XBLA Board Games

[miffy495]

Well, Carcassone hit today, making it the second major board game to hit XBLA as part of their goal to get these games up and online. The first I consider to be Catan. I guess Uno and Texas Hold 'em probably qualify, but for me they more fit into the realm of "something you do with your family when the power goes out" than a real board game that people will come together specifically to play.

These hold a lot of interest for me. Ever since the tenth grade, every Friday afternoon a group of friends and I have gathered somewhere (locations change as we grow up and move around, of course) and spent several hours just playing these games. Settlers of Catan, Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, Power Grid, Alhambra, Junta, Pueblo, Tigris, and whatever else we can get our hands on. Two of our number work at gaming stores, and so every once in a while they'll grab something off the shelf for the day and call it a "demo session" in the paperwork. We disband around seven or eight and go to whatever our Friday night activities may be. It's something I really look forward to every week.

Now, I know that this atmosphere cannot really ever be captured by an online HD game, but that Microsoft is making a sincere effort to bring these games to people who may never have touched a traditional board game otherwise intrigues me. The graphics are minimal and do a good job of conveying the artwork of the original games, but I can't really see how they would appeal to those that haven't devoted hours to the physical game. The people I have encountered in these games up until this point have been remarkably well mannered compared to those I've played in Project Gotham, Gears of War, the Halo 3 beta, or otherwise. Does the more calm and measured pace of these games effect how the player treats their opponents, or are these games simply attracting a different kind of player entirely? It seems to me that if MS publicized this effort more and started putting a wider variety of these strategic games out there, they may start a blue ocean movement of their own.

Mostly, I refer to Catan here, as Carcassone is new at the moment and I have only had the chance to play one game of it online yet. Still, my opponents in this game displayed the same kind of dignity that I've seen in Catan. I'm very impressed by these games to this point, and will be sure to download future tabletop game efforts as they come to Live. Anyone else find themselves playing a surprising amount of boardgames on a $400 machine? Experiences? Thoughts?

[Wrestlevania]

It's certainly encouraging to see a more wider range of game types being embraced by XBLA.

I'm still holding out hope that someone brings BattleTech to the virtual board game mix--I loved that game.

[Kolzig]

Hell yeah, I remember an awesome Amiga game that was a BattleTech game.

They should make something like that for the WiiWare channel (and also Xbox propably)

[drummand]

I've been enjoying the boardgames as well. Desperately hoping the trend continues. I'd definitely be down with some Battletech (did MS pick up the rights with FASA? I'm unclear on how that biz worked). Only managed to connive a game or two of that before my friends realized it was an ordeal they were less than interested in ...

I've seen comments elsewhere that folks on Catan have been more civil ... I suppose that may be true. Though I've yet to play online (cuz I suck so absolutely), my wife's been obsessed with it (and now seems to be developing a similar obsession with Carcassonne) and has moved to playing nothing but online (she's actually playing right now, go fig).

I've noticed there seems to be less chatting in Catan than in other games, thus less opportunity for brute incivility. She's still encountered a fair share of asshats, but the nature of the game seems to tone the asshattery down a bit. Emoticon abuse relatively common but fairly ignorable. A handful of folks seemed to like selecting and unselecting and reselecting settlement/city locations ad infinitum, which is super obnoxious (I gather there's been some talk of that artificially inflating this or that stat to bump one's gamerscore, and it's died down as the weeks have passed). Also, the player pool seems to be much smaller. I see lots of the same names coming up when she plays, which also reduces the opportunity for encountering random idiots.

What particularly pleases me about Carcass (and Band of Bugs (which I've found pretty appealing)), is offline multiplayer. I tire of being relegated to the computer while my lovely wife gets her Catan on. I can only hope there are more games that provide this option. Well. Games I'm interested in (which drastically reduces the likelihood)

[miffy495]

Yeah, the offline multiplay is nice. My sister was over today and I suckered her into a game. She had a round against the CPU first with me showing her the ropes so she could understand what she was doing, but it was just too slow paced for her. A pity, to be sure, but I have other opponents to bother. I'm becoming far more hooked on Carcassone than I was with Settlers (I'm also a lot better at Carcassone than I am at Settlers, go figure) and can see myself playing it way more often than any full-price 360 game. (save for Guitar Hero, of course)

Battletech brings back a lot of memories of junior high school for me. My first ever tabletop game, because as a 13 year old boy, it needed to have giant robots blowing the shit out of each other to hold my interest. I never carried the game through high school, so it's been a good 6 years since my last round. I think I still have some mech sheets in a binder somewhere though. I should really see if I can sucker any of my older friends into a game. I think MS does own the rights to Battletech, what with Mechwarrior/Assault being such a big deal on PC and the first Xbox. I never played the DS one, was that more strategic? I think if you're going to bring the Mechwarrior name back to its Battletech roots, the DS or XBLA would be the place to do it.