Expanding my collection, part two: Focusing On Simplicity

Quick To Play, Easy To Teach

As I've mentioned previously, I've been focused on the light to medium weight portion of my game library. Most of my gaming sessions involve brand new players, so I'm constantly teaching new games. This steers my collection toward lighter games because they:

1. Are easier to teach. Less complicated rules makes it much easier to get a game to the table, and ensures new players won't be overwhelmed by a game and not want to play it (or any of my games!) again.
2. Play more quickly. Less time explaining rules combined with shorter actual game times greatly increases the chance I'll hear those magic words at game's end: "Let's play another!" This way I can either teach two new games in a night or play a known favorite from a previous session and teach one new game.
3. Avoid the misconception that board games are too complicated. Many people don't want to go through the hassle of learning new games, or perhaps just don't want to be forced to think too hard on their free time. Only teaching new players the most accessible games minimizes the chance of reinforcing that misconception. "Actually, that wasn't too bad!"

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.