Thanks so much for the amazing response we’ve received to our games survey! We asked folks which games they’d like to rent from us when we open later this summer, and 300 of you gave us your answers, which has blown us away.
It’s been incredibly helpful in determining which games we’re buying and how we structure our services. All the the comments, suggestions and ideas have been great. It’s super affirming to hear that folks are as excited about this as we are!
The first set of questions simply asked for a ranking of broad games types. There was abundant enthusiasm for Co-op & Campaign games, while many fewer folks were as excited about RPGs (which is kinda funny since RPGs are usually campaigns that you play cooperatively.) We had good participation from both serious gamers as well as folks newer to the hobby, which is awesome! There’s a good balance of preferences for heavy, medium, and lighter games.
The next section had folks pick specific games they would like to rent. This was really interesting to watch develop as it’s a mix of old classics and newer hits, some of which we predicated, but others came as a surprise.
Many of these top requested games are what avid hobbyists would call “gateway” games, which are often the first games newcomers discover as they start to explore this vast world of cardboard, and this is fantastic! We love that our new service can help folks dip their toes in the gaming waters before diving into the deep end. It’s amazing seeing Catan (formerly known as Settlers of Catan) in the top 5, as we’d assumed everyone has probably played it already. It was one of our first games. It must be the all-time classic for getting folks into the hobby for a reason. It’s not one we’ve played since our early days, but it’s got impressive staying power.
It’s really great to see Wingspan up there in first place by such a wide margin. Funnily enough, we hadn’t played it before ourselves, and it was starting this library that motivated us to finally bring it to the table. It’s an absolutely beautiful game that plays at a nice pace and integrates the theme in clever ways. We all really enjoyed it!
Some of these games we weren’t paying attention to at all, like Disney: Villainous, but because it was so popular, we’ve taken a closer look and it’s a really well designed game! So, thanks for opening our eyes to new games too.
We’re stocking up on all these titles, as well as about 400 others, but we’re getting extra copies of these top requested ones. I think we now have about 10 copies of Wingspan, and similar for the other top five games. Thankfully, most of these are in print and available to purchase currently. The exceptions are Root, Viticulture, and Battlestar Galactica, which are presently hard to find. We’ve got at least one copy of each, but we’re still on the lookout for more. If you have one of these rare games and would be willing to sell, please get in touch: info@portlandgamelibrary.com