This week I stumbled across a boardgaming Twitter hashtag that I didn’t recognize: #10x10in2014. A few clicks later, and I arrived at a post on BoardGameGeek by Sarah “SilvaShado” Reed, titled “2014 Challenge: Play 10 Games 10 Times Each.” Reed lamented that, although she managed to play a lot more of her unplayed games in 2013, she often played games only once or twice and didn’t feel like she really got into the meat of the games. So for 2014 she’s challenging herself—and the rest of us tabletop geeks—to play the same games more often.
The idea is to pick a list of 10 games that you will try to play at least 10 times each (and submit it before the end of 2013). The aim is to get more people playing games in depth, and not just skipping on to the next thing.
Now, if you know me you know that this is a real challenge. Partly it’s my personality type—I tend to sample a little bit of everything, rather than digging deep in one subject. The problem is also exacerbated by being a reviewer, because I’m constantly being asked to try something new so I can write it up.
I went back and looked at my BoardGameGeek records. In 2006, when I first started tracking my games on the site, I played 47 games of Fluxx, and had a total of 40 different games played. Compare that to this year, when I played 141 different games—over 100 of those only once or twice, and only one more than 10 times. (In case you’re curious, it was the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, at 18 plays.) For me, it was more like a year of #100x1in2013.
In the intervening years I’ve had several games in the teens—mostly shorter games like Incan Gold and Fluxx—but that number has been decreasing, and the overall length of the list has been increasing. Add to that the growing number of Kickstarter games, and my pile of “Games I Haven’t Even Played Once” is getting out of hand.
So maybe it’s a good idea for me to give this a shot. I can’t even begin to guess which games will be my top 10 next year, though it’s a safe bet that Pathfinder ACG will get at least 10 plays since I’m planning on finishing the adventure path. If I count Carcassonne on the iPad (I forget to log digital games) then that would definitely hit the teens, too. But what else? Should I pick games I already own, or ones that I’m expecting to get in 2014?
How about you: do you find yourself playing a few games a lot, or many games a little? What were your most-played games in 2013, and what do you expect to be playing next year?
There is also a 100 play challenge where you take the challenge to play 1 game 100 times. No time limit.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/142757/the-100-play-challenge-in-support-of-deeper-explor
Wow. Yeah, that’s going in the opposite direction of my play habits. 🙂 I’m going to try to get 10 plays of some games in 2014—whether I’ll hit 10×10 is a bit iffy. Maybe 5×5 is more likely.
Rampage. And I am confident that, sometime in 2014, I will be able to find a copy of Robinson Crusoe. I will play it and life will be grand.
I’ve also been playing more Carcassonne lately, with the new Winter Edition and (again, sometime in 2014) the South Seas.
I’m the board game junkie in my household, and so far I can typically only squeeze one game a week (Friday is Family Game Night!) out of my family. We like playing new games, although as our collection grows we are finding more and more that we also want to give some of our older favs some attention. Still, one game a week works out to not much game play over the year. Meeting this goal sounds appealing to me, but I’m not sure I can get everyone else on board!
Cool idea. Here at home we have what we refer to as the “Christmas rule” where we have to play through all of our new games before we’re allowed to replay any game. It came out of a Christmas a few years ago when we ended up getting the kids almost 20 board games, and knew there was a real risk that the kids would get hooked on one of the first ones we played and some would never get touched. Kickstarter definitely isn’t helping – so many new games, so little time (and money) – but I think I might sit down with my daughter (the other gamer in the family) and figure out which ones we’ll pick for this.
I would say I don’t think it’s necessary to play all the new ones before you replay one—but it’s probably good to have a rule about playing all the new ones before I BUY more games. 🙂
This might be a good challenge for me, I definitely have higher aspirations for gaming frequency. It also might help encourage the wife and I to sit down for a quick game before bed instead of another episode of Pawn Stars, or whatever becomes our new hotness.
Playing digital is the only way I really dive into a board game. Like you, I love trying new games, but the iPad has let me play many, many games of Kingdom Builder (a new favorite) Ticket to Ride (an old favorite) and most recently Lords of Waterdeep.
I do play games on the iPad, but for me it just doesn’t compare to playing face to face. Probably one of the reasons I love the Carcassonne app so much is that it allows for in-game chatting, which very few other games do. The table talk is some of the best part of playing games with my friends. That, and sharing snacks, which is also hard to do over Game Center. 🙂