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This Week’s Explorable Games
This round of Explorable Favorites is (again) from BoardGaming.com member garbled. The games selected from their Favorites shelf were:
- Suburbia
Bézier Games | Published: 2012 - Super Dungeon Explore
Soda Pop Miniatures | Published: 2011
These games will be explorable until next Monday, August 18th.
After you’ve explored these games, let us know what you think about them in the comments below!
I, too, love the idea of being able to add games to the site, with or without the XP gain. My personal library has a number of unrepresented games that I’d love to see added here. In fact, my favorite game of all time (see profile for details) is not listed on this or the *cough* other site. Maybe require a review/tip/discussion element be added in order to add a new game? That restriction could serve the dual purpose to limit games being added for XP grinding alone and also conveniently contributing a bit more to the site.
I like the exploration of less known games or games that don’t have what it tales to explore it. I have owned Surburbia for quite some time and was planing on reviewing it but had not gotten around to it. The explosion gave me the push to get it done.
If BG is going to have users add games I would put more than a overall level requirement. Maybe something similar to the gamer category recommendations.
@Jim – I think XP built around adding games sounds terrific… but there should be some kind of daily limit to prevent abuse (i.e., somebody spending a day adding games they’ve never heard of from BGG’s database to ours just to build XP).
And your “continuing education” is a whole lot more interesting than mine (CPAs have to sit through 40 hours of courses annually on invigorating topics like Business Ethics, Estate Planning, etc… it can make you want to let your license lapse!)
@MLawless – I think we’re really all XP collectors, and I personally love leveling up. I was just pointing out that, to me, the Weekly Explorables are more valuable than just building XP.
Awesome discussion! Perhaps I should write up an article where we could discuss with high level (level 6+) users (any ideas for a cool name for high level users? Ie: BGdot pros) what types of quests would be fun. Maybe one idea would be if we allowed high level users to add games to the site and then reward XP, gold, etc for that?
FYI, I’ve been a graphic designer for many years now, but I just started an intense 9-week programming and development course. This will allow me to do so much more than I currently can on the site. Currently I moderate comments, update pages, write news articles, add game pages, create avatars, write the occasional review (Andy writes most of them), etc. But with programming/development skills I’ll be able to create new features and quests for the site!
@ Account Deletion: The miniature assembly and painting is the down side of SDE. I already dabble in one miniature game, and that’s enough! I was hoping someone would run it at a local Con which is fast approaching so I could give it a try. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
@Account D, Suburbia is one of my current favorites. I had mentally committed to reviewing it a few weeks ago and this was just perfect coincidence!
@Hai, Pierre would have been a great high-brow selection, but I went with someone with more general population appeal. Hope everyone can make the connection…
@Granny and @Stargazer1 – I bought my copy of SDE in March, and you still have to put all of the miniatures together. It literally takes hours just to assemble them; if you want them painted (which I did), it can take months depending on your available time.
All of the expansion sets are now pre-assembled I believe. I bought Rock Top Gang and a few of the single mini-bosses a few months ago, and they were no-assembly-required. But they’re always unpainted, and playing with painted pieces is so much better.
@Stargazer1 – you may want to track down a used copy or play with someone else’s first so you don’t put hours of work into something before you know if you enjoy it.
I think the weekly Explorables just mean different things to different people. Those that speak up about the lack of explorability of a weekly selection are likely just hunting for XP. But for me and many others, this is the best possible way (from behind a keyboard) to find out about games you were unaware of or otherwise ignored (as @Hai already pointed out). For us, getting these 2- and 3-review games is the whole point. I most likely already know everything I need to know about a game with 10+ reviews like SDE long before it’s explorable.
For me the best outcome from this week’s Explorables is not that I get XP, but that Suburbia gets 2 more thoughtful reviews. I had already read and rated the reviews of @garbled, @Wade C and @Brady Boothe, but I did so on the day they were posted and never looked at them in aggregate together. Having done so, Suburbia is going straight to my wish list.
And I need to know what @Stratagon has to say about the game. I gather you like it based on the thoughtful tip (which I had apparently already “thumbs-upped” in spite of never playing the game – it must be because your strategy is a lot like one I use in City of Iron, where you also have lettered decks that predictably run down allowing you to re-assess the value of available buildings). Can’t help on the opponent problem, though… I’m woefully lacking on knowledge of renowned suburban developers.
@Hai That’s one of my hang-ups this time. Can’t come up with anything clever yet…
@Stratagon Agreed 🙂
A few months ago ‘Explorable Favorites’ was a shelf divided between people throwing their hands up in the air about ‘Unexplorable Explorables’ and ‘Redundant Explorables’ – and while the weekly Sacred Shelf is a dandy quick fix of XP – that isn’t so much the point.
Weekly Explorables are:
A) A place for the Cardboard Curious to discover games, old and new, that may have slipped through the cracks and keep tabletops from getting too complacent.
B)A watering hole of discussion to revisit old favorites.
C) A means to keep the BGdot fresh with encouragement for new reviews and tips for both the revisits and the not-quite explorables.
The shelves are merely stocked each week – it is the membership that shines the spotlight. 🙂
(And please finish your review – I want to see who makes your opponent list 🙂 )
Edit: @stratagon suggestion- Pierre L’Enfant?
Can we save the fake reviews (Suburbia) for maybe the last day of exploration? I was working on a legitimate review, extremely encouraged by its explorability, but now have less motivation. When they select games with less than the required amount of reviews, it does actually encourage some of us to produce!
Just updated both games with videos, and updated the Rulebook and Official Game site for Super Dungeon Explore. Happy exploring!
Neat. I was curious about information regarding Super Dungeon Explore when I saw it on a store shelf a while back. 🙂
Two COMPLETELY different styles of game this week.
Suburbia is an economic Euro game where you build a city using hex tiles. There is some luck of the draw and secret information, but ultimately, it is a Euro. I think of it as the game Monopoly should have been.
Super Dungeon Explorer is a roll-fest hack and slash. Think of it as Castle Ravenloft steeped in cute powder. My kids love it. NOTE: you used to have to put the minis together. I’m not sure if they still require this. I’m not a lover of miniature building. I stopped building models in my teens. I just want to play the game!!!!
@garbled Methinks you should play the lottery this week 🙂 Random number generators are your friend
Suburbia is a fun game! Nice smooth mechanics and good looking components. I usually won’t turn down a game.
Super Dungeon Explore has peaked my interested. I’ll need to give this one a try. Looks like a lot of fun!
The Official Game page for SDE is not functional. Looks like it may have directed to the page in their store. It should be:
http://sodapopminiatures.com/game-super-dungeon-explore/
I’ll be updating the Rulebook, Official Game Site and video links later tonight, but thought I’d let ya’ll start exploring now!