Heard a kid at the game store say 'Catan is for boomers' and it hit me that 20 years ago that game was cutting edge

I was at a Friday night open play and some teenager called Settlers of Catan old school while pulling out a box of Wingspan, and it made me realize my old group would've killed for something that polished back in '05.

2 comments

2 Comments

the_drew1mo ago

That Cascadia recommendation hit me hard because I used to be the guy scoffing at new games, thinking Catan was all you needed. Seeing the mechanics side by side made me realize I was just being stubborn for years.

victorbutler1mo ago

And that's exactly why I started keeping an eye on what the younger crowd is playing... my old group was stuck on Catan for years and I didn't realize how stale it got until I tried some newer stuff. What worked for me was just listening to what those kids were actually excited about instead of getting defensive. I showed up to a board game cafe one night with an open mind and asked the regulars what they'd recommend for someone who only knew the classics. Ended up trying Cascadia and it totally clicked why Catan feels slow now - there's just way more variety in mechanics these days. Now I mix old favorites with new games and my group's actually more willing to try Catan again every once in a while because we're not stuck playing it every single time.