I have enjoyed following a game that was started 1/5/2023. (I myself was once party to the game but was eliminated in March after doing something stupid (as I promised).)

There was recently a discussion by the remaining player son whether to continue or call it a draw. Good news. They have elected to press on.

In the course of their discussion, players shared even older games that are still active dating back to April 2021 and December 2022.

That got me thinking: what is the oldest game currently being played?

If you are willing, please share the links to your oldest live games.

This game was created on Dec 20, 2022 and started on May 14, 2023 (Fogged so not much to see besides some comments.)

https://www.wargear.net/games/player/81347367

Down to 3 players. 2 are fairly evenly split with stacks all around and I am a big fat purple turtle in the middle.

I was a turtle for a while in that game, but then got mowed over. For several months I survived on scraps in the tunnels, unseen, until I was finally hunted down for the rat I was.

Kjeld wrote:I was a turtle for a while in that game, but then got mowed over. For several months I survived on scraps in the tunnels, unseen, until I was finally hunted down for the rat I was.

Hahaha. I love this so much. It reminds me of an article I read years ago on Diplomacy.

https://grantland.com/features/diplomacy-the-board-game-of-the-alpha-nerds/

I have never played but think it would be fun.

It's been years since I played diplomacy -- played a few times online (don't recall what the site was, but iirc it went defunct).

It's a lot of fun, but you have to have thick skin, even moreso if playing in real life --- the only way to survive is to work together, and the way to win is to *not* :-)

In real life, people can get seriously pi$$ed.

[I wrote that before I followed the link ... yup, yup, yup ;-) ]

I hear Hell added a luxury suite just for the guy who invented Diplomacy.

Of course, there's nothing a designer can do about games where everyone decides to turtle in perpetuity., and crab games can happen on well-designed boards too, but I consider boards that have a tendency to last too long to be poorly designed; unless the designer wants the game to last really long (or forever).

>Of course, there's nothing a designer can do about games where everyone decides to turtle in perpetuity., and crab games can happen on well-designed boards too, but I consider boards that have a tendency to last too long to be poorly designed; unless the designer wants the game to last really long (or forever).

Yep - I can't say my boards are perfect, but this is probably my #1 priority when designing a board. If a board has consistent crab games then I consider it a failure and try to think of ways to fix it. Sometimes though, I will design a board to be played with a certain amount of fog, but I still leave it open for players to set the fog themselves. If you then play with no fog, crab games are probably more likely.

Sorry .... I can infer what a turtle game is, but what are the characteristics of a crab game?

Usually means a game that’s stuck, with nobody able to win. What’s the difference? Mostly no difference. Sometimes there’s a turtle-type player who could easily win but is not attacking — that’s a turtle game but not a crab game in my opinion. Sometimes there are genuine board-design stalemates where no player can achieve the win condition (unless the other players stop trying). That’s a crab game but not a turtle game.

Some people would also call it a crab game when there are three (or more) strong players (and maybe no fog), and a repeating pattern of everyone ganging up on the strongest player until they are not the strongest player, then ganging up on the next strong player. Boards where card bonus values are constant or cycle up and down are more likely to turn into crab games.

agwyvern wrote:Sorry .... I can infer what a turtle game is, but what are the characteristics of a crab game?

https://www.wargear.net/wiki/doku.php?id=wargear_glossary&s[]=crab

wish the admin would update some of the search/sort/filer capabilities

FYI, it's called a crab game in reference to the (possibly apocryphal) story that when you put crabs in a bucket, none escape because if one starts to climb out, the others will always pull it back down.

Kjeld wrote:FYI, it's called a crab game in reference to the (possibly apocryphal) story that when you put crabs in a bucket, none escape because if one starts to climb out, the others will always pull it back down.

That's the best explanation! Thanks :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality

Ok, now I want crabs for dinner.

Is there any way to search what the oldest active game is? I find the unit counts amusing and circumstances to be interesting.

Is there any way to search what the longest game ever played was? Just curious to know.

If you have an extraordinary game to share, plesae post the link.