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Uggh, I haven’t been very good lately. I’ve bought a couple of games I really shouldn’t have simply because I got a good deal on them or something.

The biggest offense was picking up a copy of Titan from Tanga. I can’t believe I did that. I’m not even that big a fan of the game. But it was like $30 bucks. Oh well, maybe I’ll give it a couple of plays and unload it at a flea market.

Most of the others were circumstances. I picked up a couple of titles at Goodwill, simply because they were insanely cheap. Hisss, Conspiracy, and Sorry Sliders are the main ones that come to mind.

As far as game orders, I can only think of one that I made, and that was for a copy of Glory to Rome, which should come back in to stock basically any day now. I’m about to order the historical versions of Battleground Fantasy Warfare and the Expansion. I kind of thought Arcane Legions might satisfy my historical want for a mini like wargame. But I think it has some flaws people are talking about. I’ve decided that Battleground is sufficiently tiny, and gets sufficiently good reviews for me to give it a shot.

Anyway, I digress. So in order to curb the recent trend, I decided to try to reign in my growth a little this week, and looked to cull some more stuff out of the collection. I’ve decided to finally let go of some oldies but goodies that I’ve been hanging on to.

I’m getting out of the Formula De business. The game just takes way to long for the amount of fun contained, and I’d much much rather play Snow Tails nearly every time, or even Turfmaster. So I just had to finally give up on it, especially since the tracks are worth so much. In an effort to speed this up, I’m sending my Spa Francorchamps, USA Track Pack 1, and USA Track Pack 2 to Troll and Toad. For these three Track sets, they have offered me $220 bucks, and I can’t keep them sitting on the shelf unplayed when they are worth that and somebody will get them that wants them. They only offered me $15 for the base game though, and I could get that at a Flea Market without going through Troll & Toad for them. Plus I really think I might be able to get $20 or so at a flea market anyway, since I have painted pewter cars and stuff in mine.

I also posted some old Martin Wallace Treefrog things on BGG, one has sold this week. My copy of Tinners’ Trail Signed & Numbered 1128 of 1500 has already sold. Hopefully I’ll get an offer on my signed and numbered copy of Steel Driver sometime soon as well.

I liked both of these games well enough, but can’t keep them around when I’d rather play Chicago Express over both of them, despite my love for Martin Wallace and his games and designs. I still can’t get rid of Perikles though, I haven’t gotten to try it yet, I need to get that one to the table to see if it makes the cut or not.

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, Chicago Express, Formula De, Game Collection, Glory to Rome, Purge, Titan

We were having a discussion on our local Game Group’s mailing list a week or so ago about collection data, size, etc.

I had made reference to my collection numbers and it was asked why I care. GW wanted to tell me that his philosophy was that if he liked a game, he would get it, and later if that changed, he would purge it, without regard to the actual number.

My response at the time was that the collection number was sort of like a temperature gauge. Not something I’m overly concerned with, but I like to look at it to see a numerical analysis of the situation at one time or another. Over time the number can show me trends etc.

But that got me thinking about the number. And I wanted to elaborate on that number and the way it is used. Personally, for my own personal game thinning, I was using the Boardgamegeek ‘Owned’ number on each members profile page. At the time I began, I felt like my game collection was running rampant (coincidentally when it outgrew the current two shelves and started being added to dining room and piles around the game room) I was using this number to reign in my collection and try to minimally keep it to the two shelves plus a little bit of spillover on certain occasions or situations. (90% of my collection currently exists on those shelves. But I do have a trade pile as well and a pile of party games in the Kitchen. These are the spillover situations that I am referring too. )

But as we were chatting about this number I admitted a few things.

First. I list some games that everyone can list. Chess, Backgammon, Bridge, Euchre, Hearts, Spades, Cribbage, maybe a couple of others. I do not list Checkers, Tic Tac Toe, Bingo, and a bunch of others by choice.

My idea behind these philosophies is that the first set, I would happily play and have the means to be able to play them should anyone want to. There is no specific box on the shelf that has these up there, but If I printed out a sheet of all the games I could play, they would be on the list.

As far as the ones that I don’t list, I would rather they not show up on said printout, because I would hope that nobody would pick it.

There are a few other items I do not list on BGG. I only list Zendo and Icetowers (I think) as Icehouse games even though I have a lot of Icehouse pieces and can play essentially any Icehouse game. I also own a piece pack, but do not list any of the Piecepack games. I do this because I don’t want these games inflating the numbers I display on BGG. The main reason I don’t want this artificial inflation… Because I’ve been using this as my metric for game purges over the last couple of years.

The second thing I had to admit regarding this number, is that I cheat on the number a little bit with expansions.

I do not list things like the Chuck No-Rice Card from Ghost Stories, Certain Agricola Decks, Bang Expansions, or even the new Cosmic Encounter Expansion, simply because I don’t want these inflating my metric as well. I have these things. But when I log a play, I typically don’t want to log play expansions and not listing them in BGG won’t throw off my play statistics. Especially with the Friendless Stats.

Some Expansions I do log. Mostly Age of Steam and Power Grid Expansions, which I want to track different games of on different expansions. I typically do not list expansions if every time I play that game, it’s probably going to be with the expansion, usually because the expansion doesn’t really change any game rules. If it does change the game or rules, then the expansion typically gets listed. Unfortunately, this is not a hard and fast rule.

What this entire post is alluding to though, is that I think using the BGG Owned number as my purge metric may be fundamentally flawed. I feel like a lot of these things, for completeness sake should be listed. But it would blow my number out of the water completely so I refrain.

Recently I’ve created my own Boardgame Database, I haven’t completely populated it yet, and mostly it contains data imported from BGG. I can enter a play in the database and push a button to have it duplicate that entry into BGG’s database now (For global statistics) but If I didn’t care personally about being able to work with others BGG Data, I could happily stick with my own Database Design at this time. It fits my profile of a game database much better, and I’m about to begin throwing Piecepack, playing card games, and Icehouse games into it as well.

But I can’t bring myself to use it as my purge metric yet. It needs a little bit more work I think, but eventually, I’ll probably want to switch to it. I think I need to add some sort of indicator about game systems so that Piecepack, Icehouse, Playing Card games will not show up in the collection numbers, because these would not be things I trade, but that they will show up when I print out ‘Decide what to play’ sheets.

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, Game Collection, Purge

So, as I look back upon my purging for 2009. Which has basically become a permanent goal since I stopped buying basically anything new and different some time toward the end of 2007 or so. I would like to reflect upon where I stand right now in relation to where I wish I stood.

As of the end of 2009 I officially stand at 258 games listed in my collection in BGG. Many of those are Expansions (Nearly 20 in Age of Steam and Power Grid Expansions alone) So I think that’s a pretty good number. I wish it was actually under 200, but with the expansions I’ve put in, and hardly take any shelf space at all when I put them in the main games boxes, it’s kind of hard to trim it much more.

I fudge those numbers a little bit. Some expansions I fail to list due to principle, like the Agricola Z deck, or the Chuck No-Rice card in Ghost Stories. This was a change sometime this year due to some changes in the way BGG split out games when they add RPG Geek. Whether or not an expansion gets listed depends upon a few factors, but either way, if I list them, they count to the total, if I don’t they don’t.

I also have one game coming ‘Republic of Rome’ which I received as a Christmas Present from Val, but as of yet, has been deemed dangerous by the US government and has not left customs inspections.

So, let’s see how I’ve done. After I get Republic of Rome, that will put me at 259 games.

End of 2007, 270
End of 2008, 262

Well, I guess I’m not going very quickly at this am I? I do okay, I don’t add very much during the year at least, and I get rid of at least a couple of more games than I actually add. Which is a good thing, but still, I’ve really technically only dropped 11 games in two years. Which is horrible, but at least it’s better than when they were shooting way up in 2005 and 2006.

Goal for this year. Drop to below 250 BGG Listed games. Using my principles of listing. Unfortunately, this means some games will be impossible to get rid of (Chess, Euchre, Poker, etc.) Just means I’ll have to take the axe to at least 9 more games at some point during the year. And possibly to more depending upon if there’s any that I want to add or subtract.

I’d also like to clean up the game room shelves a little bit. I suppose that’s sort of this same resolution, but I mean, I’d like to get everything into one place sometime. Tired of having to go looking for something if I want to find it, they should all be contained on my two shelves.

I’m working on a Five and Dime post too, but that will probably be a couple of days.

written by Chris \\ tags: BGG, Boardgames, Purge

So, the other day I realized that we are less than a month away from the start of BGG.con 2009. I can’t wait. This is my Essen (Which coincidentally, is going on right now).

Anyway, I need to start laying down some goals or plans. Still plenty of time to work on them, but I need to start thinking about it.

I hardly play new games anymore, and I rarely buy new games. It’s cons like these that are the only ways I can test some new stuff to see what I like and know whether or not I might want to buy it, or whether it’s something I don’t think I need.

Of course, this conflicts with my goal the last couple of years of keeping my collection lean. I’ve done a good job this year. When I closed off 2008, I was listed as owning 262 Games or Expansions. (Dec 2007 it was 270) So as of this time right now, I have 268. So, unlike last year, I’ve actually went up, though some of the titles have been switched out. And my latest three were only due to really good deals, though Valerie has definitely been hounding me to get a copy of Shadows over Camelot for a long time.

I’ll hopefully come back around in the BGG.con flea market. I think I’m at the point where I’ll probably price a few things to move. In the past I’ve priced things at what I would consider reasonable prices, however, I would actually have to have been interested in the game to purchase them. That way, I felt like if it sold, it was worth it to me, but I didn’t really care if it sold or not at that price.

This year, There are at least a couple of games that I will be putting prices on that I would be tempted to purchase a game even without ever having played it. Simply because it’s there and the components in it have got to be worth more than the price on the box. I’m going to sweep the collection and try to find at least 20 games that I can take.

Enough about that. Let’s begin to outline my goals at BGG.con this year.

I’d like to play Dungeon Lords. I was a big fan of the PC Dungeon Keeper game a long time ago. Dungeon lords is a Boardgame redoing of that. I’d like to try it out and see if it’s any good. In fact, looking over the Essen list, it is the absolute only thing right now that interests me.

I’d like to play less Werewolf. In past years, it was my main goal to play as much werewolf as possible. I think I’ll still play one or two games a night, but I gotta get a little bit of sleep. I’ll be likely working on putting in new servers and workstations at work around the same time, so when I get back I’ll need to actually be functional, rather than zombie like.

That’s a good start. I’ve never actually sought out playing an essen game at BGG before. Usually I don’t care, and can wait till the next wave or MidsouthCon or something. Last year, I had played Chicago Express, but that’s it. Year before I didn’t play any of them (Agricola’s year). Year before that either I don’t think (Space Dealer’s year).

written by Chris \\ tags: BGG.con, Boardgames, Purge

So like I said earlier, I made a last minute trip to Gamefest South.

That was a nice hotel. I really enjoyed all the traincars and stuff that they had going on, of course, that was not the purpose of my visit, but considering all the stuff they had, plus a really nice (so I’m told) Aquarium, I kind of wish I had brought the wife and kids.

Oh well, perhaps we can go together sometime later. It would be cool staying in a converted rail car.

Anyway. Played some good games, got to play Tales of the Arabian Nights only one day after I officially added it to my collection. It’s a nice game, I liked it. Hope to try it with some of the group sometime soon. Did not get to play Snow Tails, the other game I just got in.

Did play Steel Driver, knocked that off. Not sure whether or not I really liked it, we played it with three, and the auction rules were kind of goofy, so I’m not sure we had them quite right.

Played another game of Die Macher which was fun (that game is always fun).

Played a game called Shadow Hunters, but didn’t really like it.

Various other things were played and taught, but those were the most noteworthy in some form or fashion.

I also participated in the Flea Market. A tradition I have kind of grown fond of, as I try to keep my collection as lean as possible. So I packed up a few games this time. My main items were the copy of Formula D that I had purchased stupidly (just to get the new dashboards, then discovered I hated the dashboards), as well as me deciding that I would keep Torres but get rid of the other mask games. So I had Java, and Tikal.

Also got rid of Princes of Florence, it just wasn’t hitting the table.

Now, I screwed up when I went to look around. I saw Lord of the Rings, and two expansions, which were in really great shape, that I was able to secure for a nice price. As well as getting Fearsome Floors for a pretty good price as well.

I also ended up trading away my copy of Conquest of Paradise for a copy of Race the Wind to one of the other “vendors”.

So I sold about six or eight games, but came home with four (counting expansions). So that didn’t really lower my number on my BGG List very much. Still hanging around 260. I think I’m going to get rid of some stuff for Geekgold soon though. I have a few things that have been unsellable. I should probably wait till after BGG’s flea market though. Also I need to start putting my list together for that.

Pretty sure I’m going to be dropping 1960 soon.

written by Chris \\ tags: BGG, Boardgames, Chattanooga, Gamefest, Purge