Hi everyone. For the fun of it, I did a quick calculation.

Using the three stats sites as a reference, we can compare the percent of games that end in forfeit between Arkham Horror , Elder Sign , and Eldritch Horror .

AH: 1.3%
ES: 1.1%
EH: 7.1%

Clearly, EH is the odd one out here. But I also know it's the hardest of these three games. I was curious if players are more likely to quit if the game is difficult, or if they're more likely to lose interest due to e.g. game length, complexity, or just overall fun factor.

We can roughly control for difficulty by dividing the number of forfeited games by the number of losses that aren't forfeits:

AH: 0.038

ES: 0.042

EH: 0.042

These numbers are far more similar, which implies that the difficulty of the game is by far the number one factor in causing a forfeit. But the difference between AH and the other games is about 10%: it's just riding the line of significance. I interpret this as a slightly higher quality-of-experience from AH.

Based on my group experiences:
When you get into a winning-nearly-impossible situation in AH, the game is going to be finished in few minutes anyway.
In EH the same kind of situation may be followed by around 30-40 minutes of gameplay.

My table fellows are more likely to play along the few short turns of AH to allow the game to finish pulverizing us, than do the same for a few long turns of EH.

This doesn't necessarily mean that when you're overwhelmed in AH it's less frustrating - it just mean that there may be no point in forfeiting.

Such situations may be one of the factors that influences this numbers.

I agree with tsuma534. In EH, when it is clear we're going to lose in one or two turns, we pack it in, since sometimes those turns can take a while.

Also, in AH when regular victory is no longer a viable option, you get one last chance to beat the Ancient One. Even if the chance is small, there are usually no good reasons to forfeit instead of trying your luck.

In EH when victory is slipping away, there's no such backdoor for you to use.

The hard (or most 'un-fun') part for me is that I invest 2-3 hrs of play time only to lose. Don't get me wrong, I'm not implying that I should win or expect to win just because of time I've already spent playing. What's hard to take, and this is the reason why ES doesn't hit my gaming table that often, is I get this feeling of "wasted time" (setup, actual play time, and cleanup/store game) and I frequently lose. It doesn't encourage me to try again right away (another 2-3 hrs), unlike other shorter, but also difficult game (lIke Lord of the Rings LCG), which even if I lose, I have only spent 30 minutes and I can try again, right away, and not worry about gametime running out. EH somehow feels like unencouraging, and very frustrating. I'm starting to wonder if money spent on buying this game was well spent.

I'm only frustrated when my decisions had nothing to do with the game result. It does not matter whether the result was victory or defeat.

The hard (or most 'un-fun') part for me is that I invest 2-3 hrs of play time only to lose. Don't get me wrong, I'm not implying that I should win or expect to win just because of time I've already spent playing. What's hard to take, and this is the reason why ES doesn't hit my gaming table that often, is I get this feeling of "wasted time" (setup, actual play time, and cleanup/store game) and I frequently lose. It doesn't encourage me to try again right away (another 2-3 hrs), unlike other shorter, but also difficult game (lIke Lord of the Rings LCG), which even if I lose, I have only spent 30 minutes and I can try again, right away, and not worry about gametime running out. EH somehow feels like unencouraging, and very frustrating. I'm starting to wonder if money spent on buying this game was well spent.

Interesting view...

Maybe I'm slightly masochistic here, but I'm actually dissapointed if I win Eldritch too easily. The actual result never bothers me that much though, winning or losing any boardgame is always slightly anticlimatic for me, I'm in it for the story and journey. Sometimes that ends in victory, sometimes it ends in crushing defeat. As long as it was entertaining though, the result is irrelevant.

Couldn't agree more, Gregor.

Also agree with Tsuma, to an extent. There's no question the Mythos deck is the biggest single factor in how a game will go. Sure, it can be frustrating to get completely squashed by it, and conversely I can feel a little let down when it goes too easy on me, but they're extreme cases (I think maybe one in every half-dozen games for me). Without the possibility of those extremes, there'd be much less overall variation.

Maybe one way of trying to balance the effect of Mythos cards a little would be to involve tests in the Mythos card effects?

There are some mythos cards I take out depending on the number of players. I don't recall which card it is but it opens a gate on every location. We had 8 players the first time and we were able to overcome it, barely. with 2 players it was game over in a few turns. So i now remove it if I play with less than 8. And remove it If I use a side board.