Shannon Appelcline writes about The Problem with Colors in Gone Gaming. It’s a wonderfully geeky article, quite analytical concerning an issue that’s at the same time really important and really small. I mean, in the grand scale of things, what does a colour of a board game piece matter?

The answer is “a lot, of course, if you ask from a boardgamer. Me, I’m a red guy. It’s got to be red. I’ve noticed the competition for red Shannon mentions — it comes up every time Tommy and I meet at the table. I tend to give the reds to him without a fight if we’re at his house, otherwise it’s the law of the jungle.

There are few exceptions to the red rule. Die Macher: blue, I’m always blue. PSD is such a charming party (it’s the former official party of the DDR). Industrial Waste: Mute Records, which I think is yellow. And of course Ticket to Ride and all the other games that have a yucky tone of red.