The worst board games ever invented

The worst games, for the most part, have one thing in common: luck. They’re driven by it, often exclusively. Candy Land, Snakes and Ladders (also called Chutes and Ladders) and War are driven purely by chance. The Game of Life is close. It’s heavily chance-based, but one can make some decisions.4 Overreliance on luck makes a game boring or frustrating or both. Good games are driven by skill, or, like Twilight Struggle, a healthy mix of skill and luck.

BoardGameGeek gives official rankings down to 10,505th place, as of this writing. The holder of that dubious spot: tic-tac-toe. Tic-tac-toe has no luck, but playing the game is purely academic. The skill required is trivial. It’s a solved game — if both players are above the age of roughly 5, the game ends in a draw.

The one game in the hall of shame that requires a modicum of skill is Monopoly. There are even Monopoly tournaments. You have to decide whether to buy properties you land on, how to bid if a property is auctioned off, and how to effectively make trades. Seems reasonable.