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Monopoly Killer: Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre

On Settlers of Catan


An interesting read on the Settlers of Catan board game and how German game design is beginning to redefine the types of games that Americans are interested in playing.

I must be way ahead of this curve. The article says that Catan has just recently begun to take off in the U.S. My friends and I have been playing it for years. I think I played my first game my sophomore year of college. I won’t say when that was, but it was more than a year or two ago. Haha.

Changing the Game
To me, the most fascinating thing about Settlers (and its compatriot expansion edition: Cities & Knights) is that the game is always different. Between the variable board and card sets it’s virtually impossible to have two identical games. I think that’s what keeps us playing it years later. Sure, certain strategies work well – and if you play with my buddy Trent, chances are that you will lose to him, but there isn’t one way to beat the game every single time.



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Comments

Phil Coffman

I too love Settlers and have been playing it for years. I read that article in Wired. Pretty amazing how that guy came up with the idea and develops games.


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