Purpose and History

So why another blog about boardgames? This is the question I've been asking myself as I deliberate on the purpose of this blog. To quote a friend "You(meaning me) have a good sense for what will appeal to different types of people and I think that will help a lot."

So that becomes my mission statement. I will attempt to communicate to as many different types of people as I can and give my honest opinion about games. I have my game biases, but I will try to be honest about them, and I challenge you as the reader to call me on them if you see them. This will be accomplished through my own reviews of games, and random musings on games. I will also share links to reviews on BGG or through the DiceTower that I find insightful or helpful. I will also attempt to do game comparisons and top lists of different categories. I will always be open to reader feedback and ideas, though I can't promise that they will always be followed up on.

And now for a bit of my gaming history. Things started early on with lots of Monopoly, Life, Risk, Aggravation and Clue. While these were enjoyable games, and still are at times, I do believe that there are better games out there. I got my first taste of designer games late in 2006 with Settlers of Catan. Unlike most people, I started with Cities and Knights, and rarely play the base game at this point. After Catan, I learned Cosmic Encounter in it's original Eon edition which was published 30 years prior. For those of you who don't know Cosmic, don't worry, a review of that will be coming soon.

I would wager that Cosmic had the biggest affect on my gaming life. Don't get me wrong, Catan got me in, but Cosmic hooked me. My "gaming family" and I played Cosmic and Catan for much of the winter and spring and then came Carcassonne. That was their HS graduation gift to me, with the condition that I would bring it and we'd play. The start of college came and I brought Carcassonne and my own copy of Cosmic with me. Carc worked ok, but cosmic flopped at first. When I got home for Christmas, the gaming family had Ticket to Ride Marklin which was a huge hit. At this point you should recognize that we never took the simple approach to games.

So that's essentially my first year in games. There will be more to that, but it's a start.

I have no official connection to any game publisher, producer, distributor or store. I have playtested a game for Northstar Games which I will talk about at a later time.

If you're looking to get ahold of me, you can always contact me here, or on BGG, my username there is mathguy6189.