What's the appeal of minis?

[TiCK]

Seriously, when I was a little kid I liked the little mouse-shaped pieces in Mousetrap but I wouldn't pay $100 for a version with larger unique molds for each mouse, sculpted cheese tokens, and a pre-painted diver guy.

What compels people to pay extra money for this crap for games they've never played before? Do you put all these things on a shelf and display them? What does a plastic piece do that a standee doesn't? Does Dead of Winter make you sad and Shadows Over Camelot give you a chub?

Explain, please.

[Grr.]

Both of them suck. BSG is where it's at. 

It's aesthetics. They look nicer. it's more immersive. It's more pleasing to the eye.

And to be fair quite often the super nice editions of things are things that have been out before. War of the Ring and Small World are good examples of that. And in other cases (like cerebria on KS) they have the rule book out and you can read that to decide if you like a game or not.

As for the unpainted minis.. .still more immersive. Are they needed for basically themeless Euros? No. Does it add some extra theme to a 4x game or a dungeon delve? Absolutely. 

[ಠ_ಠ]

Components all suck. I create every board game for free using free pens and toilet paper from my bank. 

Fools!

[wildthayne]

Ha, ha!

I see you're in a good mood today. :-)

I'm not a mini aficionado, yet I will note that I have a positive emotional response to handling quality game components and negative emotional response to low grade components with poor balance, sharp edges, or questionable durability.

[Sagrilarus]

        I'm the exact opposite.  Give it to me cheap and quick.  If it turns out to be a great game I'll buy a nice copy, but these days I'm as likely to print something off of WargameVault.com as I am to purchase a production copy.

        "Component Quality" has turned boardgaming into an expensive hobby, and damn if I don't end up trading or selling 3/4 of what I buy.  Losing half the value of $80 per title costs money I wouldn't have to spend if people weren't concerned about the thickness of the game chits.

[figarojones]

Every post of yours I've read has been dismissive and rude; this entire post reads like someone trying to troll gamers who like chrome, but (on the off-chance you legitimately don't understand it) I'll answer your question. 

Some gamers prefer theme over well constructed mechanics, which is why some people prefer dungeon crawlers to heavy turn-optimization worker placement games. Having a well done miniature offers a deeper aesthetic connection to the game than a standee or chit, especially when the focus is on the game experience. OTOH, if the game focuses on heavy mechanics, components can be functional rather than thematic, and cubes are fine. 

[BitJam]

Painting minis fills in the time when BGG is down.  Duh!

[Adrian Pillai]

But you won't break out the paper money at your bank. Where's the fun without it?

[Dana Olson]

Who doesn't want to spend a ton of cash to get blobs of grey plastic?

[Kevin L. Kitchens]

Games with minis (except tabletop miniatures, measuring type games of course) should ALWAYS included standees as well to speed up playing the game and just appeal to more gamers than those who like to paint.

On Thursday, April 6, 2017 at 11:16:01 PM UTC-4, TiCK wrote:

[Chris Brown]

I really do enjoy minis over standees or flat tokens. Maybe it's a moderate ability to paint that makes it more appealing. I just really like the aesthetic look. I agree that some games overdo it. Games like Shadows over Camelot don't really need it, especially for the bad guy stuff. Other games like Mice and Mystics, Descent, or Zombicide really benefit from the look and feel of figures marching around the board. Though I will say that unpainted Mice and Mystics is a travesty because the heroes are the same plastic color as the enemies adding some confusion that colored tokens or standees would not have had. Felt like a case of "minis because minis" without thinking of quality of experience.

Would castle panic be better with minis? Naw, I think that would be unnecessary.

Would my daughter enjoy Stuffed Fables without the cute minis? Maybe, but she really does get into the excitement of the figures.

As far as upgrading games, I think if you have a game you really enjoy then upgrading it can be beneficial to your enjoyment. For example, the upgrades of Power Grid from colored cubes to shaped resources makes the game more fun. Or Lords of Waterdeep changing the cubes to individually shaped meeples with sticker art really helps bring the game from basic resources to a deeper definition of those resources. Instead of "I'm getting 3 black cubes" it's "I'm getting 3 thieves." Not required, but gives an extra little oomph to make the game a bit more fun. I really enjoy upgrading games that hit the table a lot.

TLDR: No, you don't need them in your game, but for some it can really bring out the aesthetics. 

On Thursday, April 6, 2017 at 11:16:01 PM UTC-4, TiCK wrote:

[Kyle Maitland]

On Monday, September 10, 2018 at 9:12:15 AM UTC-4, Dana Olson wrote:
> Who doesn't want to spend a ton of cash to get blobs of grey plastic?

Minis are good, board games are good. Unfortunately minis that come with board games largely suck, even stuff like Rising Sun is mediocre quality at best. So I'd prefer they stay 100ft apart at all times. Board games have cheap minis though at least. There is that, and that is likely the hype engine. A decent sculpt otherwise costs as much or more than a board game.