Settlers of Catan, the new Texas Hold 'em for the Valley

At an invitation-only executive retreat earlier this year in Sundance, Utah, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs including LinkedIn Corp. founder Reid Hoffman and Mozilla Corp. Chief Executive John Lilly discussed the latest tech trends.

Then, as the night wound down, they began trading bricks, sheep and wood.

Over a German board game called Settlers of Catan, Messrs. Hoffman and Lilly and two other players garnered points by using cards representing bricks and other resources to build cities and roads. Mr. Lilly, playing Settlers for the first time, won the game.

It didn't stop there. "We played a couple more times at the retreat," says Mr. Lilly, 38 years old. Since then, he has played Settlers at other tech conferences and at social occasions in Silicon Valley.

Game Night in Silicon Valley

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Jeff Enlow for The Wall Street Journal

Settlers of Catan involves building settlements and cities.

via online.wsj.com

I actually played my first game of Settlers at that conference in Sundance with Reid the year prior. Didn't do as well as Lilly did, though. A win on the first try is impressive! It's amazing how the Texas Hold 'em games have shifted in a big way to Settlers games. Does the game have any traction outside the Valley? Will we be seeing Settlers tournaments on TV anytime soon or is this destined to only be a SV echo chamber thing? Perhaps this is more of an evolution chess and D&D than of Texas Hold 'em...

Comments

[Dave Aiello]

Some folks in my family played it in the Family Room on Thanksgiving. I'd never heard of it before. I guess I don't get out to San Francisco enough....

[katerizero]

i. love. this. game. (especially while drinking dark 'n stormies!)

also the spin off games are really fun, like "Settles of the Stone Age" and "Seafarers of Catan". they are well worth the $40 price tag and provide hours of entertainment and healthy competition. this is an awesome gift idea for anyone not "in the know". if you don't get one for someone else, then pick one up for yourself! it's also a great team-building exercise. note who becomes savage in their thirst for power, and who plays a more benevolent hand. there's a number of ways to win and all illuminate the Machiavellian tendencies in you and your friends... highly recommended.

[Andrew Anker]

Wired had a story about this game awhile back (http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/magazine/17-04/mf_settlers). Apparently it's a hugely popular game in Europe, where it was created.