[Board/Tactical Game]: Sunken City, reviewed by ShannonA (5/3)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10543.phtml

Shannon Appelcline's Summary:

A beautifully produced family game with just slightly above gameplay. Includes some cool mechanics with sinking and raising up a lost city.

Go to the full review for more information.

Post originally by Chris F at 2004-08-11 10:53:45
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I played this game once and was pretty unimpressed ... until I noticed that it is rated for ages 8 and up. For the age group it's targetting (pre-teens), I think it's a very fine little game.

I think it's a bit unfortunate that the online resources like RPG.net and BoardGameGeek don't have a slot for the age rating on board games. Obviously, I have rather different expectations from a 12+ game than from an 8+ game. I typically avoid 8+ stuff (as would most hobby-type gamers, I expect), and while Sunken City mainly reinforced that prejudice, if I was going to play a game with kids in that age group, I think Sunken City would be a very good choice.

Post originally by Shannon Appelcline at 2004-08-11 11:25:18
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I've written about this elsewhere, but personally I think that age ranges as currently used are almost entirely worthless, because they don't really talk about the true demographic. I actually used to list them at the top of my reviews, but eventually gave up because they never seemed to make much sense.

Quickly glancing through my shelves I found that four of my most played games are marked 8+: Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Memoir '44, and Alhambra. Conversely, I was surprised to discover that Settlers of Catan was marked 12+, even though I think it's at the same level of complexity as the previous four (especially the latter three which all require you to hold hidden cards in your hand and plan future moves with them; if anything Settlers is simpler, because most of the hidden cards could be made open if desired).

One of the problems with the age ratings is that even if they were to accurately describe the youngest age of players for a game (and I actually don't think that most do), they don't accurately describe whether older players will get as much or more from the games. There's a big difference between a game like Ticket to Ride that kids will be able to play and yet still has good levels of strategy and a game like Sunken City which kids and adults will play at a very comparable level.

If I ruled the world, I'd instead institute a five-part main categorization for games: kids; teens; family; strategists; and advancecd strategists. (Examples of these game categories would be: kids- Candyland or Mousetrap; teens- Manga Manga or Laser Tag; family- Sunken City or Mille Bournes; strategists- Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers or Cities & Knights of Catan; and advanced strategists- Puerto Rico or El Grande.) I think this would do a much better job of describing the precise demographic that the game is intended for; of course it's all a continuum, and so the edge cases can always be tough to categorize.

When I review I try and assess which group the game was intended for, and review it accordingly. I personally put Sunken City into the 'family' category, though clearly it would fit into the 'teen' category too. (I think 'family' overlaps almost entirely with 'teen', but not vice versa.)

In any case, as a family game, I thought SC was slightly above average, but not much beyond that, because I've played family games like _Pirate's Cove_ that were definitely better, and ones like _Mystery of the Abbey_ which were much better.

Shannon

Post originally by Chris F at 2004-08-11 14:14:09
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Obviously you've put more thought into it than me (and I wasn't criticing your review BTW which was quite clear on this point). I guess I mention it because playing Sunken City was somehow an "a ha" moment for me personally, that it was a game that worked well for a mix of kids and adults, something which as you mention doesn't happen a lot.

While I agree some games are clearly mislabelled (I'm surprised Alhambra is 8+), I would disagree that they are uninformative. 8+, 10+, and 12+ seem to me to be generally shorthand for some of the categories you mention, and generally it seems the companies get it about right. I do play with 8-10 year olds occasionally, and some stuff they can handle (Memoir '44) and some stuff (Settlers of Catan), while they can certainly push the pieces around, is significantly more troublesome. All this is, of course, speaking in very general terms.

Getting good stuff kids can play with adults is tricky, it seems, and Sunken City seemed to me like a good one.

Post originally by Shannon Appelcline at 2004-08-11 16:37:56
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<i>and I wasn't criticing your review BTW which was quite clear on this point</i>

And no criticism taken, it was just a topic I'd thought about in the pass. I discussed it in my review of Manga Manga a month or two ago, as that was another game that lots of people hated without really considering what demographic it was actually intended for.

Shannon