PSA: People keep confusing setup time with playtime on box labels

I picked up a game last weekend that claimed 45 minute playtime but took me 20 minutes just to sort tokens and lay out boards. If you're counting setup as part of the game, just say so - it matters when you have only an hour after dinner. Has anyone else run into this mismatch?

3 comments

3 Comments

pat_moore10d ago

Wait, 20 minutes just for setup? That's crazy. Ive never seen a game take that long just to get the pieces out of the box. Usually its like shuffling cards or something but sorting tokens for that long sounds like a serious design problem. Most boxes Ive seen list the playtime wrong on purpose. They say 45 minutes but really mean 30 minutes of playing and 15 minutes of figuring out which plastic bits go where. But a full 20 minutes that actually cuts into the fun time. I had a game once that claimed an hour but by the time I laid out all the boards and separate piles it was already 15 minutes in. That left me with a rushed game and I barely got to enjoy it. The box makers probably think no one notices. Its like theyre hiding the real time from us. Maybe they think people will buy more games if the numbers look smaller. But it just makes me mad when I finally sit down and realized I got tricked.

wyatt1358d ago

Ngl, do you think they actually test these games with real people or just assume nobody times the setup?

ross.lily10d ago

Most games use 10-15 minute setup times though, not 20.