Post originally by Shannon Appelcline at 2004-06-17 10:32:28
Converted from Phorums BB System

<i>Keep up the good work Shannon! Don't let the "beer-and-pretzel" crowd sway you! ;o)</i>

Thanks.

I will comment that I have nothing against the "beer-and-pretzel" crowd.

In general, let me say, that I think many beer-and-pretzel games are poorly designed. I think many of them use humor as a mask for hiding bad game design, with _Munchkin_ and _Spammers_ being very prime examples. They may be humorous, and that may generate a single good play, but usually a game pales after that. (And many of them are so long that they pale two-three hours into the first play.)

That isn't to say that beer-and-pretzels games can't be well designed. _WizWar_, which gives very little attention to its mechanics, is perhaps my all-time favorite game. _Cosmic Encounter_ is also well done, and though I think it runs long, _Illuminatus_ has its points, particularly in its innovative design.

Generally, when I review a game, I try and follow the rules for reviews put forth by the ancient Greeks: say what they've done; say how well they've done it; and only then say if it was worth doing. In other words, I try and consider each game based on its intent, first and foremost. After I played this game, I could tell that it fit into the beer-and-pretzel category, and so I tried my best to measure how well it worked, as a member of that category, entirely accepting that higher randomness was a norm for that category.

To address one other point made in comments over in the other thread: I'm going to most respectfully disagree with the statement that I needed to play the game more to understand it.

I'm a game designer and I think very analytically about games when I review them. I also get the opinions of everyone else who played, and we talk it out (and I do this more if I didn't like a game, really giving people the opportunity to explain how I'm mistaken). This game definitely had some flaws, running from rough edges (the imbalance of the Destiny Deck toward mid-to-late game) to real issues (the overinfluence of Crime Lord Offers and other Event cards). I'm pretty confident in that assessment, though I'm happy to hear that others are able to play very enjoyable games despite those issues.

I will admit that my ratings of a game does sometimes change after many additional plays; it's at most a "1" point swing, usually in the Substance rating. For example, after more playings of _San Marco_, which I gave a "3" Substance rating, I'd agree that it deserves a "4", but only for 3-player play. Meanwhile a game like Ark of the Covenant, the third Carcassonne game, which I gave a "5", has probably dipped down to a "4" in my personal pantheon, though that may just be due to overplay because my wife likes to very frequently drag the Carcassonnes out (at this point, "The Castle" is the only one that remains fresh for me, because of its shorter gameplay, physical constraints, and generally different gameplay).

Which is to say that, sure, it's possibey my rating of Smugglers might have changed after additional plays, but I'm entirely certain it would never have gone over a "3" Substance rating--average. And, honestly, the game didn't enthuse anyone else in the group enough to play it again.

Shannon