| Agree 100%. This hobby jumped the shark probably 5-10 years ago. Thanks to crowdfunding, there are deluxe editions of games all the time being announced for $400–500. Games ship with "6 expansions in box" which sounds great and like a ton of replayable content, until you realize that they're poorly playtested, lack balance, and add a confounding (and sometimes contradictory) number of rules. As you noted, games come with a ridiculous number of minis and trinkets and baubles that drive the price of new games well past $100 in many cases. As the industry has gotten larger, many publishers are turning more toward bankable IP as opposed to innovative concepts. Or, they're releasing a bajillion reskins of the same game (looking at you, TtR, Azul, Pandemic, 7 Wonders, etc..) This is not unique to board games by any stretch. But it's a sign of an inflection point. I'm not saying there aren't good games being released. I'm saying they're harder to find and getting drowned out by the shameless cash grabs and lazy IP-based games. Go find some of the classics by Rosenberg, Knizia, Feld, Luciani, and others. You'll get a lot more bang for your buck. |
Hot take: I have never played an expansion that I liked more than the base game.