Board Game's 'Quick Setup' Takes Forty Minutes And An Engineering Degree

A board game advertising "quick setup" on its box has required forty minutes of component sorting, board assembly, and card organization before a single turn could be taken, a timeline that calls into question the packaging's definition of "quick." The game, which features approximately 400 tokens in sixteen categories, twelve decks of cards, six player boards, a modular main board, and a reference sheet that is itself the size of a small board, was purchased by gaming group leader Nancy Organize specifically for its advertised accessibility. "The box said 'plays in 45 minutes' and 'quick setup,'" Nancy reported. "It did not mention that the setup requires separating four hundred tokens by color, shape, and what the rulebook calls 'functional category,' which is not a phrase that belongs in a quick setup." The sorting process revealed that several token types are nearly identical in appearance, distinguished only by subtle differences in shade that Nancy describes as "the difference between 'forest green' and 'slightly different forest green.'" "I had to hold them up to the light," she said. "At one point I was comparing two tokens side by side like a jeweler examining diamonds. For a game about farming." The group played the game once, enjoyed it moderately, and unanimously declined to play it again on the grounds that "the fun does not justify the sorting." Nancy has since purchased a $30 aftermarket organizer insert that reduces setup time to twelve minutes, bringing her total investment in a "quick setup" game to $85 and her actual setup time to twelve minutes, which she notes is still not quick.