Unbelievably Ignorant!

And it's true.....till recently, board games meant Monopoly and Game of Life, while card games go a bit further to Magic: The Gathering.....but I have accidentally stumbled unto a whole new world of card and board games that has been going on in Europe and America for the past few decades ...something Asia has not really caught on I guess?

And to my greater surprise, I actually own one of these exciting games without knowing it (more on it later!), discovered physical and online stores in Singapore selling them, became obsessed with online review sites and also chanced upon groups that meet-up regularly to play! Where have I been these many long years?

Anyway, the following sites would be useful if you are trying to understand what I am ranting about.....

Paradigm Infinitum - The two physical shops at Midpoint Orchard and Fusionopolis.

Boardgame Lifestyle.com - Online shop with quite a variety of games!

Shut Up & Sit Down - REALLY Hilarious and well produced video reviews of board and card games!

The Dice Tower - A fantastic site for reviews on how to play the game and even a TOP 100 segment!

Boardgamegeek - Another information-filled site on gaming!

Well, to start off, I bought the game, Resident Evil - The Deck Building Game quite a while ago without actually trying it out (I opened it..I did!).

Image courtesy of www.icv2.com

Only took it out recently to read the rules and try the gameplay and it was really fun! As  a longtime RE fan, I know of the whole game series and the characters etc. so the theme drew me in instantly!

The game mechanics took me a while to comprehend as I was really new at this. It is an adaptation of the deck building type of games - starting off with basic, pathetic cards and building your deck up to be able to deal with the obstacles and adversity till you attain the winning objective.

And by using ammunition to power weapons, using gold to buy cards (action, ammo etc), braving the mansion to defeat monsters and level up (and find the lucky rocket launcher!) to finally beating the boss with your character, this whole game can really excite an RE fan!

What I can say about these board games and card games would be that you got to really open up your mind and be willing to try them out in order to enjoy them. Most of them take hours and even up to a day to finish playing, time between turns can be long, rules can get amazingly complicated and concentration on the game to be engaged and involved is also an important factor to the fun. Perhaps, with our ever busy schedules and impatience due to the lack of time, these games have never really lifted off.

Most importantly, the human factor makes it so much more fun than just putting on a pair of headphones with speakers and playing a game online.....no, the gathering of people at the same physical space to have a good time is unparalleled.....

Ah well, hope the people I know who are reading these will start wanting to play some with me!