Fitting the games to the group

Recently my board game tastes have leaned toward lighter, more accessible fare. After a little consideration I realized the simple explanation: the majority of the time I spend playing board games is introducing them to new players. It only makes sense that most of my games, especially the new ones I've been ordering, would fall into the 'gateway' category: easy to explain, quick to play.

Certainly I'm not sacrificing fun, or tough in-game decisions, or production values, or anything really essential--just some extra degree of complexity. Every time I purchase a game, or even research one, I'm thinking about who I will play it with and how often. If a particular game will just sit on my shelf for lack of appropriately experience players, then I'd rather shift my attention to something else. Once I get to the point where I'm playing games many times over with the same set of people and developing a regular game group I'll definitely start looking at the heavier, longer playing board games on my wish list. For now, though, the lighter stuff will do just fine.