No it isn't, because board game people hate it. I don't know who is defending Monopoly, but it's not board game fans.
> If you play any of the computer/console versions the auctions are automatic and easy for everyone to participate.
Sure. It still doesn't make for a fun game though.
> Computers exist to automate tedious tasks, if your game has tedious mechanics that require a lot of text to explain it'd probably be better as a computer game where those parts can be automated and the player just has to make their choices within that framework.
Sure. But good games avoid tedious tasks to start with. If anything I'd say the converse is true: most computer games would be improved by trying to make a board game version and cutting the mechanics that make that difficult.
> My partner would argue that the physical interaction with the pieces/cards/board/whatever is what matters and computers don't have that, but I believe if I'm judging a game as a game then the gameplay not making me hate it is the most important part.
If "gameplay" was the only thing that mattered then all games would be abstract games. And even abstract games often have a tactile part of the experience that creates its own feel. Every computer game is kind of the same - you sit in front of a screen and push keys - and that limits how much you can get out of it; there are no great novels about computer gaming.
> No it isn't, because board game people hate it. I don't know who is defending Monopoly, but it's not board game fans.
It's a great example because almost everyone discussing this topic understands the game and its flaws in physical game form, and most of us have probably played at least one digital version over the years.
Also board game people are the same people quoted in the article as saying that bad rulebooks were in fact great, so their judgement may not exactly be the best. Enthusiasts of any category tend to be able to ignore a lot of flaws in their favorite thing as long as the thing they like about it works. I'm a car enthusiast, and there are a lot of us who absolutely love objectively bad vehicles just because of one unique quirk that happens to make us smile.
> Sure. It still doesn't make for a fun game though.
Right, but it takes a lot of the parts that actually ruin most physical plays and solves their problems.
> Sure. But good games avoid tedious tasks to start with.
Remembering a book full of rules and what applies when is a tedious task. If the game requires players have a grasp on a substantial rulebook for basic play it is not avoiding tedious tasks.
That's what's great about computer versions of board games, the computer handles that part and players are only able to do things that are allowed. You never have to remember what you can do when, and more importantly never have to decide between unwinding multiple turns worth of gameplay, just rolling with it, or throwing away the entire session when inevitably someone gets it wrong.
There is exactly one game I've played with my partner's board game crew where I didn't discover some way they were doing it wrong, and that's Everdell which has a very well done computer version that they regularly play as well as physical, so they've been forced to learn how the game actually works instead of how they think it works.
> If anything I'd say the converse is true: most computer games would be improved by trying to make a board game version and cutting the mechanics that make that difficult.
I wouldn't disagree with that, but the fact remains that computers allow more complicated mechanics to be implemented without increasing the cognitive load on the players or increasing the odds of a game-breaking misunderstanding.
> There is exactly one game I've played with my partner's board game crew where I didn't discover some way they were doing it wrong, and that's Everdell which has a very well done computer version that they regularly play as well as physical, so they've been forced to learn how the game actually works instead of how they think it works.
I don't generally find correcting others fun, unless they don't take it well and make a scene about it in which case that can certainly be some delicious schadenfreude. That doesn't happen with the game group, they're generally receptive.
I think the games probably got more fun though. Presumably those rules are there for a reason, and it's not like I'm staring at the rulebook the whole time. I either had a question come up as a part of gameplay the group couldn't answer confidently or something didn't feel right about how the game was playing so I checked and found what I found. On more than one occasion this has led to someone else in the group pointing out some other related element they had found weird until then.
Rules are generally made deliberately, but I've known more than one game that was made more fun by an accidental misreading of the rules. When a rule mistake is important enough to spoil a game, or breaks the consistency, one generally notices. I guess it's possible for a game to just be silently slightly less fun than it should be because of a rule mistake, but I haven't seen it happen much. Which possibly says something about the value of complex rules with lots of special cases.
No it isn't, because board game people hate it. I don't know who is defending Monopoly, but it's not board game fans.
> If you play any of the computer/console versions the auctions are automatic and easy for everyone to participate.
Sure. It still doesn't make for a fun game though.
> Computers exist to automate tedious tasks, if your game has tedious mechanics that require a lot of text to explain it'd probably be better as a computer game where those parts can be automated and the player just has to make their choices within that framework.
Sure. But good games avoid tedious tasks to start with. If anything I'd say the converse is true: most computer games would be improved by trying to make a board game version and cutting the mechanics that make that difficult.
> My partner would argue that the physical interaction with the pieces/cards/board/whatever is what matters and computers don't have that, but I believe if I'm judging a game as a game then the gameplay not making me hate it is the most important part.
If "gameplay" was the only thing that mattered then all games would be abstract games. And even abstract games often have a tactile part of the experience that creates its own feel. Every computer game is kind of the same - you sit in front of a screen and push keys - and that limits how much you can get out of it; there are no great novels about computer gaming.