There are games with good players that are cheap enough for new players and don't require a password. My two first games were, at any rate, though one did cost 75 .

But one notices the tendency for players in cheap games to go into civil disorder either for no reason or when they start to lose, even if all hope isn't lost. That makes the game worse for everyone involved. So even new players tend to try to find other players with whom they have played whom they can be reasonably sure won't fail to enter turns, simply because they want to play a good game.

Your mileage may vary, but I think the primary reason is frustration. And, of course, friends playing together, league games, or other tournament games that require sign-ups.

AMP hit the nail on the head. Why should the experienced players risk their G-rating or their points or their win/draw/survive/elminiated rations on someone who is liable to drop out and CD, leaving them in a bad situation when they get bored ar angry or whatever. This is a game of negotiation and well timed betrayal and most noobs get pissed and quit halfway through when they get stabbed, or they are losing so decide to quit. This game isn't like most where you can turn your money and property in to the bank and walk away.

well playing with more experienced players has to be valued. If you play with a more experienced player and stay quite the only difference will be is that they kick you as. But if you play and talk then you can learn.
As far as password those are usaully for friends, and soetimes experienced players wan to aviod people who CD or people who don't talk at all.

except that inexperienced players usually are also easier to defeat. one can harvest first-timers like fruit

Unless they CD in a crucial point in the game, which in turn screws you over too.

Akroma is right though, new players should be relatively easy cannon fodder most of the time.

Occasionally you play somebody like her in their first game, though...

Wow Draugnar, I guess you haven't played many games. Not even Monopoly, the one you referenced, because of course, someone leaving has a huge effect. Say, for instance, you have 2 green properties and N00B McN00Bster has the other one and drops out of the game. Don't you benefit a lot from that? Whereas other players might not? I know I'm just ranting because I'm in a bad mood, but try not to say things that are blatantly false.

what?

But most (or at least many) experienced players want a good game, not just the points. That means playing people of a comparable experience level, and people who won't CD and mess up the game.

@freakflag, your right. In Monopoly, it does have an effect. But there are plenty of other games like the Game of Life, Parchesi (sp?), Yahtzee, etc. where a particular players position doesn't affect other players beyond whether they are in first place or not. Most chase around the board games where player interaction is kept to a minimum have little to no effect if someone quits midgame.

And I play a ton of boardgames, but mostly European games and some of the Steve Jackson games (the Munchkin series is classic!). I used to play twice a week until we moved to Northern KY, then it was once a week until thet group decided to stop having Northern Kentucky meetings and shifted to the north side of Cincinnati. It's not worth driving 70 to 80 miles round trip for a couple hours of boardgaming.

hmmmm.

@Draugnar: lack dedication much? :rolleyes:

Stopped going when gas was $4 a gallon and I drove a 93 Corvette and a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee, neither of which could do the round trip for less than $15. So yeah, no dedication at those prices.

How much is a gallon to a litre out of curiosity and boredom?

It's pretty much because, winning or losing, everyone who loves this game hates the CD! A password is the best way to deter any first-time-last-time-passing-through player messing up an otherwise good game for everyone else...

1 Imperial gallon = 4.54609188 litres

So you pay less than a USD for a litre and say that is a lot? xD in italy it cost 1.4€ (around 1.8 - 2 USD)

@ chinter: you could apply for a School-of-War game, in which some experienced players learn you to diplome and help with strategy (and each strategic move is being analyzed).

Speaking for myself, I just kept playing, through CDs and NMRs, trying to avoid them myself. In this time in learned much from more experienced players who did actually show up sometimes. For every CD'ing n00b there's an active player.

TGM is doing imperial gallons. It's only abour 3.8 litres to the US Gallon, so a little over a dollar a litre. And european prices are irrelavent as you all have a wonderful rail system that I love to travel when I'm over there. And you rcountries are the size of our states. Texas alone is larger than any country in Europe and Italy is only aboutthe size of Florida. Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland together make up maybe the size of Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois (the midwestern Great Lakes states). Germany is only about the size of Ohio, Knetucky, and Indiana put together. Austria is smaller than Kentucky.

And when you consider that we have bills you all don't with your socialized medicine and free education for life, having a jump from $2.50 a gallon to $4 a gallon in a few short months puts a damper on doing any excessive driving. And with the US economy still in the tank, the average joe over here is doing everything they can to tighten their belts and muddle through right now.

@ Draugnar - they have VAT, which we don't, not to mention their fuel tends to be much more expensive than ours due to higher taxes. It's not like their "free" education is coming as manna from heaven - the funds have to come from *somewhere*...

Too bad we don't have a tax system like that here in the US...
Do you Europeans have income taxes too???

one US gallon = 3.78 Liters

Ah so Petrol IS cheaper in the US!!!

@ stratagos: VAT is just the same thing as a sales tax except differently (and arguably more efficiently) collected. It's hardly something we "don't have".

We have GST(Same as VAT) and of course personal income tax too