Winsome Games

Yes, it is a lower quality game, and yes, I would have loved to get slick components and flashy packaging with little or no assembly (ala Tikal). But, "some assembly required" is more often the rule than the exception. Serenissima, beautiful components and box, loads of assembly (UvC will be a walk in the park by comparision). One of the most expensive RR games I ever bought, 1835, had lots of punch-out/cut-out components, and UvC will not take much longer. Ursuppe - big ticket, much assembly. With Cosmic Encounter, not only did I pay big $$, but I had to punch out some of the cheapest components I've ever seen in a game -- those one-sided flimsy paper discs! And Insecta, easily the most labor intensive game I've ever purchased.

The cutting out of cardboard is one of the most common rituals of a new game, and for me, a meditative contemplation of the game. I think I miss it a bit when I open a new game, see that there is nothing to be done, and must now simply wait for players. Assembling UvC and Lancashire will be a pleasure, and should not take long at all.

But what about the quality? I mean, we are talking what looks like bubble-jet printing and Kinkos. This is handmade. Didn't I get cheated? I paid $24 for UvC and $16 for LR. What am I paying for? Did somebody say that they did not want to pay such a price for just an idea?

Well, what is a good game but an idea. A mechanism for fun. A collection of abstract ideas framed in a theme and a construction of board, cards, pieces and other fol-de-rol, but without the idea, the finest components are so much knick-knack and eye-candy. Ask anyone who purchased Wadjet. The idea really is the saleable quantity, the thing of value. The pieces lend to the overall attraction, but are nothing without the idea, whereas the idea without the pieces is simply a matter of construction.

Now, if Winsome, or someone else down the line, produced a slick little-assembly-required version of these games, I'm sure I would be interested, and a few extra bucks would not be grudged, but, I will tell you that I'd rather see these games now, here in my hands, as is, than wait three or more years to see a slick and handsomely produced version. Have you seen the box for Silverton? It's beautiful. Have you seen how long Mayfair has been "gonna publish Silverton real soon". Have you seen the owner of the game bemoaning the interminable wait for Mayfair, the threats to revoke the rights? Mayfair's republican promises about how good it's gonna be, and how soon? And we all know that Mayfair will put out a fine quality game. If they ever get around to it.

And what is holding them up, and why do I have UvC and LR in my hands and nothing but air where Silverton should be? On this, Mayfair has been completely honest. Money. They don't have the money to produce a game that will have limited distribution anyway. They have slur-ped their way up the American Game Market food chain to a position not far from the top, and in the process have nearly gone out of business. Now I love Mayfair games, and I am very glad that they were at the vanguard of the German Invasion, and they are still in there slugging.

But there is still a place for the likes of Winsome, who put their bar a little lower. They have less far to fall, and are more likely to succeed. And when, someday, they have climbed up the chain, I will be glad to lay out some $$ for that slickly produced version of UvC.

Until then, I am very glad that they are putting the ideas out here where I can experience their reality, now, while I'm still young enough to remember how much I like the near religious experience of games -- the buying, the thrill of opening the box (or tube) for the first time, the punching, cutting, pasting, and sometimes gluing ritual of preparations, the going to bed with the rules for reading, the experience of the first game where the vague notions of how-it-works gleaned from the rules becoming reality, the satori of the gameplay strategy as it clicks into place, and best of all, the thrill of gathering a group of people together for a kind of fun that cannot be got any other way.

I guess I'm just easy to please.