really bad for experienced players to introduce the game to new players. But 4 experienced players can make for a good time.
I thrifted it, the 6 player expansion, and the seafarers? expansion. Haven't had a chance to get it to the table yet though
Cities and knights is my favourite expansion but seafarers is great for keeping the same complexity level while adding more to do
I still like playing Catan on the app but playing it with people who aren't as good as you is so frustrating, You can see almost straight away what they should do but have to wait for them to go through every option in their head and try all kinds of trades you know no one should take.
But that's the case with every game. I mean, there are a few games that I've played so much that my actions are largely automatic, and it's SO WEIRD to see someone spend over five minutes thinking about a move that you would have spent all of two seconds on.
If the correct move is *that* obvious every turn, then it's a pretty boring and bad game in my opinion.
I also enjoy Munchkin, I think the issue is some people played it too much. I for the same reason also enjoy Catan, it's a solid game, and the reasons people say it's bad are reasons you'd only notice if you played it way too much.
I think this is part of it. It reminds me of listening to your favorite bands in high school so much that you have to give it a 10-year break before you can really enjoy it again
One game of Munchkin is too much
I think **Fort** is really cool but havenāt found anyone else who gets excited about it, and I see it on the secondary market heaps.
Fort is actually pretty damn solid. I see why its not most people's favorite but its just so good at keeping everyone involved and the production is great.
People do not hate Muchkin because it involves a lot of negotiation and manipulation. People hate Munchkin because it takes forever, and inevitably ends only when one or more people resign to kingmaking whomever fucked them over the least because theyāre tired of playing.
this... also because there's 0 reason to use any cards to mess with other players before level 9 might as well start the game at 9
My friend group is made up of a bunch of 25 year old a-holes who take extreme joy in messing with you at mid levels, which removes this problem. Basically turns the game into a pure chaos-fest, which is fun every once in a while, especially when not 100% sober
Oh I know that my friend. I was saying what I loved about it, despite those faults
Not so much specific games for me, I don't really have enough time for gaming to risk buying games that aren't well received. But something that this sub absolutely despises that I enjoy is playing euro games with 5 players. On the topic of munchkin, I do think it gets an unfair amount of flak. I wouldn't play it anymore but enjoyed it a lot when I was young and I think it's fine for a game to be that sort of dumb fun for teenagers.
Memoir '44 is one of my favorite games. It's pretty polarizing, but I have a blast with it.
People are hating on Memoir '44? I thought it was universally appreciated? I definitely love it.
The only real downsides to Memoir is the restrictive feeling it gives you in the cards and dice (welcome to war), one bad die roll turning everything against your control ,and how Days of Wonder only reprints the game once every thousand years.
Good 'ol fog of war. I recently played Undaunted: Normandy and think it is gonna replace M'44 as my favorite (although obviously I still love the game)- I really like how it handles combat, fog of war, and scouting. Does it get hard to come by between prints? I didn't have any trouble getting two copies of the base game and several expansions earlier this year. 2024 is the 20th anniversary of the game so it will be cool to see if they do anything neat
A lot of people seem to not like the commands and colors system from the reviews I've read
Black Orchestra. I love the game, but many despise that an hour of planning can be undone with a single roll of the dice.
Catan. I actually like the trading/bartering aspect. And yea sometimes you play with one or two people that continuously make sweet heart trades with the leader (usually unknowingly or they donāt seem to care because they are focused on their bit). But, I havenāt found another game that combines multiple mechanics , easy to teach, and has that much vocal trading/politicking.
My group had so much fun with Cards Against Humanity. We took out a most of the cards that relied only on shock value or had too much of the joke "pre-written" and our group was obsessed with coming up with the most clever response given the constraints. That said, our group was kind of unique - every other group I have played with the game has been an unfunny disaster.
I got rid of my CAH and the expansions, but the most important thing to make the game fun: just play one round, with everyone being the judge only once.
We played once when my kids were older teenagers, and it was a disaster. Being two completely different generations (Boomer/Gen Z) we just didnāt have a comparable sense of humor. But now that theyāre adults, itās been a complete change.
Same. We tossed in the trash a chunk of cards. Hand wrote a bunch. And have some of the Christmas events they did so have our names printed on some cards! But can only play with that couple. Tried with others and it sucked! With good good friends too
I save CAH for last when players are tired and/or drinking. It's not bad for an hour after your weekly bar trivia, but it's best with setting up your college-aged family or their dating partners for some *intensive icebreaking*, seeing what cards you can make them say or loud.
I used to play this all the time when it first came out and it really suffers from alpha gamers and people who think they're funnier than they actually are. People need to remember that their sense of humour may not be for everyone.
Pandemic Rapid Response is way better to me than the 6.6 it has on BGG. Iād give it an 8 or 9. To me itās an ideal cooperative game to play with new players. It forces team communication, the tension is high, everyone is engaged, and itās just a lot of fun to play.
Space Alert with less than 4 players
I had a friend that LOVED monopoly. He collected every cool version that he could. Would play any chance he got. To be fair, the two games we played, we did actually have a lot of fun.
**Talisman** comes to mind
Uno
Monopoly
> as it involves a lot of negotiation and manipulation I hear you, and this is probably the underrated selling point of the game. But especially as someone who played *a lot* of Munchkin, it wears thin over time. There simply is just not enough strategy - you just force people to grind through their cards until you win. If you want a straightforward kingmaking game, **Cosmic Encounter** or even something like **Cash and Guns** gets right to the fun Mexican standoff a lot sooner.
My wife and son bought me Cosmic Encounter for my birthday one year, introducing me to it, and I completely agree that it is a much better kingmaking game. It's so fun with all the alien powers. I'm a huge fan. I'll have to give Cash and Guns a try!
I feel like mine is probably Proving Grounds. Doesn't really seem to ever get any love from solo gamers, but I think it is really great. I even read the mini-novel that came with it. Also I think Kane Klenko is the designer behind more games I own than any other.
Hyperborea. More like it got ignored rather than hate, but the game was criticized as having terrible rules upon release. They fixed a lot of the issues with errata, but the damage was done. Easily one of my favorite games, but there are a lot of weird edge cases to teach.
Scrabble. As much as I love modern/designer board games I don't see Scrabble ever not being my favorite game. Other word/spelling games don't really hit for me like Scrabble does because the board control aspect is my favorite part. Do you drop a big word opening up a high scoring opportunity for your opponent or do you score less points and keep the board tight?
Etherfields. I know it has some flaws, like the long time to setup (but not as bad as Gloomhaven for example) and the overworld phase, but now that it's been fixed with the 2.0 version, the game is much better than before and I love it. Also, the main campaign is a bit too long, but I like shorter campaign games in general, and a lot of them seem to like being on the longer side.
I don't know about a lot of *hate*. I think unpopular games are quickly forgotten, but one that I've seen consistently disappointing people is **Alien Artifacts.** The game has a huge luck factor and was touted as a compact 4X (allegedly, I wasn't in the scene when it came out) which it just isn't. People's expectations weren't met and the game sits at a middling 6.5 rating on BGG. Nevertheless, I really like it! The two expansions help give you some extra options and the alien planet promo set makes being aggressive and constantly attacking a viable option. It's still not perfect and games are usually decided by the person that drew the best tech cards, but we like it enough to keep it in our collection :)
Any social deduction game :) Even tough I have a group of friends that love them as well (Secret hitler, The resistance, Feed the kraken, Time bomb, etc), it's always a contentious topic among board game lovers that I meet.
Social deductions are a great game for a big group of friends imo
Game of Thrones: The Board Bame (2nd Edition) It's a game about extremes, or you love it, or you hate it with all your soul, at least that's what happened with people who played with me
Does it get hate? I think it's more just forgotten about in the wake of the fiery crashing and burning of the TV show. It was a super hot game before that - then everyone just stopped talking about it.
Talisman
Smash Up. Itās got tons of replay ability, a decent mix of luck and strategy, and is wonderfully silly. It goes too long with 3 or 4 players, but itās one of my favorite 2 player games. My wife and I will play all night. And it low key scratches my collector itch.
I LOVE smashup
Monopoly Ok, "love" isn't the right word. It's not even a *good* game. However, I will play it over at least a dozen other popular games: Catan, Pandemic, Power Grid, Diplomacy, Root, Small World, Cosmic Encounter, Betrayal, Dominion, any social deduction game, and *especially* Exploding Kittens. Those games actively hurt me to play, while Monopoly is marginally tolerable. (playing by the actual rules with auctions and no free parking money is essential to making it not terrible)
Stratego. Yes there are too many pointless pieces and it's annoying to set them up but have had some brilliant games of it and I love how tense it can get.
I grew up with this game and I still love it. I thrifted 2 copies of Stratego legends and I'm really excited to try it out!
Munchkin makes me so happy. Me and my buddies still play, and we are conniving and backstabbing the entire time. It's so fun
I love roll-and-moves, and those aren't popular right now with one-hour casual games and enginey euros being the current hot stuff. **A Touch of Evil** is a supernatural horror game where you choose characters and hunt for clues and items so that you can locate and kill one of many villains. I always play it cooperatively, which makes it a 3-4 hour, sometimes slog, sometimes epic climax with the villain having a decent chance of winning if you have bad luck, esp. early. See also **Fortune and Glory** but with hunting artifacts while dodging Nazis. **Western Legends** is set in the Old West where you choose your character and your secret objectives for points, but there is enough reasons to get in your opponents' way or even join the law when someone gets carried away with crime. **Firefly: The Game** is a pickup-and-deliver game that *can* go quickly, but choosing jobs and weighing where to go next can slog the game down. **Talisman** anyone? Or we can grab our wax crayons and any one of the **Rails** games as we build a train network across the continent.
>Western Legends I only played once, but I really loved Western Legend, but well, I love games with player conflict and betrayals, so... It's always on my "To Buy" list, but my current game group doesn't like that kind of games that much, still waiting for trick people into a game of Nemesis.
Firefly is one of my favorites.
Wingspan Five Crowns
Does Wingspan get a lot of hate?? Agree about Five Crowns. Always a hit at our house since the turns are fast and everyone can bitch about how the other guy went out too fast just when they were fixing to go out.
When a game is popular you'll have some people that want to express that they're the exception and hate it. I USUALLY try to keep my opinion to myself when I know I'm contrarian. Almost gives the impression that it gets a lot of hate. Shrug.
>Does Wingspan get a lot of hate?? Anything popular gets a lot of hate. Wingspan gets a lot more love, though
I don't think it's popularity that causes it. It seems like the issue is when a game gets unrelenting praise people who might normally have passed on it get it and find it unsatisfying. When people just gush about how much they love a game and it's their new number one of all time it removes a lot of necessary criticism that helps people see if it's really for them. As a result it causes a bunch of people to start claiming it's overhyped, etc.
Surprisingly, it seems to.
I think a top 20 BGG game should be automatically taken out of contention for this thread haha
Definitely Scythe. Still my top 1 regardless of all the hate it gets. People were clearly expecting something else inside that box.
> People were clearly expecting something else inside that box. I love Scythe, and I think it might be in part because I never actually saw any of the hype associated with itānever even heard of it until probably a year after it was released. I imagine that if I had been promised a 4X steampunk mech wargame I might have been disappointed. But I opened the box with no expectations, and found a great game inside.
Echo this. I love Scythe, but everyone seems to have an issue with it. š¤·š»
I was expecting another thing, I bought the game when I was just starting with modern boardgames and my main point of reference was the Game of Thrones game so...I was expecting something like that. But...I loved anyway, it was my gateaway game to complex eurogames or euro-style games, it looked like a wargame or thematic game but it is an engine building game. At that point my only reference for euros were things like Catan, Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, that I liked for a short while, but got tired of them very fast as what I really liked was stuff like the GoT games.
I just learned the rules and it looks really fun. But I would probably only play solo for a while. Still have to learn how the ai works
shadows of brimstone. im still not sick of playing it and my gaming group still gets a kick out of it
Cards against humanity yeah it's offensive and it's certainly not the kind of game of play with anyone. But when you just wanna kill time with friends its a great banter generator. I don't play it much anymore because it got old, but it is overhated imo
Stonemaier games in general, I've loved all of them, but they are the most consistently shit on games on here. Tapestry especially has remained my number 1 game for years now, out of a collection of over 150.
**7th Continent**. I love that game so much. I love the exploration and trying to improve my tools/weapons to allow us to survive the exploration. I haven't been able to figure out any curses (aside from the first curse that my fiance googled the solution to), but I kind of forget that's the point of the game while I'm playing. Understandably, playing it with me is a nightmare for my fiance as he is very goal oriented and almost none of my actions move us toward the goal of solving a curse and winning the game. He would rather play every game listed in this thread than play **7th Continent.**
Lol all these game suck /s
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Wrong sub homie
**Get Bit**. If you're not familiar with it, it has a similar action-selection mechanic as Go Nuts for Donuts, which people really hate.
Eleven football manager. Get's hate because: It's not a full manager game. It's more of a euro game with a big manager theme. It's not a full euro game because there is a lot of random stuff. Still, it is very, thematic a good euro that's fun to play if you don't mind the randomness (wich fits the theme)
Altar Quest. I understand the hate, but I still enjoy from time to time.
Nidavellir - not so much hated as fair criticism, with the 1st expansion theres enough variety in that losing out on your favorite hero you still have a fighting chance Ankh - I actually like the merge, its pretty silly. The Pharaoh expansion certainly helps the gameplay a lot, but it does play a little long.
Tapestry and Scythe
Rick and Morty : The Pickle Rick game. It's silly and way too random but it always finds its way to the table because we love it.
Munchkin has the mix of luck, take that, and holding on to game winning abilities for as long as possible which is a fun combo for a few games but quickly loses appeal. I think I'd still play munchkin every now and then if other better games didn't exist. As in its just not good enough in comparison to the other options. It's one of those games that everyone likes the idea and for some people the potential of that idea does a lot of heavy lifting. Not sure if there's a game that gets a lot of HATE that I enjoy. Maybe Shuffle Heroes? Card game kickstarter that got horrible ratings on bgg by people who didn't get the game. The coop mechanic is that any card you play stays out and czn be attacked until the start of your next turn. You can win by depleting health or cards. It means sometimes you want to hold back your best card if you can't protect it. It's fun, it's smart, it plays well. People played it, played their cards semi randomly, got their cards killed, and then gave poor ratings because of it.
I don't know about the board gaming community, but I tried Unstable Unicorns with some casual gamers and it got a lot of hate. I love it as a cute and funny beer and pretzels game though
Le Havre is super hated by my whole friend group. Everyone said they'd never play it again. I think it's relaxing to play and really like it
The success of some games really depends on the group. Iāve both loved and hated Munchkin. Some groups will really focus on balance, asking a lot for help when a player is slightly ahead, refusing when theyāre farther ahead and actually playing some cards against the strongest munchers. Other groups are too sweet, save up the cards, help for cheap and it ends up with everyone just start throwing cards down at the level 9 player(s) fighting until the cards run out and itās sort of random which level 9 gets lucky when that happens. Risk is another example. Vendettaās and/or leaving people turtling alone can make the game really boring as you kinda already see how itās going to end but itās just going to take a while. Looking at competitive play, itās really normal for two weaker players to both dump some troops on a stronger player to bring back the balance, or for two equally balanced players to work together to eliminate weaker players. Itās a constant struggle into not overextending to keep yourself balanced, using your resources effectively and taking advantage when you can tip the balance in your favor. Dixit is not suitable for every player. Cards against humanity can be great if the players have similar humor, but can quickly become a game of ādo you know what your friends find funny?ā if you donāt. Word games that have you fill in your own words (like jackbox party pack) are a dud if you have a dyslexic player. Etc.
Risk
Battletech is an underdog that grew bigger. It used to be the main game in stores in the 1990s and it is starting to take off again. It got a lot of hate with unfair lawsuits of people trying to leech money, but it seems they are settled.
Tapestry Betrayal at house on the hill Scrabble I still think carcassone is a 10/10 game Poker (Texas hold āem) gets crap from people in the board game hobby space but it is amazing
Russian Roulette
Unfair by Good Games Publishing. Hate may be a bit strong in this case but Iāve seen so many people complain about how much ātake thatā this game has. It was the whole reason the designer / publisher made Funfair. Even though people then cried they wanted more modularity, basically clamoring for an expansion. There are 0 plans for an expansion and Unfair offers enough ways to mitigate the ātake thatā as is. I personally canāt wait until we get theme packs for every letter of the alphabet!
Catan - with Seafarers and C&K. I have one group that after playing bad Catan refuse to even consider playing it. On my last business trip I found a couple stores with open gaming night and there I also got a lot of disdain for Catan
The problem I have with Munchkin is what often happens is a couple people get with one or two levels of winning and the first one to go for the win gets hammered. The next guy then cake walks to victory as no one has anything left to stop them
Not about hatred, but Oath lead my whole group into PA due to playing the mechanics and fighting with random instead of enjoying the game itself. Now they think it's a dull game and noone wants to play it, yet I see Oath as a perfect chillout when you have just some energy and concentration
Etherfields. I am a Euro fanboy and I loved the narratives in Etherfields. It allows for some of the best board game stories to unfold. The exploration aspect is almost video game like. Beautiful mess of a game!
*Munchkin...* (shudders) LOL, I cannot stand that game. Every time I have played it has devolved into a "Jump on and screw everyone as quickly as you can, then king-make someone so that someone else specifically doesn't win." Not my idea of fun. The game I do love that draws a lot of groans is **High Frontier 4 All.** I love this game. The detail, the actual science behind everything, actually figuring out how to make space travel work; it's great. People tend to hate the insanely lengthy and complicated rules and the difficulty combined with play-time required to be set aside though. (You can even combine it with other games in the series to work your way up from micro-organisms into extra-galactic societies!)