Saturday 8 July 2017

Expo '17: The Haul - Part #7

This year I made a conscious decision, that with the exception of a few items on my mental shopping list; I was going to do as little research on the latest releases and, what was new.  I wanted to my trip to the UK Games Expo to have an element of wonder about it, and I wanted to be surprised by what I found on the day.

Little did I know that I'd still be consciously trying to keep myself in the dark about some of my purchases over a month down the line!

But why?

Well, the purchases in question are a trio of games designed by Inka and Markus Brand that recently saw an English language release via Kosmos; in the "Exit: The Game" series of titles. Each of which recreates a themed escape room experience, in the comfort of your own home, for a  fraction of the price that you may pay to attend such an event.

There is a catch however.

The catch being that much like the real life experience; these are one-shots. To which you might think, "Fine, I'll donate it to a friend or charity once I'm done with it".. I know I did. That's however where there's another catch. Some of the games opponents apparently get (intentionally) destroyed during the playthrough (something which I only found out today in trying to gather some information together for this post); and honestly I'm not sure how I feel about that.

On the one hand, I know that if I'm unwilling to destroy certain components I won't be able to play the games; which sucks. However, on the other hand; wanton and wilful destruction of games just seems wrong - even if that is how the game is intended to be played.

It's a bit like destroying a book, which is something else I'd never want to do (or indeed have done). No matter what your opinion of the authors work is; there is something sacred about the written word, something important, and something permanent. To destroy it feels wrong, and that's how I feel about the idea of tearing into these games.

So, I'm curious. How would YOU feel about playing a game that you had to destroy parts of to win? Would it make a difference if it wasn't your copy of the game? Please feel free to post your thoughts on a comment below, and I look forward to reading them all.

2 comments:

  1. Like you Tom, I would be incredibly uncomfortable destroying game components. I don't even like using pre-printed character sheets etc that come in a box set for example.

    I can see the idea of trying a new niche of disposable gaming, but gamers are a funny bunch and it would need a little bit of a mind-set switch for many of them.

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    1. I totally agree, and I'm right there with you with regards to pre-printed character sheets. Hell, I still have untouched sheets in games going back as far as HeroQuest and Warhammer Quest!

      It's also a sad moment when I'm picking up books from the original Fighting Fantasy series to plug gaps in my collection to find that someone has filled in the character sheet in the book at some point.. Even worse when it's in pen.

      I really hate it when people write in books!

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