Reply: Speakeasy:: General:: Re: How is BGG Weight Determined before release?

by kydaria

blazcowicz wrote:

Thunkd wrote:

fat_possum wrote:

I would expect the weight to increase when the game reaches a broader distribution. Right now, I'd assume that most of the users entering the weight score are people who are used to Lacerda's designs or other heavy euros.

Maybe? But if you've played Lacerda games before, you have an idea already that it's a heavy/complex Euro... which means that a lot of the people who struggle with that type of game, and thus are more likely to rate it as very heavy, are probably going to see that it's by Lacerda and skip it altogether.

I feel like at this point most people who have been around for a while know that they're either a Lacerda fan or that they're not. And people who have no idea who Lacerda is probably aren't going to randomly get into a game of it out of chance. Either they game with people who are into Lacerda, and thus are likely the sort of gamer who will enjoy it, or if they're joining a group and don't know the people or game, they're probably going to get warned that it's heavy/complex before they commit to playing it.

Not sure I agree with that, if only because the combination of a good theme and Ian O'Toole's amazing illustrations can still easily draw anyone that doesn't know Lacerda in. I think the space theme played a huge part in On Mars' success for example.

I'm also saying that because so far I don't understand the weight rating for Inventions, which should not be that high according to your theory. It's still a complex Lacerda game, but I found the rules really clear, with a nice logical flow between actions. There's only weird things to remember on the player boards, but even these are fine after a game.

So with Speakeasy having yet another popular theme, I'm fully expecting that it will attract new gamers unaware what a Lacerda game is like (and I'm saying that's a bad thing).

I don't make a regular habit of it, but once in a while when there are players testing that have not done so before on his designs, I will asked at the end of the playtest if they've played a Lacerda before, Most times they've played at least one of his games but quite often too, they are new to his designs and were interested due to the theme. During the testing of Speakeasy there was a wide variety of players in skill, experience/plays of Lacerda games. 🙂 I tend to agree with Ian (he mentioned this in a recent podcast) when he said;

This one [Speakeasy] I think is genuinely more approachable then a lot of his games. Vital says that about all his games but I think given the theme and even mechanism wise, it is.

ref: (around the 2m mark); https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/161388/bgg-podcast-43-our...

I did 6 Teach and Play Events (4P each) of Inventions last year at a local Con and at least 1 player at each table was new to Lacerda and signed up simply because of the theme or because they'd recently learned of Vital Lacerda and wanted to try one of his designs.