Boardgames at Work

Last night I played Carcassonne with two of my coworkers, Alan and John. This marks the second consecutive week we've had an after-work boardgame session on a Wednesday night - we played Settlers last week. Next week Alan is bringing in some of his Pirates of the Spanish Main minis and we are going to give that a go.

We just grabbed an empty conference room and played there. A few coworkers stopped in to see what we were up to, and of course each and every one compared the game to Risk, which always gives me a laugh. This is a phenomenon that I see in boardgames more than anything else. Now I don't expect people to know what these games are, and I don't mean to sound like Comic Book Guy, but the comparisons are just very funny. Anytime you see a mainstream news piece that mentions German boardgames, the author will invariably describe the game as "Risk meets Pictionary" or "Monopoly with a touch of Trivial Pursuit" despite the games having basically nothing in common besides having some cardboard. Carl's Jr. seats about the same number of people and presents some bizarre food combinations, but even as a non-foodie I know enough not to compare it to The French Laundry (just to be clear, I do love me some Carl's Jr.). I guess people just feel more comfortable if they can establish any kind of frame of reference.