Have You Outgrown Any of These Games?
It seems to me that games have evolved over the past couple of decades. I base that thought on what I’ve read (though I can’t pinpoint any specific article at the moment) and on my own experience.
Individual games themselves have sometimes evolved through the addition of expansions. Take Carcassonne, for example. The base game is fine in and of itself, but look what happens when you add Traders and Builders, Inns and Cathedrals, or both. You get a meatier, more complex game that simply seems to have grown up.
Games in general have grown up too. You could say that classic Clue has aged and become any number of newer games, such as Mystery of the Abbey or Sleuth. Remember the Trivial Pursuit fad? (It lives on at our house.) Now there’s Wits & Wagers that has sort of taken its place.
Funagain Games has a list that compares older games that many people are familiar with to newer, more mature games that relatively few (so far) players are aware of. This list itself tacitly admits that games have evolved. (I like that list a lot and may generate my own variation of it someday.)
What to Do with Games You’ve Outgrown
So what do you do with the “younger” game you own when you realize that it’s one that you’ve outgrown after finding its “older” counterpart? Do you simply get rid of it in a trade or sale? Will you really never want to play it again? If you keep it, will it just sit on the shelf in deference to the grown up version that you prefer instead?
I suggest keeping such games for two reasons (arguably one and the same).
1) Think of such games as gateways for fledgling gamers. Do you really want to impose Caylus upon them before Pillars of the Earth? Okay, some of you will say, “Yes.” Bully for you! Given the opportunity, I’d prefer to lead someone in with Pillars to lessen the chance of scaring them away from the heavier game. I know too many people who claim they don’t like to think hard when playing games.
2) Similarly, children and grandchildren who have never played the simpler games with fewer and less-complicated rules will love many of the games you’ve outgrown. Grow into them all over again with the youngsters. Make it a family (or extended family) game that everyone can enjoy.
Take those simpler games off the shelf and shake off the dust once in a while. You need to play them every so often to remember the rules so you can teach these fun board games to someone from either group 1 or 2 (above) whenever the opportunity presents itself.