Michael Morris
First Post
What prefixes should there be - I've coined 4 to cover most all areas of MtG, but what of other games and the like?
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Prefix Ideas
- Thread starter Michael Morris
- Start date
meomwt
First Post
Eurogames are the Carcassone/ Puerto Rico/ Ticket to Ride style games: great production values, good strategy, generally high replay value. Often also called German games.
I'm only guesing, but I suspect Ameritrash is what gets churned out of the US as Snakes & Ladders variants (often with 'mature' themes and added party hats).
I'm only guesing, but I suspect Ameritrash is what gets churned out of the US as Snakes & Ladders variants (often with 'mature' themes and added party hats).
Asmor
First Post
Eurogames, AKA German Board Games, are typified by elegant and simple mechanics and are often easy to learn yet still allow for a great deal of depth. They're also usually themed, more often than not an historical theme. Fantasy themes are uncommon, and sci-fi themes are all but non-existent. Eurogames tend to have a small number of simple rules from which the gameplay is derived.
Ameritrash games frequently focus on theme first and gameplay second, and have a much heavier luck element than Eurogames. Ameritrash games often have fantasy themes, and sci-fi isn't that uncommon but still not particularly common. Complicated rules are another frequent, though not universal, feature of Ameritrash games (the better to more accurately simulate the theme!) with lots of exceptions, corner cases and specific rules. Also popular are huge and/or many decks of cards, and lots of dice.
Both tend to have very nice components. Eurogames prefer elegant and simple components, such as colored and/or shaped wooden blocks, while Ameritrash games often have miniatures and other detailed plastic components.
Example Eurogames: Puerto Rico, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride.
Example Ameritrash games: Descent: Journeys in the Darkness, Munchkin, Mall of Horror.
Not quite, that's just trash.
It's worth noting that Eurogames are not necessarily European in origin, and Ameritrash games not necessarily American in origin. The plurality of each are, however. An example of an American Eurogame would be Vegas Showdown; I can't think of any European Ameritrash off the top of my head.
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Knight Otu
First Post
I can't think of any other prefixes for other games currently, but maybe for Magic, a Spoiler prefix?
Turjan
Explorer
That's a good categorization of boardgame types. I'm not sure whether these categories are useful as prefixes, though.
If anyone thinks that "Ameritrash" sounds derogatory, let me point out that this is not the case. It was a tongue-in-cheek response to some snobbery from Eurogame fans, and somehow the expression stuck. Nowadays, it's more used as a badge of honor.
The bigger problem is that the prifixes don't communicate anything to anyone outside the US; we need more universal tags. I'm sure, for now at least, "Boardgames", "CCGs" and "MtG" would suffice. Everybody knows what they mean. We can worry about subdividing if it comes necessary.
Asmor
First Post
I'm not really sure what you mean by that... Those are all fairly universal terms and well-accepted in the boardgame community (at least, the English-speaking community... I obviously can't comment on other languages).
Pretty much agree on this... Doesn't seem like there's much interest in board games on ENWorld anyways to justify having so many different prefixes.
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