Discovered last week that over 60% of my gaming group has never actually read a rulebook cover to cover

I was scrolling through a poll on BoardGameGeek (the site, not this community) and it said something like 62% of players just learn rules from watching videos or being taught. Blew my mind. I'm the guy who reads every rulebook twice before opening the box. My group always jokes I'm too slow setting up, but now I wonder if I'm the weird one. How do you guys learn new games? Do you read the book or just wing it with a YouTube tutorial?

3 comments

3 Comments

cameron53815d ago

Honestly I think the real issue here is that rulebooks have gotten WAY too long and most of them are poorly written. I just picked up a new game last week and the rulebook was 32 pages for what amounts to a 45 minute game. That's INSANE. No wonder people skip them. But here's the thing nobody mentions - when you learn from a video you miss all the little edge cases and clarifications. Had a group blow up last month because the tutorial guy forgot to mention the "if you place a worker on a contested space you lose your turn" rule. Everybody thought somebody was cheating. So yeah I still read the book but I skim the first time then go back for details after I've seen the video.

derekward15d ago

32 pages for a 45 minute game is a total joke, you're not wrong there.

verar2115d ago

Man, this reminds me of my buddy Dave who picked up this deckbuilder last year. He watched a 20 minute tutorial, thought he was golden, then showed up to game night and tried to build his engine. Turns out the video skipped a whole section about how you can't mix card types from different expansions. He spent two turns grabbing cards that were literally unplayable together. The host had to pull out the rulebook and we spent 15 minutes untangling his mess while Dave just stared at his hand. He still brings it up every time somebody suggests "just watch a video bro.