Hey all,
I've been noticing a trend, and please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. I own a handful of "designer" games (I don't know a better term for them) and they seem to have a similar problem:
Once the boxes are open, the pieces punched out, there seems to be little rhyme or reason to the dividers in the box. When a game comes with zip lock bags I am pretty much in shock (the only one I have is 'ticket to ride').
I know cost is a factor. But for a game like Puerto Rico, to no come with an organizational system boggles my mind. It takes forever to sort stuff out if you don't create your own system, and heaven forbid the box gets tipped upside down.
Now to say that it's only "disigner games" isn't completely accurate either. Heroscape (hasbro), is probably the biggest violator of this in my opinion so far. Once you unpack the game, assemble the cool dragon figure, the box offers no easy way for parts to go back into it without the possiblity of damaging the cool pawns (one of the main reasons I bought the game to begin with).
So the questions:
-If you were designing a game box, do you factor in storage systems that would help players get set up faster (keeping parts sepparated)?
-Do you have suggestions for those of us who have games that simply can't live in the box they came out of with out spending hours putting stuff away?
-Is is too much to ask for a game costing <$40 coming with a good organizational system? Or should I plan on buying various sizes of RubberMaid tubs to organize these games?
I just posted something about this very topic in another thread!!
I agree that many boxes seem to come with generic inserts (like the ALEA insert in my copy or Puerto Rico) or generally insufficient space or divisions to logically store the pieces. And those that do will often not have any way to keep the pieces from intermingling when the box is stored on its side.
I have even noticed double deck card games that don't have dividers in the tuck boxes. Testimony of Jacob Hollow doesnt and it has three separate decks that need to be kept separate. Needless to say it's a pain.
If I were designing a game, I would go with a generic insert (to hold the game board and instructions off of the components) and a large space beneath (possibly a divider) and then include bags to store everything. The bags can't cost more than the cost of a vacuum mold to make custom inserts for every game.
As for game components that become too big for the box when assembled, they should either give you a bigger box to store it when completed (like the german "tower" games) or allow the assembled piece to be easily disassembled for flat storage (like Finstere Flure (sp??)).
Best game insert (that I have seen so far) award goes to LotR. Not only does it do a good job storing the bits and boards that come with the game, but it also has the room to store bits from the expansions.