Top 10 Games We Can’t Stop Thinking About

0:00 Hey, I'm Jamie from Stonemire Games and today I'm joined by a special guest from the mill. Molly, thank you so much for joining me today.

0:14 How are you doing?

0:15 Hello. Thank you so much for having me. Good. How are you?

0:18 I am doing well. I'm excited to uh to have you join me for this topic today. Um this topic is uh about earworm games. We might use some different terms for that, but by earworm, I'm referring to the type of game that kind of gets into your head and that you can't stop thinking about after you play it, and maybe you end up talking about it with people afterwards. How did how did you think about this topic when I posed the question to you?

0:40 Yeah, I honestly loved that you posed this one to me because this is my favorite way to interact with board games is talking about it after and sharing it. So, I had a lot of fun building the list and changing the list and how it's landed, I'm like, I kind of want to change it again. So yeah,

0:56 um it's not a topic I particularly thought about, but now I'm wondering why I hadn't because it's a great way to interact with board games.

1:04 Well, and one of the like these are in my opinion really special games and that they they go beyond the table. You're thinking about them when you're not playing them. You're talking about them when you're not playing them. And so that is something as a designer that I aspire to make a game that you're thinking about even when you're not playing it. And so uh that's from a design perspective. Think hopefully we'll have some good examples today that other designers can think about um when they're thinking about what can make a game into the type of game that surpasses the tabletop.

1:33 Yeah, exactly. And honestly, I think about them longer than a lot of designers would expect. I think I picked mine are really special to me, all five of them.

1:43 Well, I am excited to hear the details about your list. I know I know what's on your list in advance, but I don't know the full details about it. Um, before we jump into our list, each of our top fives, I did ask our panelists what they think. And I have three of their responses here. And one of them, the fourth, I've held off because they share one of your picks. And so we'll talk about I'll read their their passage then. And so just briefly here, let's read what the panelists say. I'll bring up an image on the other screen here. There we go. So this is Return to Dark Tower. Dylan, our heavy gamer panelist, picked this. Here's what Dylan says about it. Says, "I find the experience really thematic and immersive and the art, components, world, and effects really make the game feel stuck in my head like a catchy song." And I like that he used the word catchy song because that was one of the original thoughts behind like the type of sometimes I watch a movie, maybe a musical, and the song gets caught on my head. Dylan says, "I love that the game feels heavy, but that the mechanisms and turns are so smooth and the expansions add some weight to the game to expand the design the decision space. I love introducing people to this game because it's a great fit for newcomers and heavy gamers and always almost always a wow experience and I find myself wanting to come back and try the harder villains while also repeating easier or more predictable ones on the gritty difficult setting. Lastly, the game also often ends in disaster while everything seems to be going so perfectly which can really make the ending stick with you win or lose. So Dylan talks a lot about a lot here like memorable moments, difficulty settings, things like that.

3:10 Does any of that any of that resonate with you when you think about earworm games?

3:14 Yeah, it reminds me of two of my picks, so I don't want to go into them and spoil them, but yeah, the the difficulty, the like the narrative, the lasting with you. It um makes me want to play that game, which I haven't played.

3:28 Yeah, I've played it once. I play it. It it is um I don't play a lot of cooperative games that are like playing against the game where the game is actively trying to beat you, but it is it is an impressive one and I can that it has this, you know, this giant tower in the middle of the table that definitely stands out.

3:46 Um so, thank you Dylan for sharing that. We have Skyler, our family gamer, has picked Colt Express, which also has a fun table presence. This is a heist themed game um with a little bit of programming in it. Skyler says, "This game is a huge favorite with my family. We play it all the time and really enjoy talking about all the funny moments and storylines that we created in our previous games. It creates great camaraderie and fun, and we love that you can play up to nine people with the big box. Skyler recommends it for ages six plus. Again, talking about memorable moments in games, I know we're going to talk about this when we bring up some of our games, but does that idea of like a game where you can remember a distinct moment from it, does that fall into this category for you?"

4:27 Yeah, for sure. like like that freeze frame in time where you're laughing so hard or like you had a really really feelood turn um I think falls into it exactly and another example I haven't played but I had to look it up when you mentioned it to see if I'd played it because my board game group has played it and they told me the story of it so vividly you're you start was I there

4:48 so it was an earworm game for my board game group

4:51 Colt Express

4:53 that's impressive that they they were they were able to remember something and tell it so that you're able to rever it, too. That's pretty cool. Well, we have one more panelist pick. Um, Caitlyn, pull it up right there. Caitlyn, our digital gamer, picked the game Zenith. And Caitlyn actually inspired me to play Zenith. I've played it a few times on Board Game Arena. Caitlyn says, "I would consider this to be a very high strategy game with a variety of ways to earn points and win the game. I think it's because of the countless strategic routes you can go with the game. I'm cons I'm consistently discussing the strategies with my opponents when we get the chance to see each other in person. Uh so they this is a tugofwar themed game where you're kind of you're you're playing cards to try to win a tug-of-war battle across five different categories. Um and I can see like even just from choosing one of the color categories over another at the beginning of the game can can completely change the the shape of the game. Are you familiar with this one? No, but um you said it on board game arena, so I'll check it out. I'm starting to feel like I've played no board games, but um it looks like it'll fall into the like branching paths type.

6:03 Yeah. Yeah, that'll be something that we definitely talk about.

6:06 Yeah, Zith is a great It is technically a two to four player game, but on Gorgi Marina, it's a two-player game, and I can see it being probably best at as a two-player dueling style game.

6:16 It looks like a dueling game from the from the picture. Totally.

6:20 Which me and my wife love, so always a plus.

6:23 Nice. Nice. Well, let's see if you have some of those dueling games on your list here. Um, shall we jump in? Yeah. What What is your number five pick?

6:34 So, my number five pick is Blood on the Clock Tower, which is almost the only social deduction game I'll play, but I have joined a group that plays once a month, and I've become one of the two storytellers in it. And I find that every time we play like we'll talk for especially the rest of the session we hang out but the whole next month about what happened to that game and then you'll talk about it the next game the people who missed it. It inspires more discussion than any like game I regularly play. You break down all the choices you could have made, all the fibs people told, and as the storyteller, you get to like unveil everything, and there's like theater to it, and you think back on, did I make a balanced script? Did I execute it balanced so that everyone had fun? Often in social deduction games, I don't enjoy that someone will be eliminated and someone won't have fun. And this game seems to, with our group at least, pull off everyone finding their fun in it.

7:37 This is a game. Do you think it is helpful in this game that each person is embodying one specific character? That's something I've been thinking about lately in games like opposed to embodying multiple characters or a whole crew of people or a faction, you know, having like I am this character in this game. Does that help?

7:52 I think it's important. Everyone has a special little role or rule. Um, it can be challenging for some beginner people because the way the game balances, some player counts, some towns folk, which are meant to be good players have negative roles and their way their way to navigate that in the game is to try to share their negative role without it causing too much negativity. So, if you're new and you fumble at that, you would feel like a detriment. But everyone has a unique special thing only they know and it's very hard for it to be provable. So you can retain your special

8:27 little piece of the puzzle

8:30 or or your like bratty ability if you're evil and

8:36 cause distractions and stuff. So it works a lot well with our group and I've noticed it does have a robust online community. You can watch games and people watch and play and um so it inspires a lot of discussion for me and sticks in our brain very well. [snorts]

8:52 That's great. I've played it in person, I think once, maybe twice. And I my first introduction to it was actually online. It was playing over Discord during the pandemic. And uh I would say that was maybe it's a little harder for those games to stick in my head because they were

9:07 I didn't have that person to person interaction, but it was still I remember having good times playing it.

9:13 I've only played it in person, but I would play it online. It looks like it would be similar enough, but in person it shines for us.

9:21 Nice. Well, that is Blood on the Clock Tower is Molly's number five. My number five, I kind of broke this topic into categories and picked a few games and then one for me to to spotlight for each of these categories. And the first category and then that kind of I ranked them based on how much I love the game or how much I love the game for this category. So the first one was that these games include memorable moments that are worth retelling like and with whether it's narrative, whether it's luck or ex any extremes that happen during the game. And uh a few examples of this are um that is actually that was my design goal for Scythe, the rise of Fenrris. I wanted it to be full of memorable moments and not so long of a campaign that you know the that it kind of gets uh diluted by a lot of things that aren't memorable moments. The game Summit has had some really memorable moments for me in terms of the event cards. And then my pick is actually uh I'll show it here is actually Blob Party. So, one of the maybe the lightest games that I'll talk about today, but Blob Party is a cooperative game where you are trying to write down the same thing as everyone else at the table. And if you write down the same thing as other people, then you blob together.

10:35 And then from then on, you're still writing down individual answers, but you show them to the blob and present only one answer to the group as a blob. You're hoping to um to end up blobbing together with all the other players. I've played this at various player counts. Probably the most memorable time was when we played it with around 20 players. Um but almost every time I play, it's it's the type of game, like you said, with Blood on the Clock Tower, that we are laughing about afterwards. We're talking about afterwards. We aren't deceiving each other in this game, but we're still talking about the decisions that we made or the time that we chose one word over the other. Or when someone is when someone has a hard time blobbing, that's memorable. Uh when someone blobs right away, that's memorable, too. Have you played Have you played Blob Party or or game like this?

11:16 Yeah, so I actually got Blob Party the first time I ever heard you reference it. And my family loves it. It's um the my mom's side of the family when we go for holidays. It's very simple games only and blob party a hit and our ages span from like 6 to 65 and everyone has fun and is laughing and through various what cards come up. It could be like the youngest person or the oldest person who's having trouble blobbing and it's always funny and I haven't I've worried my niece would be upset but she just gets that like we're trying to blob and right just wants to keep trying and it is memorable. It's a good time. I've I've had a very similar experience playing with my extended family. Um yeah, and I I was like you. I was worried a little bit, especially for the little ones. Um and even the maybe some of the older ones too, who have they've been around for longer, so they have more words to share, I would say, that maybe I'm not actively thinking about, but it it ends up just being part of the the experience that we talk about.

12:14 Yeah.

12:15 Blob Party as my number five.

12:18 What about your number four? Okay, so my number four is um the most difficult co-op I regularly play. It's Spirit Island. Um Spirit Island mostly is played two-player with my wife and we there's adversaries in the game, which is like different colonizers you can go against. This is one of those games where you're like up against the game that's trying to break you.

12:42 And it's just so memorable because the spirits play so differently. So I could be playing as the ocean and only be along the outside of the board and then whatever spirit my wife draws randomly like I'd have to work with that one. So even if I've been the ocean a bunch of times like the combination matters and then the adversary you're playing matters and it's so difficult but like we've put the time into it or it clicked with us enough it's not frustrating. you lose, which you want to lose a good amount in a difficult co-op to find the fun for me. You know, you want it to be like sweet spot tough. And Spirit Island just hits that for us. We talk after about if other spirits we had would have won the scenario, what the scenario threw at us or what we could have done, cards we drafted for a deck. And so that's my that's my difficult co-op memorable game. My number four, Spirit Island.

13:39 Yeah, I we had one of the panelists mention difficulty with Return to Dark Tower. I'm glad you mention me mentioned difficulty here. And I I think you're right that that idea of of losing a cooperative game can can get that that earworm in your head where you're like, "Okay, well, what could we have done differently? What can we do better next time or do differently next time?" And this game in particular, even though it is one of those games where you're playing against the game, I think it is unique in that you are actually, and you can correct me if I'm wrong. I've only played this a few times, but I think you're pretty powerful as one of these spirits. Like, you're a a demigod almost. You're a spirit. You and yet you are struggling against this uh this wave of of antagonists. So, I I I think that seems I think to make the game a little bit special compared to a lot of other games where you are very weak, struggling against a very powerful opponent.

14:25 Yeah, it's nice. you're really specialized and every spirit is different. Some of the more advanced ones, it's hard to tell how you're specialized, but

14:34 the ocean's a good example. Like, you can really

14:37 wreck any of the colonizers on the coast, but then what do you do about when they get past you? And then,

14:43 right,

14:44 like you're really strong at your area. And if you play random like us, you don't know what the combo's going to be.

14:52 [snorts]

14:53 That's a That's a bold way to play to to play randomly like that.

14:57 Well, I think a lot of people resonate with this pick. I see it show up a lot when I ask ambassadors what their favorite game is in a category and it's I think within like the top 10 or 20 on Board Game Geek. So, yeah, Spirit Island. Great pick at number four. I went with a similar category here. Um I went with uh with games that are difficult. talk about difficulty and also games that encourage mastery in some form. Um, in both including cooperative games that you want to play until you actually win or where you have very close win-lose situations. A recent favorite for me in that category is The Gang. The Gang is one that I'm always happy to play. This is a cooperative poker game. Um, but the game that I picked for this was is a one versus many game that has stuck with me for many, many years. It's a hidden movement game that I've talked about on the channel a little bit and that is Scotland Yard.

15:46 Um, Scotland Yard for me is incredibly difficult if I'm not playing as the the uh the ex character in the game. If I'm playing as one of the detectives trying to find the ex character, I I I almost always lose, but that leads to memorable moments. It leads to me wanting to play again to do a little bit better to achieve that that mastery as we're working together to deduce where they're located and where they're moving. Um, but I think the difficulty of this game is what has made me come back to it time and time again. And maybe a little bit unlike Spirit Island, it is not a particularly complex game. It's very easy to introduce to new people to uh to, you know, explain the few rules in the game and then start playing. Have you played Scotland Yard or a one versus many game that kind of fits for this category?

16:34 Yeah, I'm kind of surprised now that you're sharing that. I didn't think of this type of game because they inspire discussion just because you have to unpack what each side did. I played Scotland Yard and I've also tried other ones to find ones better than Scotland Yard and I just find it to be the best one too and it

16:51 um just it's a great time. I also I'm not sure if you said you like being the one person more, you find it easier, but I like being the one person more.

17:01 And um it can be frustrating in a good way to

17:05 be the many. I've played Hunt for the Ring, which um is a more complicated version I feel like and it can be more more of the frustration can be injected in when it like is a little too much. So, Scotland Yard would be my pick as well if I was picking a game for this exact category.

17:24 It's a good time.

17:27 I still need to I want to play some of the variants of it. I've heard there are some pretty good ones like the uh the Sherlock Holmes variant apparently is pretty good.

17:34 Oh, I would want to play that too.

17:36 Yeah. Well, um for your number three pick it you share it with one of the panelists. So, let's hear what you had to say about it and then we'll we'll see what this panelist has to say.

17:46 Sure. So, my number three pick is a Stonemer game. It's Vantage. Um, when Vantage came out, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was anticipating it a long time because you had shared lots of hints about it

18:01 and it sounded right up my alley and then it wasn't exactly what I was expecting and I love it even more for it. So, um, it for me, cuz we're talking about it in the earworm type of way, it's just the the mix of like choose your own adventure, but also you can remember things like the crafting tree and what your character does.

18:28 Just it really sticks in my brain and took me and my wife into like journaling about our games, which we've never done with a game before. and it just like stays with you and you want to play it again and you want to try new things but play the same character while you try the new things and then play a new character and because you have infinite branching paths but you also can remember info

18:53 it just I'm just repeating myself a bit but it's just a joy that it sticks in your brain

19:00 forever and you want to just discover more and more in

19:04 [snorts]

19:05 Well, I'm obviously honored that you would say that about Vantage and that you put it on on this list. Um, and it it is a game that I continue to love as well. I I play it, I would say, more solo than with other people, but I do enjoy playing it with other people, too. And I think having the the first person perspective, especially when I'm playing cooperatively, and I have the first person perspective, so not just having text, I also have the visual of what I'm looking at, but also then describing that to other players really makes it stick. Um, and to see like sometimes I I I when I play with other people because I I hear them describing something and I know they're missing something on that location because I'm a designer. I've been to that location [snorts] before. I I put it there. And that to me is also really interesting. Like what do people what what do I see on that location that someone else isn't seeing? And what are they really highlighting that maybe isn't all that important for the game, but they are really focusing on that thing. Um, that stickiness of it. I I really I agree with what you're saying.

19:59 Yeah, I love the first person. I didn't refer to that, but like how you thematic it in where you're like on the radio with each other

20:06 like it just really works. Like

20:08 you wouldn't if you're in awe or afraid, you necessarily describe it perfectly, but you could if you had theility and composure to do so.

20:17 Right. Right.

20:17 Um and then later you could make it that area and not even know that last game your wife got there because she didn't explain it or take it in how you did.

20:27 Totally. Yeah. Well, Aaron, our panelist, agrees with us on this pick. Aaron has talked quite a bit about uh Vantage. And Aaron says this. Aaron's our solo gamer panelist. Aaron says, 'Oh, another list where Aaron has Vantage as their number one slot. But in this instance, I think it further proves why Vantage is my number one choice. I keep talking about it. I even told my therapist about it. Anyone who will lend an ear, I will talk a said ear off about Vantage. If I'm in need of a pickme up, Vantage is there. If I'm feeling the need to explore, Vantage is there. So, it's I guess it's scratching a lot of itches for for Aaron, too. If I want to truck some dice, Vantage is there if I want to. And Aaron redacted a spoiler. I actually don't even know what the spoiler is. Aaron says Vantage is there. And I'm here for Vantage. Uh Aaron also mentioned some honorable mentions. Molly House, Collution, and Speak Easy. All very different games um that that have been earworn games for Aaron. So, thank you Aaron for mentioning that, too.

21:23 All right. So that's Vantage at your number three. My number three is a very recent play that I have played only once, but I wanted to acknowledge it for this list because when I do play a game that I want to talk about afterwards, when I think about it afterwards, when I actually buy it afterwards, that I think qualifies for that list. And that is Moon Colony Bloodbath. I played this at Geekway Mini recently. This is a competitive game uh with a single event deck where someone reveals a card from that deck and everyone does the thing on that card. Sometimes it involves a card like this, like something bad happens and you lose some people from your moon colony. Um sometimes it is a work card where you take an action simultaneously with other players. And the goal of the game is to uh to build up the colony with as many people as possible and not have all of those people die due to all the things that go wrong on this moon colony. Um, so there's a whimsical nature to it and there's also engine building. There's uh these events that really there's only two events in the deck that are different each game and so those events uh and that are there from the start of the game. And so those events come up a lot as you like go through the deck and then you reshuffle them into the deck again and go through them again. So that creates that that sticky element that we talked about that there's only two that there's not more than that. Um, and I put this in the category of that they have a distinct hook that makes them exciting to share.

22:46 I've just been excited to talk about Moon Colony Blood Bath because I think it has a number of mechanical and thematic hooks. The other game I put in this category, too, is Cat in the Box. I always have fun showing new people Cat in the Box because of its hook where of the cards not having suits. Um, so yeah. What do you think? Have you played Moon Colony Blood Bath? What do you think about this category of games that have such a great hook that it's fun to think about, fun to talk about, fun to share?

23:11 Yeah, I mean, I love the the category. I love like a really really strong theme that's tied in, and I feel like that fit with it. I haven't played Moon Colony Blood Bath, but it looked fun from that little description. And I can see what you mean where if there's only two like special ones and they keep recycling, that'll really flavor that play as a distinct memory.

23:31 Uh, so I definitely want to check it out. [snorts] I'm waiting to get it. I'm still waiting as we record this to get it from my local game store. They ordered it. I'm excited to play it again because I want to see a b There's a bunch of events like that and only two of them are on the game. So, I'm excited to play again with different events. So, yeah, that's Moon Colony Blood Bath is my number three. Now, you stole my number two. I was going to put this on my list, but you put it there first. And so, what is your number two pick?

23:55 Well, I will say I did learn of the game through you, so we get a little bit of credit still even if I'm saying it. My number two pick is Terrammystica, which I often describe as my favorite game of all time. Um, I'm absolutely in love with this game. I think that it if one game I could see, if I was a mortal and could see myself playing one game in 500 years, I feel like it would be this game. I never get tired of it at all. I always am trying to get people to play it with me. Everyone I know is sick of playing it or they enjoy other versions. but about why it's memorable. So, Terrammystica has perfect information. When you set up the game and in theory choose your faction, you have all the info for the whole game laid out. So, if you're choosing your faction, there's 14 to choose from, plus expansions, plus fan expansions, which add even more, which are released soon, I believe, which is exciting. There's just so much. And then in a perfect setup, which is four players, I think um four factions have been chosen and they'll tell a story for the whole game that you can talk about after because you had the perfect information and all the decisions were informed on it. And so there's an robust online community for this game where they play like professional level games and people even cast the games which I find fascinating.

25:24 They're fun to watch randomly. I've played in like a Tuesday league of this game. Like it there's just something about Terrammystica that inspires endless discussion and stays in my brain and some brains like my game or some brains like mine for forever.

25:41 Um, so yeah, I'm in love with Terrammystica. I'd talk about it forever. It's so much fun. I love the look of it, the components, talking about it. How about you for Terrammystica? Well, I was thinking of it originally as my asymmetric game pick and I do end up I ended up choosing up a different one for number two. Spirit Island, like you mentioned before, also a highly asymmetric game. I think those are great earworm games because you play a faction and as you're playing it, I'm enjoying this faction, but I'm also seeing what other players what cool things other players are doing with their factions. And so, I'm already thinking about, oh, what would I do if I had that faction? What will I do the next time that I get to play? And also talking about after the game, it leads to that those great conversations about what you did that was unique and what they did that was unique. Um, but you also talked about something that I think goes beyond game design and is actually the marketing side of me is thinking about it, but these online communities around specific games. That is a whole that's a great category for earworm games. Like if you are that excited to talk about a game and there are other people who want to talk about it, who want to stream it, that's if a publisher can pull that off, that that can elevate a game to that earworm level. Um, and see, I didn't even know that there were those communities around Terrammystica, but it does make sense.

26:54 Yeah, I'm sure it exists for a bunch of games, but you have to be really into them to find those communities, I feel like. So, I've only ever found them with Terrammystica and Wingspan, but

27:04 yeah, it's it's a really special game.

27:08 Yeah, that's that's a great pick, Terrammystica. And my pick, very different game, but my asymmetric pick, um, I actually almost mentioned Wingspan for this one. I this category for me is asymmetry and replay-ability when you have not necessarily asymmetry but a lot of different cards or things can come up in the game. That's why Wingspane came up. But the game that I picked was Star Wars the deck builder game. I love Star Wars deck building and recently I've been enamored with the Mandalorian faction edition. Um and this is a game that it is an asymmetric game in that there are now a total of five different factions which isn't a lot. I mean, that's even less than that's across two expansions in the core game. Less than what Terrammystica has in the core box. But the asymmetry, I think, works really well for this game. It it the I'm not seeing every every card um for the faction that I'm playing in Star Wars deck building. Uh so I might see only maybe a third of the deck and so I want to play that faction again to see what the other cards do and how they could incorporate into my deck. And also in particular, this is a game where you're trying to uh eliminate three of your opponent's bases. And whenever your base is eliminated, you get to pick another one from your your pile of 10 bases and put that into play. And many of them are are asymmetric and unique. And so they can really change the shape of the game just by choosing that one base. That's a a great choice in this game that leads to it feeling asymmetric. Um but yeah, I this is my Star Wars Technology is my asymmetric pick for this earworm category.

28:41 It's a really really fun deck builder. I only have the base game, so two factions and we still have found a lot of replayability and it creates a good narrative because it's based on Star Wars. So you can picture it like a multiverse scenario where it's like Leia comes out and you're like sorry like assassinated her and then you're like no and then you remember that after like I can't believe you

29:02 got Princess Leia like

29:04 yeah that happened that has happened with the Mandalorian pack where Grou comes up

29:11 adorable. No one wants to take out Grou and so we we kind of have a truth truce that we don't take out Grou.

29:17 How could you?

29:18 How could we? Exactly. Um, but yeah, that's my number two pick. Stalworth, the deck building game. We're down to the number ones here, and you have one that I have not played. So, I'm eager to hear your thoughts on your number one pick.

29:32 Yeah. So, my number one pick, um, other people might argue is my favorite game of all time, and it's just so hard to get to the table, but it's War of the Ring. Um, I particularly play this with one special friend who loves Lord of the Rings as much as me, but I have played it with my wife a few times. It's the most complex game that I am into. It takes us six, I'm going to say four to eight hours to play, but it's usually six hours.

30:00 We make a whole day for it. We have a thematic Lord of the Rings tape where we don't rush because like you need that, I feel like, to really enjoy it. And it's the epitome of complexity, branching paths, some narrative. You play out essentially the entirety of Lord of the Rings. And one side is the five free people's races and one is the three shadow factions. And each side has two different ways to win. And you kind of have to pivot between them based on how the game goes. You roll dice for your actions. And every like hero you have alive can give you more dice. So, you want to keep your heroes alive or use them in very important battles which create a good narrative because if they die, you're losing a lot of your like tempo and engine building.

30:48 And like I mentioned with Star Wars, it's just so funny where if you really don't want to lose your Aragorn dice, if he just like abandons the war and runs off into the desert to hide, it's just really funny parts of like a really serious heavy game. It's also, I would say, the only war game

31:05 I enjoy playing. I think that is that it's one versus one is key for that because it's it feels less mean if there's only one person to attack when I'm forced to attack someone whereas if you have to choose someone,

31:18 right?

31:19 Um I absolutely love Lord of the Rings. It's my like favorite IP. So that carries a lot of the weight in it. There is games like this for Star Wars and Dune which I hear people sharing just as much love for. But War of the Ring is my number one pick. If anyone wants to play it with me and there's a free day, I will gladly play it. My So my pick is geared towards complexity as well. And I'm just curious what you think about complexity's role in earworm games because I would not say that every complex game is inherently an earworm game. What about this game's complexity makes it an earworm game for you? I think it has to have like a sweet spot of a certain things to be an earworm with a heavy game. It has to have like it can't drain you that you don't want to talk about or think about it after.

32:11 There's some complex games where I do have a great time playing them, but when I'm done, I'm done

32:15 and I'll think about it the next time I want to play it and maybe not remember the game so much. But War of the Ring because it's telling the story, it's fun, it doesn't drain on me. I think that's key. I also think it's key that we play with the three expansions folded in

32:34 which take extra tables. Like it's so much. It's so extra. But there's more things available to you than you can possibly do.

32:42 So it creates a narrative of what you chose to do. Did you raise the ants or did you raise like the undead to travel with Aragorn or did you choose the eagles as your ally? Did you use all those dead to muster a big elf army instead? You can't do everything or nearly even like half the things. And I think stuff like that is important to make it an earworm game.

33:05 I agree 100%. And that's actually the other thing that I thought about this for this final category in addition to complexity. The idea of branching paths and even a little bit of order of operations. I I guess in this game the well in the games that I'm thinking about I thought of Clank for this game and Clank what order do I do things? and that will change the shape of that game and make me think about how I would do things in a different order uh in a in a future game. But my number one pick is Ark Nova, which very different game than War of the Ring, but also a fairly complex, heavy game. And I meant to show it here. There we go. There's Ark Nova. Um, but I still remember the first time I played Arknova. I played it many times since, but that first time I exactly what you said here. I I wasn't brain burned after I played it. I know I I had just played a heavy game, but because of the action system, I wasn't brain burned. I just was thinking about all the things that I could have done differently or better or in a different order. Um whether it's the uh the two different victory point tracks, which one do I focus on? And do I try to focus on both? Do I balance them? Do I really go deep into one early on in the game?

34:07 Um, uh, which which animals did I play this time that I want to see again or that I wanted that I animals that I gave up uh because I couldn't hold them in my hand that I want to go after in a in a future game? Like all these little decisions, meaningful decisions that uh that meant that there were different branching paths and that I was doing in a different order that I could do in a different order in a future game. And I think so that paired with that complexity but with a streamlined action system has really made this my my number one top earworm game.

34:42 Yeah, Ark Nova is a great pick. I in fact I've played it I think dozens of times just because BGA it's easy to play. But I still remember my first game where I just was like I'm collecting bears because bears kept presenting them to me. And so if you still remember your first game when you've played it a bunch and it's a heavy game, then how could it not be an earworm game? I think it was aided for me in having played Wingspan first because you gain the wisdom of you can't necessarily choose what you're going to do. The big giant deck might choose what you you're going to do, but you mitigate it with the action cards and what you choose to upgrade. And do you upgrade cards or take more conservation workers? and you think about it after and what map you had and was that the right choice for that map and I think it's a great pick. Um, also Clank is a great pick though. That's my wife's favorite game. And we actually have your copy of Clank Catacombs

35:38 that I got at a design day and I always think about that when we played it.

35:43 Yeah, I I still I I still like the original map concept more than the tiles, which surprised me. I thought I'd like the tiles more, but I like being able to map out my my path and pivot. Sometimes when I don't have the movement or I have extra movement, I take a different path. Um,

35:59 I like the original more too and Clank Legacy. I don't know if you can see, we've played the first one twice and the second one once.

36:06 But I've collected all the base Clank in a big giant box.

36:11 Same here. Yeah, I have I have most of that. Yeah, I'm looking at my my legacy version that has all the stuff from all

36:17 Yeah. Say one of my legacies got all Clank and the others the second time we played Legacy.

36:22 Nice. Nice.

36:24 Well, a good variety of games here today. Even here talking about at the end about games with a lot of replayability where the deck steers you a little bit or maybe the deck building in Clank steers you a little bit. But you also talked about Terrammystica which is a perfect information game. I think both can be earworm games. We talked about light games like Blob Party, really heavy games like War of the Ring. So, I like that there's a broad range of games for this category.

36:46 Any closing thoughts? Yeah,

36:48 it's such an interesting category. I felt like when we were talking about it that it's like

36:53 we're talking about passion kind of and like

36:55 we got to cross like the whole spectrum of

36:58 board game passions and like we're we're not no two people have the same taste, but like I understood everything you were saying and like hearing the other picks made me want to play them. So, it's a very fun fun category to be a part of. Thank you.

37:15 Thank you for joining me for it and and for for inspiring this conversation. And I really do look forward to hearing what other people share in the comments. Like, what is your earworm game? The game that that you want to play again, that you want to uh that you think about when you're not playing it, that you talk about when you're not playing it, and what is maybe the element of that game that that inspires you to do those things? I'll put the kind of the general categories that we talked about in the comments in the in the description in case anyone wants to read over that before commenting. Well, thank you Molly so much for taking the time today to to chat about your room games. I really appreciate it.

37:45 Thank you so much for having me.

37:47 Yeah. All right. Take care.