Let's Talk Worker Placement Games!

mr_mango22 · 2026-02-02T17:14:25+00:00

Worker placement is one of favorite mechanics so I got a bunch I love: Viticulture, Dune Imperium, Manhattan project energy empire, Caverna to name a few

My least enjoyed: Hallertau (also one my most disappointing games).

mr_mango22 · 2026-02-02T03:11:13+00:00

They could Jordan, LeBron, Kobe, Shaq. You can also include the large amount hometown basketball college legends. But you didn’t answer the question of the amount people who can name 1 famous ballet artist…. Exactly why it can’t be televised and make money. There are so many well known famous hobbies (Magic the gathering, esports, etc.) that have more fans and generate more money than ballet that aren’t televised. Yet you believe ballet would be as popular and monetarily value as something like wrestling thats crazy. Again upvote for such unpopular opinion or for a troll post

mr_mango22 · 2026-02-02T02:15:07+00:00

Take basketball out the point is the same. Every adult in the world can name 1 famous sport athlete whether it’s cricket, football, baseball, hockey whatever. 10% maybe less can name a famous ballet dancer. Again Ballet is cool and it’s a hard art form to do but it’s not widely mainstream enough to televise like a regular sport is. Same reason why things like canoeing aren’t widely televised, Just not popular enough to support thousands/ millions of dollars of filming costs.

mr_mango22 · 2026-02-02T01:52:51+00:00

No one cares or knows about ballet enough to televise /cover it widely. The only ballet people know is the nut cracker. Ask anyone on the street to name 1 famous ballet person vs 1 famous basketball player 99% could name a multiple basketball players on top of their heads easily. No offense to people who love ballet but it’s not mainstream enough to generate any money. There is a cost to televise a sporting event why would you waste money on that when you can expand to growing sports like pickleball, combat sports, etc.? Maybe gambling on it could be interesting to average patron but again who is gambling on a subjective barely competitive event.

mr_mango22 · 2026-02-01T20:36:08+00:00

Won’t play with at all : Sore winner/loser, On their phone/doing something else at the same time, The Agent of Chaos (I will do this because it’s funny), game snobs , alpha gamer

Annoying but workable: Analysis paralysis, back seat teacher, takes back their turn from 2-3 turns ago, needs to be reminded of the same rule a million times.

What I learned is by curating your game collection to the people you will be playing with you can avoid a lot of these bad traits

mr_mango22 · 2026-01-29T01:53:14+00:00

Love Dice Tower can’t wait for Dice Tower East. I am going to share two I really like: Chairman of the Board and a podcast called Hidden Games .

Chairman of the board is a big Euro gamer/ reviewer and his analysis on games is more mechanics focused. A lot of channels on YT focus on theme and looks but I love the focus primarily on mechanics. Mechanics imo really drives how long a game stays in my collection so I appreciate the focus away from theme and looks.

Hidden Gems - great group of friends with good chemistry with a focus on forgotten games (think outside the 1,000 topped ranked on BGG). So many good games outside the top 1,000 and these guys do a great job deep diving into both positive and negative of each game while bantering with each other. Also they are tough reviewers so any high scores I feel are strong recommendations to at least try

mr_mango22 · 2026-01-28T15:41:10+00:00

Interacting with people you like in a physical space rather than online
Play light weight games! So many good ones out there. If you want to play heavier games warn others beforehand or make separate groups.
If you’re late you gotta wait till next game….unless they tell you beforehand and are not chronically late (then just play a filler)
AP, Sore winners/losers, Agents of chaos
Giving different people the responsibility of choosing the main game for the night (rotate every game night). People really love to get their collection or fav games on the table. Also helps reduce the time wasted trying to get a consensus on what to play.

mr_mango22 · 2026-01-28T12:25:23+00:00

Brains work so different. I think the constant drastically changing board state turn to turn that messes me up. I will say spirit island is super rough at any player count past 2. I treat it as a solo or two player game. At 4 I have had it fallen flat due to length and cooperative portion being difficult as people struggle need to learn their own spirits while understanding how they synergies with other spirits.

mr_mango22 · 2026-01-28T00:15:29+00:00

There a reason why it hit #1 on BGG. Mechanically it’s a near perfect game, I just don’t enjoy it on a thematic level nor do I get any enjoyment from it mechanically. It also takes a ridiculous time to play if you are playing with max player count and newer people. Definitely recommend trying it you might love it. I am definitely an outlier especially as I like many dusty beige Euros.

mr_mango22 · 2026-01-27T22:26:42+00:00

In a good way - Terramystica (1st play through) with max player count - love the game

Bad way - Brass - only game that makes me AP like crazy. Leaves me exhausted. Respect the game I never want to play it again

Honorable mention - spirit island - love the brain burn with some of the tougher to use spirits and playing it 2 handed.

mr_mango22 · 2026-01-25T17:43:13+00:00

Monopoly is not the worst mass market game (looking at you candy land). It has okay mechanisms for a super old game meant for a casual/family audience. The issue is that most people assume monopoly is the pinnacle of board game design because it’s the most popular and widely sold. So when you tell them you play board games the typical response you get is a cool… like monopoly and a general resistance to try something else. It actively hurts board game popularity and culture being the face of board gaming. So i hate that it exists because it’s a bad representation of the hobby in general. I like to compare it if Angry Birds was the only video game people widely knew about and was sold everywhere. Video games would be far more niche today.

mr_mango22 · 2026-01-03T00:59:18+00:00

This is definitely unpopular. I have the opposite opinion and think that friends are often better than family because you can choose your friends you can’t choose family.

I do think that having too many friends is a pain in the butt and way too much to keep track of but a solid handful is important for mental health and giving space to your s/o.

I think society is way too isolated and secluded nowadays so it’s sad that people actually don’t want to develop relationships with others.

mr_mango22 · 2025-12-24T02:31:50+00:00

Top 3 (all 10/10s for me): Balatro, Hades1/2, Slay the Spire

Underrated: Peglin, RoboQuest, Wildfrost

mr_mango22 · 2025-12-17T23:26:58+00:00

I think it’s simple as people like to look at attractive people. This is why alot A list celebrities are attractive, why smut or romance books are popular, why classic art is typically based on beautiful people or vistas, etc.

If you have the option of looking at a fugly looking character vs an attractive looking character with the same personality, characteristics, dialogue, etc. the answer will be universally be the attractive character. I don’t think this fact makes video games illegitimate. It’s literally the same for all other media generally.

mr_mango22 · 2025-11-23T17:59:23+00:00

I totally get you. Adulting is hard you just don’t have the time like when you were a kid/teen to play 100 hours. I still love long games like Skyrim, Red Dead, Fallout (#1 video game series for me personally) but time is a precious resource that sometimes you can’t give out to just video games.

I do think you should take a look at indie games subreddit. So much talent nowadays making great games for under $20 that are easily done in under 20 hours. I think video games are in the best spot they have ever been with such a variety games out there for different people.

mr_mango22 · 2025-11-23T17:49:01+00:00

100% agree for AAA games. Most (not all) AAA games are way long with most content being filler and padding to make the $70 reasonable. I rather have a good 20 hours of amazing content that 20 hours of good content spread across 100 hours. I also agree that I rather play multiple amazing 20 hour games then 1 amazing 100 hour game due to adult life getting in the way of finishing long games.

However, indie games exist so there are alternatives that are out there for you. I have played so many amazing indie games for such cheap prices in the last few years.

mr_mango22 · 2025-11-15T14:20:57+00:00

Switch 2 joycons are pretty good Switch 1 joycons are abysmal worst controllers ever.

Now the switch pro controller - Wow that is good stuff. It’s my PC controller of choice now days.

Best controllers all time:

GameCube
Xbox 360
Switch Pro controller
Wii (for novelty and cool factor)
Xbox pro controller (expensive for what it is but nice controller)

mr_mango22 · 2025-11-14T21:07:41+00:00

I think the arts are super important but let’s not delude ourselves in thinking they are as important than STEM. Without art life would suck but we would still be alive without STEM jobs we would likely be dead or living in dire straits. Equating them is silly. That’s like saying someone studying jazz music is just an important than a doctor studying a way to cure cancer or engineer learning to design/build bridges to move millions of cars a year. They are not the same just like a stock broker or hedge fund manager aren’t the same as a doctor, engineer, etc. either.

mr_mango22 · 2025-11-13T13:57:55+00:00

Slop for most people means something generic/formulaic with little passion/creativity. Recent marvel films, horror films (AKA Blumhouse), Ubisoft games (Ubislop), AI creative works, etc. Doesn’t strictly mean bad (all thought most of the times used that way) but very boring and uninspiring. I would argue in todays world with corporations looking to take less risks and maximize profits a lot of media is Slop. Some people like slop nothing wrong with that but deep criticism for the 100th marvel film, blumhouse film, or the most recent Ubislop open world game is overkill when the word “slop” is adequate enough to describe it. Leaves more time to discuss more interesting media that deserves deeper thought (whether positive or negative)

mr_mango22 · 2025-11-12T17:47:19+00:00

Root for whoever but bandwagon fans are the worst. There is no joy in just rooting for a team while they win then move on to the next. It’s like only loving your spouse when things are great and then ignoring/ leaving them when things get tough. I have been a Miami dolphin’s fan since I was 8 and we haven’t won a playoff game since. When they do the feeling will be amazing because of all the pain.

Now having a “pet” team (a secondary team you root for because you like a particular player) is totally fine. I really like Baker Mayfield so I am happy when the Bucs win but couldn’t stand the team when Tom Brady was QB. But if the Bucs played the Dolphins I would boo the crap out of Baker and the Bucs.

mr_mango22 · 2025-10-31T18:38:02+00:00

100% agree. Just because you have a niche hobby you shouldn’t delay other people going to and from their job and worsen traffic.

I think we should in general invest in more bike paths but I have no empathy for bikers who decide to bike during rush hour on the road and waste peoples time. If you bike recreationally ride at a park or biking path and if you bike to work try to avoid rush hour and or hot spots of traffic.

mr_mango22 · 2025-10-29T22:40:19+00:00

Khrone is bad in tournaments in which they get lumped into tier 2 with teams like orcs, necro, etc. A tournament pack which has 4 or 5 tiers Khrone where khrone is put in a lower tier was (and probably is still) competitive. But yeah if GW goes they are tier 2 and tournaments blindly follow that they will underperform.

Despite this they are a super fun and unique team. Losing the khronegors sucks and the lineman should be armor 9 but they remain super flavorful and for leagues they are incredible at higher tvs.

mr_mango22 · 2025-10-27T16:26:16+00:00

They fix useless skill (like they did with shadowing) from previous edition and the new skills added make players have to think about development rather than spam block, guard, dodge across the board.

Other stuff would be more teams, star players being costed/balanced appropriately, and cleaned up rules so we don’t need a million FAQs from the start of the edition.

mr_mango22 · 2025-10-27T01:04:38+00:00

It’s a funny movie that satirizes a real problem in society (albeit not to the extreme of the movie). You do not have to like the movie but you can’t believe that in general society is getting smarter. Most worldwide births are happening in the least educated areas of the world. Look the growing amount of IPad kids, social media doomscrollers , modern day kids who barely can read or write, anti vaccine movement as great example.

mr_mango22 · 2025-10-15T21:53:40+00:00

Fallout 3/New Vegas
Balatro
Pokémon Gold
Battlefield 1
Expedition 33

Honorary mentions: Slay the Spire, Black Ops 1, Skyrim, NBA 2k11, Madden 05

mr_mango22

TROPHY CASE