Joy & Utility with Tiny Painted Heroes

Like a lot of us of a certain age, Steve over at Tiny Painted Heroes has not been having the most fun with gaming, and real life has proven a bit more adventurous than most of us want.  

In his recovery time, he did ponder and post something plaguing most of us: "How do I address having too many games and not enough time to play them all?).  

Minor spoiler, so I make you read his post:  He asked AI that question and got a 5-step process, then spent the rest of the post on his step 1: the "Joy & Utility Audit" and a spreadsheet. 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I've done my own tracking systems over the years, so I plugged my data in and generated my own audit.  

I did cover everything: all 194 board games, cards, RPGS, CCGs, and miniature rules I've played since 1990.  Steve's spreadsheet he provides is awesome, and I'm still tailoring it to my own personal needs, but it has created a new data set to compare:

Wargames: 

It's no surprise that Gnomes, FoL, Savage Showdown and the trusty Joust rules we use at HMGS cons are topped ranked.   I enjoy that original OGRE is still in this Top Ten, and I'm also astute to the fact that me just thinking fondly of playing Burning Plastic after a long hiatus, as well as the gaming group stoked for prepping Paleo Diet for Historicon is enough to get it to the top of the list. 

Role-Playing: 

My bad news?  Nothing generated an "A", although I wasn't completely uniform with the criteria.  The good news?  I actually don't own a single product in my "F" list.  

Dice Games:

Another category where I don't own anything lower the a "B".  We just couldn't break out Zombie Dice or Pass the Pandas the last time I had the girls.  Obviously, that goes to the top of the list of casual family holiday fun. 

Card Games: 

I've already purged the junk.

Board Games: 

Only surprises are how strong nostalgia can be, I need to reaffirm the commitment to actually play on the Formula De boards that I purchased years ago, and I owe Maja a chess game when she visits next.

CCGs:  Let's just say that the formula (and the current market) justifies me getting rid of the last of the valuable Magic cards, although I'll keep my Battletech and INWO cards stowed away in a box.  

I can't wait to see see what Steve does with the next four steps in his AI-Overlord gaming manifesto.