I wish board games cost $20, not the $50 they charge.
For $50 I have to be careful to make sure any game is an awesome game, and indecision means I don't buy very often. If they were cheaper I would be more OK taking a risk on a new game.
For $50 I have to be careful to make sure any game is an awesome game, and indecision means I don't buy very often. If they were cheaper I would be more OK taking a risk on a new game.
Going by Amazon prices, Azul, Splendor. Deep Sea Adventures is a press your luck game. Scout (also from Oink) is a... rummy with interesting hand management.
Red Seven is one that got a fair bit of play at the office table (Asmadi games).
Chatty Party if you want a cross between Excel and Cards against Humanity.
Ticket to Ride is an excellent train connection game.
Racoon Tycoon hasn't hit the table yet, but it looks interesting.
New York Slice gamifies "one divides, the other decides" and is something that allows for younger players.
Forbidden Island is an accessible cooperative game.
On the topic of cooperative games, The Crew takes tick thing games in a cooperative direction.
Fox in the Forest is an excellent two player trick taking game.
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I admit to a bad case of FOMO with bard games. In the 90s and early 00s, I played board games in the MtG place in the San Antonio shopping mall in Palo Alto... and there were so many great games that I had played that were out then. I realizes there's a sampling bias because those were the games that people brought that were enjoyed... so now I have a low threshold for impulse buys on board games.
So, no matter the price, space is a problem.
That being said, I wish they costed just 50$: plenty of them (especially those with miniatures) cost 100+ and maybe you have to buy sleeves and maybe some "adapter" to fit everything in one box once expansion are bought.
Another lesson learned is: never buy expansions. There are some very rare exceptions.
Yes, some designers like Pawn and Seiji Kanai keep working mostly in that small-box style (not unlike lots of NA/EU designers), but e.g. Hisashi Hayashi's or Yasushi Kuroda's games weren't small "because of Japan", they were small because they didn't have money to make big ones!
The last game of Carcassonne we played was the first game after we'd just purchased the big box with all of the expansions. It was just... too much.
Movie theater pricing is extreme.
P.S.: The fact that many buyers use the appearance of a game to judge the appropriateness of its price leads to a very unpleasant consequence: manufacturers, in order to justify the price of a game, produce it in a box that is twice as big as it needs to be, because if the game is big it justifies a higher price, and so we end up with libraries infested with games that take 2X or 3X the space needed.
- Games are getting a much higher production level than the past, and this costs more. Sometimes this is good, but often it isn't necessary, it's just to pad out margins. At least you can see where the money is going, but it makes everything less accessible to kids, people with a casual interest, and anyone with limited cash on hand.
- Prices have just plain gone up. Yes, I can understand why a small-publisher POD title or a box of custom plastic is $100 even if I wish there were other options. But why has Catan gone from $25 to $60 MSRP even as the components have dropped slightly in quality? Bohnanza from $10 to $20? RftG, $20 to $35? These increases are a) largely pre-pandemic, b) since ~2015, tracking overproduced editions and industry consolidation rather than general inflation, so the cause is not really a mystery.
In my area it is the case and I use it frequently.
I mean, they let us use computers in a computer lab - you know, back when mice had an actual, easy-to-steal tracking ball. We had to turn the mice upside down so the teacher could see that we didn't steal it. Similar things can be done here and it isn't like they'll be playing games with the frequency that we used to visit the computer lab.
If this all fails, though, you can play digital versions. My game group does plays online sometimes and while it might not work well with everything, it does work.
[1] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8434/extinction-game-eco...
Food chain island ( https://buttonshygames.com/products/food-chain-island ) could also be something that could show up in a grade school room. It could also be further laminated for additional durability.
A classic game has literally thousands of hours of play. I have a Catan set used almost weekly for 10 years.
Reviews are crucial.
It's a market where outside of the top ~100 games, a specific product can be hard to find for an individual even when shipping works out. This is also why math trades are popular - but 2020-2022 made popular venues for those more difficult too, and the breadth of games means that while any given math trade is going to contain some hard-to-find games, it's probably not going to contain your hard-to-find one.
It's also a market for lemons. Lots of resellers don't even know if they're missing a critical piece, which printing/edition they have, if expansions are included, if it was a counterfeit to begin with, etc. Buyers have little way to distinguish people who know what they're selling from those who don't without lots of time investment. This also discourages market-makers from helping solve the logistical problems.