Podcast

Episode 3: Dissatisfaction

What's Wrong With Catan?

Transcript:

{Theme Song Plays}

{background birds chirping/atmospheric effects}

Jake: "Welcome and hello to the show that features me and just happens to also include a bit of discussion about the game of Catan. I'm your host, Jake, and I have here in the studio with me today Kent Slocum, the founder of CatanFusion. Kent has been a regular on this show since the beginning. Kent, I think this is your third time on the show."

Kent: "Yeah, it is. We really need to find someone else for you to talk with."

Jake: "I'm glad you reminded me. I DO have someone else to talk with. It's your alter-ego, Mr. Louie!"

Kent: "What?"

Louie: "Hello, hello! So glad to be here."

Kent: "Um, I don't think he's going to be able to be on this podcast."

Louie: "Why not?"

Kent: "Well, voice-acting him is really tough."

Louie: "Oh, fine, I'll leave. I'll be back, though!"

Jake: "All right, let's get honest. You wrote a blog post about why Catan is almost the perfect game. But we both know that Catan isn't the only game out there. What are some of the downsides to playing Catan?"

Kent: "Well, I wrote that blog post from a strictly logical perspective, looking at a scientific breakdown of game mechanics. But yeah, people feel differently about Catan, for sure."

Jake: "What are some of those downsides?"

Kent: "Well, for one, there's the multi-player requirement. It's really hard for you to play Catan without three or more players.

Jake: "So you're saying that's a problem, when you can't find enough people to play with you?"

Kent: "Yeah. I mean, Catan is really well-balanced, but it gets pretty cutthroat with just two players, and the "dummy-player" variation that was introduced with Traders & Barbarians is kind of cumbersome."

Jake: "Can you explain how that mechanic works, though? You're saying that you can't just play the game with two players?"

Kent: "Well, you CAN, and that's the way CatanFusion recommends. But Klaus Teuber and the official Catan Team didn't envision all of the combinations and complexities that the CatanFusion system makes possible. So they figured the game would be too easy or too boring with just two players."

Jake: "Can you tell us how they tried to solve that problem?"

Kent: "Sure. What they did was require the players at the beginning of the game to set up some buildings and roads that belong to the other colors--the colors without any players. Then, throughout the game, various actions would trigger upgrades or additions to the "dummy" pieces."

Jake: "So what is the purpose of those pieces, if there isn't really a player of that color?"

Kent: "Well, they are simply stumbling blocks, things to slow down the other players. This served a purpose and worked well for the prescribed, hexagonal board that everyone is pretty familiar with. But once additional pieces are added, the preset placement for the pieces is no longer applicable. So the two-player setup is hard to use when doing the CatanFusion thing."

Jake: "Does the CatanFusion system solve this problem?"

Kent: "Not really. It just adds enough interesting stuff to prevent boredom when playing with two players."

Jake: "Okay, so we have a problem with small numbers of players. Does Catan have trouble with the opposite problem-- with higher numbers of players?"

Kent: "With the expansions, Catan technically handle up to six players. I'm disappointed that the Legend of the SeaRobbers expansion only allows four players. But of course, you can add as many new players as you like, as long as you can find the colors online. But the game really slows down around 5 players, even with the Special Purchase Phase at the end of everyone's turn."

Jake: "Is that a problem? I mean, how long can a turn get?"

Kent: "It is. Well, for casual Catan players, it can be a problem. Wait times of several minutes, maybe. Maybe longer. But most serious players understand that the added complexity takes more time to process. They respect that. Most of them are busy analyzing the other player's position and preparing for their own..."

Jake: "...their own turn..."

Kent: "their own response, anyway. So we've adopted a special Award Tile that was originally suggested by a user as a sort of house rule that has morphed into a really good idea."

Jake: "What's that?"

Kent: "Well, you can purchase it from our website, and it's a tile--an award--that is given to the player who has taken the longest turn so far, and it sort of punishes them by requiring them to earn more victory points in order to win."

Jake: "Does that...that handicap solve the problem?"

Kent: "A little. Mostly, it just adds tension, so there's that."

Jake: "Any other downsides to Catan? I know that not everyone's a huge fan."

Kent: "Oh, sure. I would never force anyone to play a game with me, because it's only fun if everyone's having fun, you know? But sometimes it's not like that. For example, there's the cost, for one thing. Even used Catan sets can go for a lot of money."

Jake: "So how much money did you spend on your Catan collection?"

Kent: "Well, I'm an outlier, because I bought the latest edition of all the core games, expansions, scenarios, and variants, plus a lot of custom game pieces, card-holding boards, sorting trays, holding bags, and card sleeves. I would say that was about $2000, maybe more. That's the upper limit."

Jake: "Wow. So maybe this will give us an idea of what's wrong with Catan. Too expensive."

Kent: "Yeah, if you buy it direct from the Catan Shop, definitely. Here's something funny. So I wanted to buy this necktie that they were selling online. But it was like $50. And I was NOT going to spend $50 on a tie. I also wanted The Legend of the SeaRobbers expansion, because it just came out. So I was going to kind of wait and see if the price went down for the expansion, but I sort of gave up hope on the tie. Then I get this email from the Catan Shop, offering the tie free, if I purchase The Legend of the SeaRobbers at full price."

Jake: "So you bought it."

Kent: "I went for it. It paid to wait, but I still probably ended up paying too much."

Jake: "What other games have you purchased for your collection?"

Kent: "Well, I kind of decided pretty early on that I would be an expert in just one type of game. So I invested really heavily in Catan, and then just picked up a few other games that are quicker to set up and faster to play."

Jake: "Speaking of faster play, Asmodee Digital has released a number of different Catan playing experiences, including a VR version of Catan. What do you think about the virtual reality game system?"

Kent: "Well, in theory, it's a really good idea. I was really excited about it. But there's two problems."

Jake: "And those are?"

Kent: "First, not all of the expansions are supported. Right now, you can only play the base game, Cities & Knights, and Seafarers. Hopefully, they will release updates for the remaining expansions."

Jake: "Let me guess your other complaint; you don't have a VR headset."

Kent: "Well yes, it would be rather difficult to enjoy VR without the right equipment. But that's not the big deal."

Jake: "So what is it?"

Kent: "I was expecting...I think a lot of people were expecting the VR experience to be immersive, with you actually on the island of Catan, or something like that. Really, you're just sitting in a virtual chair in front of a virtual table, playing on a virtual board. So the only real benefit is that you can play with friends who are logging in from far away, and there's no setup necessary."

Jake: "Faster to setup and play. That's a common complaint about Catan--it takes too long. Can you speak more about that? Is that true, in your experience?"

Kent: "Time flies when you're having a good time, but yes, I agree that the setup alone for Catan can take a half-hour or more. It's very time-consuming, because you've got to unpack all of the parts, sort them out..."

Jake: "You mentioned earlier that you have bags for sorting, though."

Kent: "Yes, but those are mostly just by color and card type. I still have to shuffle the decks and distribute the pieces. But that's part of the reason why the CatanFusion site has so many tutorials and walk-throughs: to make the process simpler. And one thing that I really like about the expansion The Legend of the SeaRobbers is that it has these tokens that are placed on the gameboard to mark where a good location for a building is."

Jake: "What kind of building?"

Kent: "The ones that players are putting down at the very beginning of the game. Players just pick one of these locations for a building, instead of having to agonize over where to put their building. We are working to incorporate those locations into our board maps, so that people can simplify this step."

Jake: "Well, we've covered a lot of ground in this episode. Is there anything else you would like to add?"

Kent: "I would say that Catan is not for everyone. Some people can't stand it. But don't let this podcast discourage you. Give it a try, check out our website, and have fun!"

Jake: "Thank you for listening to yet another episode of CatanQuest, the CatanFusion podcast, where we are in search of nuggets of information and fascinating facts about the game of Catan. I'm your host, Jake, inviting you to join us next time for more CatanQuest!"

Episode 2: Pronunciation

What's Up With Catan?

Transcript:

{Theme Song Plays}

{background birds chirping/atmospheric effects}

Jake: "Yanny or Laurel? A question that's been stirring up quite a bit of controversy lately. But before we explain, I'd like to welcome you to CatanQuest, the CatanFusion podcast. We still haven't figured out a tagline for this podcast, so I guess all you need to know is that I'm Jake, your host, and I'm joined here in the studio with the founder of CatanFusion, Kent Slocum."

Kent: "Hey there."

Jake: "So here's the audio clip that's been stirring up so much controversy. What do you hear?"

{insert audio clip}

Kent: "I hear someone saying yanny."

Jake: "Hmmm. Because I definitely hear laurel."

Kent: "How is that possible?"

Jake: "Well, here's what we're talking about: about a month ago, a girl was listening to an online dictionary pronounce the word laurel."

Kent: "How do you spell that?"

Jake: "That's L-A-U-R-E-L. But what this girl heard was definitely did not laurel: it sounded more like the voice was saying yanny. Confused and intrigued, she invited her classmates over to listen to the soundbite, as well. Bafflingly, some said that they heard laurel, and others heard yanny. The girl posted the clip to twitter, asking others what they heard. As it turned out, about half heard one thing, and half heard the other. As a result, controversy and confusion broke loose. People started comparing the disagreement to the blue-or-gold dress phenomenon."

Kent: "Oh yeah! I remember that. That was pretty weird."

Jake: "With the color-changing dress, it apparently had something to do with the lighting, the shininess of the dress, and the fact that all people see colors a little differently."

Kent: "So what's the cause of this weird yanny and laurel thing?"

Jake: "Apparently, the difference is due to the fact that the soundtrack is pretty poor quality. Just a slight change in the playback frequency can cause the sound clip to sound differently."

Kent: "What would cause that change?"

Jake: "Well, depending upon the physical characteristics of the listener, the sound could change, or if the capabilities of the device people are listening to it on changed. For example, a really poor playback device might make it sound more tinny."

Kent: Interesting. So I hear yanny, and you hear laurel, but we're really hear to talk about Catan, right?

Jake: "Right. We're going to talk about another sound-related topic--the pronunciation of Catan. Why do people have so much trouble pronouncing it?

Kent: "Well, it's a strange spelling for English speakers. The word comes from German, which has different pronunciation rules. So the pronunciation is different because the game is not originally in English."

Jake: "Is there anything else that is different because of this language barrier?"

Kent: "Well, it's not a barrier so much as it's a distinguishment. The game was published in German for quite a while before the English-language version was released, so you could say we got a more refined version."

Jake: "How long?"

Kent: Well, Klaus Teuber first published Settlers of Catan in 1952, and fans almost immediately began translating the rules into English. It wasn't until 1980 that Mayfair picked up the game. So that's about 28 years!"

Jake: "And now Asmodee has bought Mayfair."

Kent: "Right."

Jake: "You said things were refined? What things were changed?"

Kent: "Rules, mostly. Whenever you create something, it's always a good idea to play-test it with as many people as possible. A LOT of people."

Jake: "That's why you invite visitors to CatanFusion to leave feeback, right?"

Kent: "Yes, definitely. We don't just ask them: we IMPLORE them. But it's not just about the website content. We also need to know about broken links, visibility and accessibility issues, that sort of thing."

Jake: "Okay, so what kind of feedback did Klaus get, when he started publishing Catan in Germany?"

Kent: "One thing that would happen is Klaus would come up with a bunch of new scenarios and variations, and publish them in a very rough state, where people would have to cut out the parts. Then, the best ideas were eventually incorporated into a later edition."

Jake: "Can you give us an example?"

Kent: "Yes, there was a Rivers of Catan idea that was published separately for a while, then proved popular enough to end up in the Traders & Barbarians expansion, with rule and art updates. The same thing happened to the Fishermen of Catan expansion."

Jake: "So going back to the whole point, what was the benefit of being German with all of this?"

Kent: "Well, if you were following Klaus closely, you would have had a chance to play with all of these very new, creative ideas before the rest of the world did. The downfall, of course, is that nothing was refined, and the official rules and art would eventually change. The largest example of this was the Busch expansion. It was huge, with over _______ different variations and sets of new pieces. Even though we have taken some of those ideas and used them in the CatanFusion system, it never became an English-language version."

Jake: "Is that still the case; I mean, that stuff is released in German before English?"

Kent: "It doesn't seem so. At least, not that I know of! I think that they finally realized the immense size and importance of the English-speaking market. The Legend of the SeaRobbers expansion, for example, was fairly recent, and it did not have a life as a pre-release variant. It does, however, improve upon some ideas that have been going around for a while."

Jake:

CatanQuest Podcast

Welcome to the official podcast of CatanFusion!

Join our Catanimal hosts, Jake and Wellington, as they explore the wild world of Catan. Although this podcast is not officially affiliated with the Official Catan brand, we think that you will still enjoy it.

Podcast Purpose: "To elevate discussion of Catan to an intellectual level, with unique, in-depth conversation on a variety of related topics."

This means that our podcasts will cover topics not discussed in our blog, our videos, or our instructional articles. Here are some of the different names we considered, before settling upon our current podcast title, CatanQuest:

Available Podcasts:

Podcast #1: Introduction