Indigent Skirl

Supposedly, board games catering to short attention spans is a good thing.

Now, I’m all in favor of more people playing games. And I’m in favor of game play being quick if that’s how the game is designed.

But I’m just not sure about redesigning games just to get them to go faster. Some games involve little things like thought and strategy, and frankly, I like that.  Scrabble, for example, is not designed to be a 10 minute game.  If I wanted a fast word game, I’d play something like Boggle.

As an avid board game fan and collector, it’s hard for me to see how this is good for anything beyond Hasbro trying to retake the market.  I don’t hold anything against them, mind you, it’s just that monopolistic behaviors (ha!) stifle innovation in the market.  I’m one who enjoys the classics, but wants to see the indie games break through and make it big.  I’ll happily go for any new game that looks interesting, though admittedly most of mine are purchased used.  (Why? They’re off the market.)

But ultimately, it’s hard for me to say.   I like the idea of more people getting into board games.  I really do.  I just… I have a hard time reconciling what essentially amounts to lobotomizing a game in order to sell more copies.