# So, what IS the worst game? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 21, 2020, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946 "2020-03-21T07:58:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/141 "2020-03-26T11:31:20Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > When I read the rules to Betrayal and House on the Hill I thought it was going to be a terrible game. But I played it and I had a really, really good time. It’s not a game I want to play over and over again but I’ve really enjoyed the few times I’ve played it. I’ve wondered if there is a strategy to how close you should be to other players versus being alone, and how adventurous you should be in seeking power-ups. And how they interplay with each other, i.e. how much you need power-ups as the big bad versus a party member. So if you are going it alone you will be hoping to be the traitor because they do better alone, but then you need to know if the traitor is helped or hurt by seeking power-ups. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/142 "2020-03-26T19:39:27Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > If I did, you made your point poorly by mentioning 5-card draw. > Five card stud with no betting is exactly the same as just dealing five cards out and the best hand wins. There’s a little more drama to it, I guess, but it’s the same thing. Why didn’t they just say deal out five cards and best poker hand wins? I dunno? Like I said, it’s Nevada and maybe they like the drama. > > And do we know this to be true? I only quickly looked into it, and saw some Nevada jurisdictions simply breaking electoral ties with a draw of cards from the deck. The only reference I could find to this being a thing is in New Mexico, not Nevada, and it’s that it must be resolved by a “Game of chance” so it COULD be no-betting poker in theory but could also be just flipping a coin. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/143 "2020-03-26T22:30:15Z")
Hey, I never said it was true. I said it was a thing I’d heard. ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/144 "2020-03-26T22:31:47Z")
_Jutland_ was pretty bad–tracking tons of different ships for a battle in which not much happened. _Guns of August_ had problems as well, as the map was pretty much all of Europe, so the Western front was about 10 hexes long. So you then spend the next four years occasionally taking hexes off of stacks and replacing them with others. _Darkover_ is perhaps the worst, based on the book series. Since it deals with psychic powers, conflicts were resolved by two people staring at each other and chanting “One, please don’t burn, two, please don’t burn…” until someone lost the staring contest. ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/145 "2020-03-27T00:15:13Z")
I don’t think Monopoly is the worst game, and I think it can even be a fine game with the right ruleset. However, it does have the distinction of being almost strictly worse than another popular boardgame. I maintain that Settlers of Catan and monopoly are the same game. The meat of both is rolling dice and trading resources. There are game specific skills, Catan requires a bit more spatial skills, Monopoly statistics, but in general, I would say that the dice rolling and trading decide much more of the game than knowing when to buy houses/when to go for longest road. Catan is better because it is a lot more trading than dice rolling, and it doesn’t have player elimination. I haven’t played many games of Monopoly where there was more than 2 or 3 trades. and I haven’t played many games of Catan where there was less than 2 or 3 trades per round of turns. I’m not sure it’s any less determined by dice than monopoly, since better rolls means more stuff to trade, but more trading means you are doing meaningful things more often. The advantage of no player elimination is obvious, though both games do have players eliminated from having a reasonable shot of winning part way through the game. I suspect that’s unavoidable for any resource-gathering game without adding Mario Party mechanics. Wait, this post should have been about Mario Party. ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/146 "2020-03-27T00:18:52Z")
So, Mario Party is the worst board game. It is 90% Candyland, 10% minigames, and at the end you roll a dice, if you roll a 6, the person in 3rd place wins. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/147 "2020-03-27T15:10:51Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > Thinking about starting a “Worst, ‘AAA’ video game” thread. I’d play. I think though you’ll have to distinguish between ‘worst on release’ and ‘worst even after it was ostensibly patched.’ I loved Fallout New Vegas, but I came to it after the GOTY edition was released. So most of the game nuking bugs had been controlled if not eliminated. AIUI, it was absolutely, ridiculously buggy on release. Which was the video game that had an infamous bug that not only could crash your game and system, but could conceivably corrupt the rest of your hard drive? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/148 "2020-03-27T15:21:32Z")
Assuming that’s not just an urban legend, that’s not an example of a bad game, that’s an example of a bad operating system. No OS should allow any application program to be able to do that much damage, especially considering that there are some programs out there deliberately designed to do damage. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/149 "2020-03-27T16:40:08Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > I’d play. I think though you’ll have to distinguish between ‘worst on release’ and ‘worst even after it was ostensibly patched.’ I loved Fallout New Vegas, but I came to it after the GOTY edition was released. So most of the game nuking bugs had been controlled if not eliminated. AIUI, it was absolutely, ridiculously buggy on release. > > Which was the video game that had an infamous bug that not only could crash your game and system, but could conceivably corrupt the rest of your hard drive? _Pools of Radiance: The Legends of Myth Drannor_. Not the original SSI Gold Box PoR, but an attempt by UbiSoft to revive the franchise in 2001. The uninstaller could delete some of your system files if you’d installed it anywhere other than the default location. [Ars Technica’s review from back in the day.](https://web.archive.org/web/20011126120955/http://www.arstechnica.com/reviews/01q4/pool_of_radiance/pool-1.html) ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/150 "2020-03-27T18:25:17Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > When I read the rules to Betrayal and House on the Hill I thought it was going to be a terrible game. But I played it and I had a really, really good time. It’s not a game I want to play over and over again but I’ve really enjoyed the few times I’ve played it. My usual RPG group occasionally plays _Betrayal Legacy_ when we aren’t able to run our usual RPG campaign on a game day. It’s effectively the same game but you play scenarios one after another, each scenario taking place at a different time period in the same house. Each player plays a family (you pick the family name and crest/color at the beginning) and for each scenario you play a different generation of the family. The choices you make and the events that happen affect future scenarios as you build a history of these families and the house. For example, you find a crossbow and manage to kill someone with it, that crossbow now gets a sticker with your family crest and is an heirloom. In the next scenario if you find your grandpa’s crossbow, it has bonus stats for you because you are a descendant. The deed to the house passed from family to family, and grudges develop that lead to conflicts later, and so on. It has been a blast. The downside to the game is that it’s pretty expensive (anywhere from $50-75) and you pretty much can only play it once, as you have to use up stickers, write on cards, and dispose of things after they are used up. So it’s an investment. But you can play it over a long session and it’s an amazing experience. I really dig it. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/151 "2020-03-28T00:02:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Aside: I’ve heard that in Nevada, the official procedure for resolving tied elections is for the tied candidates to play a single hand of five-card stud. With the stakes set like that, it does in fact become a trivial game, and in effect no different from a coin flip… but I do have to admit that it’s a lot cooler than a coin flip. This may be a city law somewhere in Nevada, but Nevada state law says that ties in statewide or “district” elections are broken either by vote of the state legislature or “by lot.” Technically, a game of stud poker could be considered “by lot.” At the Nevada Democratic Caucuses, if there was a tie in determining which candidate received a County Convention delegate, it was broken by a card draw (high card won; ties broken by the suit order used in bridge). ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/152 "2020-03-28T00:24:16Z")
Wasn’t there a game mentioned somewhere on SMDB that consisted of: (a) The board is 101 spaces, numbered 0 through 100; (b) Each player starts on 0; © Roll a die - on a 6, advance one space; on a 5, remain where you are; on a 1-4, go back to space 0; (d) The first player to reach space 100 wins? I worked out that it would take a very, very long time just for any player to get to space 10. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/153 "2020-03-30T17:40:34Z")
The Crying ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/154 "2020-03-30T20:02:51Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Wasn’t there a game mentioned somewhere on SMDB that consisted of: > (a) The board is 101 spaces, numbered 0 through 100; > (b) Each player starts on 0; > (c) Roll a die - on a 6, advance one space; on a 5, remain where you are; on a 1-4, go back to space 0; > (d) The first player to reach space 100 wins? > I worked out that it would take a very, very long time just for any player to get to space 10. The odds of successfully getting to the tenth space, from space 0, are 9,765,624 to 1. The odds of completing the game are such that were every human on earth to play the game nonstop, no one would win before the heat death of the universe. This game sucks. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/155 "2020-03-31T01:10:29Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The odds of successfully getting to the tenth space, from space 0, are 9,765,624 to 1. > > The odds of completing the game are such that were every human on earth to play the game nonstop, no one would win before the heat death of the universe. > > This game sucks. The expected number of rolls needed for a player to reach space 10 is 14,648,436. The expected number of times reaching space 10 needed for a player to reach space 20 is also 14,648,436. The expected number of turns to reach space 100 is about 4.5 x 10^71. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/156 "2020-03-31T04:07:16Z")
> [@merrick](#): > > I have to come in here to put in a dishonourable mention for _Betrayal at the House on the Hill_. For those of you who haven’t met it, it’s sort of an RPG-ish boardgame where you play a stereotypical group of dumb teenagers investigating the haunted house. You explore the house and find stuff and then the monster is revealed… > > Except that it’s basically Snakes-and-Ladders in an expensive Halloween costume. It is not a game. The exploring and finding are completely random and depend entirely on your ability to roll dice and draw cards. When the Plot is revealed, one player is randomly chosen as the Bad Guy and given a random objective, which the Good Guys have to stop. Depending on the random items collected, one side or the other may be massively overpowered. Depending on the random room draw, either sides’ objective may be anything from trivial to impossible. > > I understand some people like it for the story-telling elements, but really, why not just play an RPG? Betrayal is still fun to play, even if you occasionally get screwed. Some of the scenarios are better than others, though. The players have a greater chance of beating the traitor the longer they can go without triggering the haunt. As items are uncovered, the players need to use the high-speed member of the party to ferry items between players to balance out items (i.e. one player doesn’t hog all the weapons) and optimize usage (items that require knowledge go to the player with the highest knowledge, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/157 "2020-03-31T04:26:27Z")
I would say the worst board game I have played is a dud called Innsmouth Escape. It’s a one player vs the rest game, where one player is trying to rescue their captured fellow Miskatonic U students wit secret movement and get to the edge of the board and out of Innsmouth, while the other players play hordes of Deep Ones. It’s incredibly unbalanced against the solo player, and the cheap jack production values didn’t help. (Every piece of art in the game is clipped from the cover painting, although there are lots of Deep One plastic figurines I’ve used in other games.) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/158 "2020-03-31T06:09:33Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > The Crying ;):p:D ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/159 "2020-03-31T13:27:51Z")
I know all there is to know about the crying game. I’ve had my share of the crying game. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/160 "2020-04-01T04:29:24Z")
I know I’m in the minority but I hate Fluxx. It’s basically a disguised version of War that makes you think there’s a strategy to winning. And then someone changes the winning condition and your plans all go to hell. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946.md?page=9)