Wishlist Wanderings and Wonderings

 Wishlists and Those That Make Them

I'm going to be a bit more freeform with this entry in the blog since I'm not really certain what I want to do with it. Wednesdays have gotten a bit odd and I'm not certain what I should be writing about since I'm still a ways off from the next entry into my dystopian journey through the board game gang wasteland and it's not the end of the month so I'm not reviewing the games I played.

After some thought, I decided that I'd just do a review of some of the games that I currently have sitting on my wish list, especially taking note of how long they've been sitting there. It's always interesting reviewing and updating The List™ as I get games that have been on The List™ for a while. I do try to keep The List™ as updated as possible, removing games that I've purchased from it when I get them and add them to my collection. I also don't place preordered games on The List™ as I've already purchased them, and while I don't physically have them in my collection at home, I still will be (hopefully) getting them in the next year or so.

I've found it to be really interesting to update The List™ as time goes on since my tastes in games have changed and adjusted as I've played more and more over the last few years. Games that I thought that I would want to have in my collection slowly lose priority for me and I find that games that I hadn't been thinking about get added to The List™ for future reference or purchase. There are also those games that sit perennially at the top of The List™ because I haven't gotten the chance to purchase them or I'm leaving them for someone to get for me as a gift.

It's a delicate balance that I've maintained over the years and I appreciate that BGG allows users to update each of the entries on their respective wish lists to reflect how much they want a certain game. There is even a "don't buy this" button that allows users to outright note what games not to get them. The addition of comments from the user on the games themselves is also a nice feature for when I have to share The List™ with friends or family (especially around Christmas time) as it allows me to note preferences on games even further.

I would like to say that over the last few years that The List™ has grown smaller, but it's really maintained the same size and the games that are on it have changed, either in how much I want them, or outright for another game. I have found more and more however that I lean towards games that I've played and would like to add to my collection, versus games that I haven't yet played, especially for the games that I "Must Have."

I won't go over my entire list in detail, rather I'll just be hitting on some of the major games that have managed to hit The List™ and had some significant staying power, as well as a few games that have slipped a bit further down The List™ than when they were first put on it. Because it's 35 entries, I'm going to lump a few at the bottom of this post with a few notes but my top 5 or so will be gone over in detail below:

Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Collector's Edition
Current Wish List Status: "Must Have"
Current Priority Listing: #1
Time on Wish List: 10 months
How Did It Get There?: So, this one I have to blame my good friend Anthony for, since he introduced the game to me last year(?) with the "Collector's Edition" of the game. He had talked up the game to me quite thoroughly and when we finally sat down to play it at his place, he pulled out the massive box that was the collector's edition of the game and proceeded to show me the wondrous beauty that it beheld. I've noted this before, but I'm a sucker for really nicely put together components and everything in the box screamed "BUY ME!" when I saw it. After a few plays of the game, I knew that I would want to get the game for myself and after seeing the majesty contained within the Collector's Edition of Castles of Mad King Ludwig, I knew that I wouldn't be content with just the base version of the game. It was when I saw the $200 price tag on the Bezier Games website that my exuberance at picking up the game was met by the horrid crashing of reality into my small world. Since then, I've had the game sitting on The List™, but I still find myself looking at the game from time to time, whispering "soon..."

Heat: Pedal to the Metal
Current Wish List Status: "Must Have"
Current Priority Listing: #2
Time on Wish List: 6 months
How Did It Get There?: Heat: Pedal to the Metal had popped up quite a bit here on BGG and as a fan of racing games (see previous post about solo modes), this one intrigued me. I had been to the Indy 500 several times over the year and I loved watching racing on TV and YouTube, so being able to bring a more realistic style of racing to my table seemed right up my alley. However, having learned from past mistakes, I chose not to purchase the game until I had played it, which I finally got a chance to in February of this year at 2D Con Unplugged in Minneapolis. I was floored by the production value and how it played and immediately knew that I would want to purchase a copy of the game for myself. I quickly threw it on my list and I haven't been able to purchase it since, not for lack of trying, as the game has been out of stock since then. I did get a chance to play it 9 more times over a weekend in early April, which only cemented my desire for this game further. Hopefully I can get my hands on a copy of the game soon, because I need some more racing in my life!

Dorfromantik: The Board Game
Current Wish List Status: "Must Have"
Current Priority Listing: #3
Time on Wish List: 6 months
How Did It Get There?: I have a friend who highly recommended the video game to me and spoke really highly of how relaxed and fun it was to play the video game, so when I saw that there was a board game version of it, I immediately threw it on my wishlist, even after not playing either board or video game version. I trusted my friend's recommendation on this and knew that it would be a treat to have on the table. Fast forward a few months and I picked up the video game version, which was excellent as advertised, which only cemented my desire to pick this game up for my table. I've run into the same issue that I've found with Heat, as in I'm unable to find a copy at a local board game shop. While I could get a copy from Amazon, I'd prefer to support my local small business first before going through the tech giant, but if someone else buys it for me, I really wouldn't complain. I have also heard from the friend who originally recommended the video game to me that, Dorfromantik: The Board Game is just as good as the video game as she picked up a copy herself.

Dinosaur Island: Rawr and Write
Current Wish List Status: "Must Have"
Current Priority Listing: #4
Time on Wish List: 6 months
How Did It Get There?: I was able to get a Kickstarter copy of Dinosaur World from someone back in August of 2023 when he sold it to me and I've loved playing the game. Unfortunately with how big the game is, I've found it hard to bring to the table since it's so big and complex. I have it on my 10x10 Challenge List for 2024 Geeklist and even have several plays logged this year, but with other games that my wife prefers to play, it's not hitting the table as much as I want it to. It is my hope with Dinosaur Island: Rawr and Write that I can convince Sarah to play with me and get my Dino Park-building fix with a game that's smaller and (hopefully) shorter and less complex than it's full table-eating counterpart.

Dead Man's Draw
Current Wish List Status: "Must Have"
Current Priority Listing: #5 (#1 for Sarah)
Time on Wish List: About 1 month
How Did It Get There?: This one is a fairly new entry to my wish list and mainly comes from Sarah wanting to get a copy of the game. I personally enjoyed Dead Man's Draw quite a bit when I played it since it was a press your luck game that was fast to play, but I was content with playing with my friend when he brought it over for us to play. However, it was Sarah who immediately said "I want to get that," after we finished playing a few weeks ago that really convinced me to throw this game on The List™. Since she rarely ever said that she wanted a game and generally deferred to my preferences, I immediately threw it on The List™ as a "Must Have" since she had been so vehement about her enjoyment of the game. I don't expect it to remain on there for long since it's about $20 on Amazon, but getting a second-hand copy would be preferable to buying a game new (from our corporate overlords).

More Waiting in the Wings...

I also have a few expansions sitting on The List™ that I thought I would quickly throw on here to discuss further and pad this entry out a bit. I don't like to do short posts here on this blog, as evidenced by all of my posts being fairly long, so I'm going to add a bit more to make me feel better about the time I spent on this post.

A few current expansions that I have on The List™ are Clank!: Adventuring Party and Clank!: Sunken Treasures as I picked up a copy of Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure in March. I've also got a few expansions for Clank! In! Space!: A Deck-Building Adventure on my wishlist as with only three expansions (having gotten one already) I don't think it'll take too much to add the rest to my game. With those as well, I've also recently added both Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated and Clank!: Catacombs to my list (well, Catacombs was readded after being removed).

I definitely find myself altering The List™ quite often, especially after I get a new game and then start heavily leaning into anything and everything that the game has available for it. I'll add games that are related to it, expansions, and other bits and bobs that I come across when getting a new game onto my wishlist, only for those items to be reevaluated a month or two later and removed or reduced in my desire to purchase them. It's definitely my ADHD rearing it's head, and it's bitten me in the butt a few times, but a few times I've managed to get a few expansions that add more to the base game (maybe that will be next Monday's post).

There are a few other games that have sat on The List™ for some time only to be downgraded in how much I want to get them, but I think I'll save that for another post to not have this one drag on too long.

Give me your thoughts:How do you maintain your wish list, either here on BGG, on another site, or (like me) do an amalgamation of both? How often do you revisit your wish list and update it? What are your current top 5 games that you're hoping to get, not including games that you've backed on Kickstarter? Do you have any criteria for what goes on the list, or are you like me and put things on the list only to adjust them later?

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*Originally posted on BoardGameGeek on 24/4/2024*