Journal Chacham's Journal: Question: Quality board games? -- Rant: Inferior is sold 5
Where can I get quality games?
I play connect-four and Othello a lot. They make the games really cheaply, and charge a great deal for them. For example, Connect-Four is cheap plastic. The sides break often. They broke, I bought it again, they broke again, now I balance it to keep it straight. I paid around ten dollars US for it. I'd much rather have it sturdier. Possibly made out of wood. I'd pay more for that. If I'm going to get this garbage, I should be able to buy 10 at a time for about a dollar. If they're disposable, I won't mind as much if they break.
Othello is bad too. The grooves hardly hold the pieces. In truth, they won't hold all 64 pieces anyway! Who designed that? And, you need to be lucky to get the nicer board that actually holds the pieces in place. Otherwise, there's little reason to buy it, since it could just as easily be played on a checkers board.
I went to the store a few times to buy games. Basically to address various ages that I may want to entertain. I have games from Candyland to Axis & Allies and from Don't Break the Ice to Jenga. In all, I've probably spent between two and three hundred dollars, if not more. Yet all these games are very cheaply made, and they break or jam. Yet I paid a lot of money. Games are a premium price item.
Why aren't these games made from wood? Not enough money, fine, charge more, but where can I buy them? Why don't stores carry them? People can say that companies are evil and try to peddle wares that cost the cheapest and charge the most. While that is true, the people are at fault, especially me. Why? Because I actually buy this garbage. Companies can only sell if people want to buy (unless it's a neceesity item such as food), people don't demand it to be better made, so it isn't. I guess I blame the people more than the companies.
What's you take?
Mine (Score:1)
I can find almost everything else in wood, but not connect four. Not too surprising, with the number of pieces it has, Connect Four would cost a bundle. Already all wooden board games cost in excess of $60, heh.
Train the youngins not to break things. Or if that is not the problem, quell your own temper.
Hey a wooden connect four game... (Score:1)
I agree, games are cheaply made, but I don't think most people would initially purchase them unless they were "affordable". Like playing cards.... you can never have a good clean copy of playing cards to play with forever(and I know casinos keep using new ones all the time). I'm sure a full sized metal & wooden connect-four game would be at least $100. I guess if ya know a carpenter/woodworker, it'd be a cool project. Nowadays, you see most people playing those types of games online.
On the other hand, games like Monopoly and my favorite.. Chess can be made with wooden and/or metal. In fact, our family owns a chess board partly made of bamboo and the pieces are made of dark and light philippine mahogany [deanwood.com]. Unfortunately even those pieces tend to get broken (me and my stupid 6 year old hands used the little knight pieces as toys when I didn't know how to play the real game) and it was expensive (dont know how much) for my dad to replace.
Re:Hey a wooden connect four game... (Score:2)
Because you will buy (Score:2)
- Perhaps my economics background is a little elementary, but it seems that the demand from consumers is actually quite inelastic when it comes to board games. The same people will buy boardgames no matter what they're made of. You bought the cheap ones because that's all that's available (or at least easy to get to). It's the same game no matter what it's made of, and by making the pieces better they aren't going to attract a whole new audience.
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On top of that, the age groups we are dealing with mostly (however, I, as a college student, have many games) are the 8-14 year olds. I'm pretty sure that's what they label most of the stuff these days. Now, 8-14 year olds tend to lose stuff, and if you were the parent, would you shell out the extra 20 dollars just so that a more sturdy game piece can be lost? Not likely. Besides, the attention spans of most 8-14 year olds these days are about an hour.
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Third, many people buy games without trying them. So why would they shell out the extra 20 dollars for a more sturdy game that they may not enjoy? This way, they are able to try more games and find their niche.
Now, I agree that the prices are quite high, but don't think that if they made them with better materials that they would stay the same price -- they would find ways to jack up the price (Connect-Four ULTRA!!! Now with REAL metal pieces!!! +$30) -- and then drop the "original" so you have to buy the most expensive one. So that's some of the reasons why, but I'm with you that they are expensive as they are.How about giant size? (Score:2)
Thought that was interesting. Lifesize version that you have to stand over to play. Little expensive, though.