As other people have said, there's almost no one who will stand the full test of time. Washington/Jefferson owned slaves for instance. There are people who did bad things but also accomplished things. Perhaps we allow things to be named after them but have to say for __ ie being named after James Webb for his work on the lunar landings. Perhaps also when naming buildings/etc after people, have a plaque that mentions some of the controversies around the person. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-might-change...
Or we move away from naming things after people.
Really depends on what type of game you're looking for. Generally when I'm trying to figure out what types of games people like, I'll ask if they have played Settlers of Catan and if they want ones longer/more complex than that or if Settlers of Catan was too long/too complex, or if they want more social games.
check out https://www.yucata.de/en and https://boardgamearena.com/ where you can play online. If it's hard to get people to play in person, perhaps see if you could get a group to play online - join a video call and then set up the game on boardgamearena.
Depending on where you are, look to see if there are boardgame meetups. These are a great way to learn games. At most of these, people will split into small groups, play a game, then when some groups are done, people will suggest some next games and people will split up and play those. Even for people who have been playing boardgames for years, I'd say we expect to be teaching a game to some people/learning a new game we've never played because there just so many boardgames out there.
- Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss(waiting on the third book....)
- Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (also waiting on the rest of the series...)
- The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu - the first book was ok but I really liked the second - The Dark Forest
- Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
- House In the Cerulean Sea
- How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
Others that I like: The Rosie Project, The Books of Babel, A long way to a small Angry Planet, Wool/Shift/Dust, Lockstep, All the Light We Cannot See, Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, Earth Abides, Project Hail Mary, The Martian
I've been playing some games on https://www.yucata.de/en with friends - San Juan, Imhotep, Castles of Burgundy, Russian Railroads, Thurn and Taxis. Beware with Yucata that if you start a game with more than 2 people, you cannot resign and if you start a different game, it makes you take your turn in other games first. We also use Tabletopia https://tabletopia.com/games - Terra Mystica - one person needs to buy Tabletopia.
Hanabi - co op solitaire where you can't see your own cards. ~45 minutes, up to 5 players. It is a thinking game - how to give good hints to other players and how to interpret hints from others - did they give me this hint to play this card or do I need more info
Azul - relatively recent game. Tiling game where you take tiles from the center and place them on your own board.
Others that are good and can be played in under an hour:
Splendor and if you like Splendor, try Century Spice Road.
7 Wonders
Fleet - bidding on fishing licenses, fishing for fish.
Magic Maze - up to 8 people - 4 meeples exploring a mall to find the items to steal and then escape the mall. The catch is that each player can move any meeple in only one direction, and you can't talk. It's a race against the clock and there are no turns - everyone can move any meeple at any time.
6nimmt - good filler game that can fit up to 10 player with a round taking about 15 minutes. Can be good while waiting for more people to show up.
No Thanks - 30 minutes up to 5 people.
More complex:
Settlers of Catan
Russian Railroads - worker placement where you are building out a railroad and/or advancing on a science track
Power Grid - building powerplants and powering them - 3 hour game
Thurn and Taxis - map of Germany and you are building routes thru cities
Suburbia - taking tiles and building out a city
Yellow & Yangtze - only played once recently but liked it. Placing different leaders on the board and tiles and fighting other leaders.
If you're looking to try new games, there may be some boardgame meetup groups(on Meetup.com etc) where people will bring different games and split up and play (and teach) those games.
