speaking of dominion, i don't think i'll be playing that game with martin and the crew again soon.
now dominion isn't a bad game. in fact, it's a great introduction to the whole 'european games' thing; it has a collection of resources that people share, everyone plays the game until the end and the rules shift as the result of players' moves. also it's really easy to learn, so it shouldn't intimidate people who are new to the genre.
what dominion has going against it is that it's like playing golf. you're chiefly playing the deck rather than the other players. each player surveys the game's offering (ideally re-evaluating this offering continuously) and makes a choice about their move. but this can almost be done in a vacuum. the moves you make have very little influence on the choices other players will make. apart from scrambling to get the best cards first, there's almost no influence players have over oneanother. further, there's nothing to do while other players are taking their turns. so you spend most of the game evaluating your hand and waiting to take your turn. since the most powerful (and therefore soughtafter) cards in the deck typically extend the length of a player's turn, this can make the game pretty boring as this waiting period gets progressively longer.
martin and i have speculated with others that this isn't nearly the last we've heard from donald x vaccarino. just like magic the gathering expansions, there's a small emblem on each card. we've hypothesized that this implies new collections of card coming available.
my hope is that future expansions will provide for increased interaction amongst players and the ability of players to perform actions during other peoples' turns. maybe when a player gains a victory card, other players are rewarded in some other way. maybe based on what they have in their hands. this is sort of how the council room works, the player using the card gets 4 new cards in their hand, but all other players get a 'quarter effect' of getting one new card in their hand. this could keep all players more engaged in the game rather than just chatting and waiting for the game to progress.
until such time though, i'll be sticking to puerto rico, settlers and other old stand-bys.
now dominion isn't a bad game. in fact, it's a great introduction to the whole 'european games' thing; it has a collection of resources that people share, everyone plays the game until the end and the rules shift as the result of players' moves. also it's really easy to learn, so it shouldn't intimidate people who are new to the genre.
what dominion has going against it is that it's like playing golf. you're chiefly playing the deck rather than the other players. each player surveys the game's offering (ideally re-evaluating this offering continuously) and makes a choice about their move. but this can almost be done in a vacuum. the moves you make have very little influence on the choices other players will make. apart from scrambling to get the best cards first, there's almost no influence players have over oneanother. further, there's nothing to do while other players are taking their turns. so you spend most of the game evaluating your hand and waiting to take your turn. since the most powerful (and therefore soughtafter) cards in the deck typically extend the length of a player's turn, this can make the game pretty boring as this waiting period gets progressively longer.
martin and i have speculated with others that this isn't nearly the last we've heard from donald x vaccarino. just like magic the gathering expansions, there's a small emblem on each card. we've hypothesized that this implies new collections of card coming available.
my hope is that future expansions will provide for increased interaction amongst players and the ability of players to perform actions during other peoples' turns. maybe when a player gains a victory card, other players are rewarded in some other way. maybe based on what they have in their hands. this is sort of how the council room works, the player using the card gets 4 new cards in their hand, but all other players get a 'quarter effect' of getting one new card in their hand. this could keep all players more engaged in the game rather than just chatting and waiting for the game to progress.
until such time though, i'll be sticking to puerto rico, settlers and other old stand-bys.
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