A player's total recall of game cards has me puzzled

We played a deck builder last weekend and one guy knew all the cards without even glancing. It was cool but also kind of confusing. Do most board game geeks study games that much to get that good? I've never put in that kind of effort myself, so it feels like a whole other level. Just curious if others run into this often.

3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

3 Comments

the_susan7mo ago

Oh totally, I read an article once about how that kind of memory works for some people. It said for heavy board gamers, playing a deck builder like ten times basically burns the cards into your brain through pure repetition. It's less like studying and more like muscle memory, so they're not even trying to memorize, it just happens.

7

williamprice6mo ago

Right, it's like your brain builds a map instead of a list. @the_susan has a point about repetition doing the work for you. I've seen this with my crew learning new tool setups, they just know where everything is after a few jobs without trying. The trick is to not force it and just let the plays happen, you know? Ever notice you remember the cards better when you're just having fun and not trying to study them?

1

the_barbara7mo ago

Actually, it's more like pattern recognition than muscle memory. Your brain starts to learn the possible combos and outcomes, not just each card on its own. After enough plays, you just know that card A leads to card B, so you stop seeing them as separate things. It's less about burning in single facts and more about training your brain to see the whole system.

0