VOPPed (by Maricel)

We are thrilled to present you our first female grumpy guest from the One Player Guild: Maricel (mtsedwards)

Apex Theropod is headed for Kickstarter and I am LIVID.

Well, maybe “livid” is too harsh of a word; right now, I’m just peeved. But if the campaign ends up including all the expansions for a pittance, then you can bet your crowdfunding behind that I’m gonna be well and truly LIVID.

Because, ladies and gentlemen, forget about FOMO; we should all raise our proverbial player pitchforks and fling flaming meeples at its more insidious second cousin: VOPP (Victim of Premature Purchasing). I don’t know about you, but I have been VOPPed far too many times than I care to admit. But seeing as this is a rant, I suppose I’m about to admit right now.

Take Exhibit A – the aforementioned Apex Theropod. Darling of the 1PG. The most-oft recommended game for deck building. The holy grail of game completion due to its apparently confusing and harrowing publication past and its current OOP status. Apex had been on my radar for a long time before my amazing Secret One last year gifted me a copy. It was sans expansions, however, so I spent a pretty penny on the secondary market to acquire said expansions. How pretty, you ask? Enough to make me use it as the launch pad for a Grumpy Gamer article. Argh. If my predictions for the campaign are true, I am well and thoroughly VOPP-ed.

But wait. There’s more. Exhibit B – Coffee Roaster. More pretty pennies were spent to grab a copy from Japan since it hadn’t been available on my side of the Pacific. Who would’ve predicted that this would end up being another VOPPed situation? Not I. But, lo and behold! A new version with, IMHO, better artwork resurfaces. Now granted, it resurfaced many months after my initial purchase, but had I waited, I could’ve tried the game for a reasonable price and saved my pennies for something else.

VOPPed.

I grind my teeth in frustration.

Image source: BGG

And because all things come in threes, Exhibit C – the worst culprit of all. The Towers of Arkhanos. This is a special case because we now head into Kickstarter territory, and VOPP functions differently in this arena. But let’s just say I got suckered by the pretty dice and the clever tower building mechanic and I didn’t pay heed to Reason when she said it was stupid to be paying the equivalent of another game’s worth for the solo expansion. I plunked down Mage Knight-value moolah for the whole shebang only to see the base game go on an online game store Daily Drop for a quarter of what I paid. A QUARTER!

VOPP, thy name is Maricel!

I dodged the bullet with Prêt-à-Porter and I hope the rumored reprint of Rococo finds me equally as cautious. But it really, truly, indubitably grates on my last nerve that not only can I never get ahead of all the games, but I also have to contend with the fact that what I’d thought to be well-researched, well-considered purchases end up being VOPP mistakes.

Abandon hope all ye who enter here. This hobby of ours is madness.