We all have experiences in life we don’t want to miss. FOMO, or fear of missing out, seems to hit particularly hard when it comes to hot new boardgames. Between Kickstarter and conventions constantly hyped on social media, how can we deal with this irrational response?

What We’ve Been Playing

Life has been really busy, but we’re finally making a bit of time to play games again.

Filler – mostly at 2 players and solo (which feels just like 2 players!)

Best Treehouse Ever: Forest of Fun – another great one from Green Couch Games. We feel it improves on the original without significantly changing it.

Dice Throne – we finally tried a 3-way free-for-all. Not thrilled about the very random “targeting roll”. We discuss why direct-combat games like this don’t seem as frustrating as “take-that” games. Theory: it doesn’t feel as vindictive when the stated goal is to take down your opponents.

Tiny Towns – you know we’re big fans.

Monopoly Junior

Kintsugi – one of our favorites from Button Shy. A perfect restaurant game for 2-3 players.

Gunkimono – seemed more complex than it was. Some area-control, some abstract tile laying, and balancing two different point tracks. Lay down domino-style tiles to create large groups of armies of the same color. Choose whether to score a contiguous section or go up on the “honor track”, which will give you bonus points and ways to permanently claim existing formations.

SNAP Review: Shadows in Kyoto

Anitra and Andrew enjoy this strategic game of hidden identities, based on Japanese history.

Pictures and full text available in our SNAP reviews.

SNAP review music is Magellan, provided courtesy of You Bred Raptors?

FOMO

We go to several conventions and events in our role as podcasters and reviewers, where there’s an expectation that other media types will go to every event. We’ve talked before about con planning and the importance of taking regular breaks to keep from burning out.

Kickstarter and deals

Kickstarter is a big driver of FOMO. You’ve only got a short window of time to commit your money towards a potentially really cool game. Generally speaking, our family tries to be realistic – is this the kind of game our family would really love? If not, let’s set a good example for our children by NOT buying it. We want them to think through how they spend their limited allowance money, and one of the ways they’ll learn that is by seeing us say “no” to our own desires.

Great deals can drive quick decision making, too. We’re still learning to not buy a cool game just because it’s a good deal. (See our stack of Mice & Mystics with all the expansions… we’ve only played about 4 chapters of the original game.)

We will still buy games that are “great deals”, as long as we know what’s going to happen with it – it’s actually more common for us to pick up Barnes & Noble deals as gifts for our friends.