some due respect for settlers

Settlers of Catan, that is. Having once upon a time been an avid Dungeons & Dragons player--AD&D 2nd Edition, for those familiar with it--and a card-game addict as well, I can relate to the "high end" of the board game world when it comes to strategy and depth. I never did transition into an obsession with computer games, but I'd say I'm still somewhat of a board-game and strategy-game geek. And since I don't consider D&D technically a board game, Settlers is hands-down the best board game I've ever played.* Getting out the Settlers box with old friends was a highlight of past return trips to my old stomping grounds. It's often tempting to seek out gamers up here to see if there aren any good groups around, but casual and fun gamers (as opposed to the overcompetitive, intense, freaky, arrogant, and/or otherwise unpleasant types) are just hard to find, if my experience at local gaming cons and CCG tournaments back in the day was any indication.

A couple of the author's points didn't register with me though. For one, even though Settlers isn't supposed to be as competitive and adversarial in nature as other board games, a lot of our games ended acrimoniously (i.e. someone getting backstabbed, "gang-ups" against the leader toward the end, etc.) such that a follow-up game wasn't in order until folks wound down and relaxed a bit. Also, I can't think of a single time I've ever completed a game of Settlers in under an hour. But the verdict is that we always went back for more. And were we all to gather up again to return to our roots then I'm sure Settlers would be the default game of choice to start off with, even ahead of D&D.

One quote from the article is absolutely true, though:

"[Monopoly] is the Microsoft of our world," Solko says. "If I could wave a magic wand and replace all the copies of Monopoly out there with Settlers, I truly think the world would be a better place."

Indeed!

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* Upon further review, that's actually a close call with Robo Rally, another classic that I can't wait to play whenever I'm around like-minded folks. Can't think of a time I've ever not been entertained when playing RR. But I still have to hand it to Settlers in a nail-biter.

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