Catan is not the gateway game people claim it is

Look, I've been running a weekly board game night at my local library for 3 years now. Every time someone brings a new player, they pull out Catan and it takes 45 minutes to explain the rules. Then the new person gets blocked by a 7 roll and sits there for 20 minutes with nothing to do. I've seen 6 out of 8 new players quit after their first game. Has anyone else found a better entry point that doesn't give beginners a bad first experience?

2 comments

2 Comments

christopher_west115d ago

Hold up, six out of eight new players quit? That's insane. I've seen people give up after a bad first game, but that's a brutal ratio. You'd think after the third or fourth time seeing it happen, someone would finally pick a different game. I wonder if your library has a copy of The Quest for El Dorado or even just a simple deck builder like Dominion to try instead.

ivan8215d ago

...and that's exactly what happened with my buddy Steve. He brought his girlfriend to game night, we tried Catan, and she spent the whole second hour on her phone because she kept getting blocked. Next week I brought out Ticket to Ride instead. She jumped in and actually won, now shes been coming for 6 months straight. I think people push Catan because they played it in college and it feels nostalgic, but its just not beginner friendly. Simple card games or cooperative stuff works way better for new folks in my experience.