Board games are getting more and more complex. This is partly because we, as gamers, are an enthusiastic and demanding bunch. After playing a game of a certain genre or a mechanic, we are eager to challenge ourselves with something deeper, more complicated, allowing us to flex that strategic muscle even further. We have learnt the basics, and now we seek games that can offer more: more miniatures, more actions, more decisions, more stories, more components, just more. Designers have risen to the task masterfully, mixing genres, creating new mechanics, building kingdoms and universes with long histories and deep stories that still somehow fit inside a game box.
This is, without a doubt, great and makes it a very exciting time to be a board gamer. However, with our expectations of the what is a worthwhile board game, financially and in time-spent, is so high it seems we may have become too quick to judge a board game by the size of its box or the thickness of its rulebook. Games that take five or ten minutes to learn and have one or two types of components are often regarded as not complex, or not challenging enough. A small box means a quick game. Only two actions per turn means it is not strategic enough.