CW: article contains swears
Each one of these items and tokens and sheets is important. Each one of these pieces have been carefully considered by brilliant designers. Their role is clear. If I looked right now, I’m sure every token is explained somewhere in a game manual that unfortunately reads like a VCR repair guide that’s been run through Google Translate eight times. ‘Remember to put the second deck over the initial deck so the last piece from the regular meeples pool does not cross into the irregular meeples pool before the dice rolls a zero’. That’s not an actual line in the manual; I’m too lazy to dig through a board game box that’s larger than the ones I use to move furniture. Someone will get mad at me about this and, honestly, they are right.
I related to this article a lot. It’s the same sentiment of this classic Family Guy clip: The game is Euchre (YouTube Link)
I like the idea of everyone sitting around a table, effortlessly playing a game and having a great time—but adult friendships are tough. When you get to hang out for an hour here, two hours there, every few-to-several weeks or months, investing an hour or more into learning the rules of a game that may or may not be fun is a tall order.
The problem in the clip is that Lois appears to be reading the rules for the first time as she is explaining them. It would go down much better if someone at the table actually knew the game. The person bringing the game should know it well enough to confidently teach it and should be able to judge if the rest of the group will enjoy it. For new games that means one person has to prepare beforehand.
There are exceptions, some groups might enjoy learning a game together for the first time but I wouldn’t risk it especially when time is limited.