Play This, Not That: 7 Wonders vs. It's a Wonderful World

In Play This, Not That; we pick two games with some degree of similarity or overlap, and tell you which one I think you should play. In this episode, 7 Wonders, the game that made drafting famous, faces off against a new quick and accessible drafting game, It's a Wonderful World. Both games have their strengths, both games have their weaknesses... But which is the better game?

[giacomoeinaudi]

I don't watch many of your videos but I really enjoy the fact that you are one of the few boardgame reviewer that I don't have to put the video at 1.5x speed to enjoy it

[jccusell]

I feel another positivie aspect of it's a wonderful world is missed here: the decision making in draft offers something different and more tactical vs 7 wonders I feel: do you focus on one strategy and get multipliers early on? Or do you spread out early on? Or spread out later, winning bonusses for production early. Or do you pick 2 or 3 bomb cards and gamble you'll get the right cards to build and finish them later?

[ScytheNoire]

I agree with the final decision. Sometimes the new and shiny isn't the better game.

[hugocruz]

this video came out 2 years ago. How you feel about these games nowadays? Excellent video btw

[lestatmusatcamus]

Is wonderful world similar to Century? Which one would you recommend? Or am I just being confused because of the cubes?

[bryanparsons]

Possibly a stupid question, what game do those 4 what appear to be character packs on the top right corner of the shelves go to? Can't quite make out the words on the boxes

[megamer]

Admittedly, I had a bad first (only) experience with 7 Wonders, and feel like it's a game that shines most only after everyone properly knows the various upgrade trees and what to expect in the final round. I find IaWW an interesting solo puzzle, and want to play it more and with friends, but I do admittedly find it hard to push for that over some of the many other games I have that haven't gotten play yet. Other than 'more players' type expansions, though, I've started to not really be a fan of expansions, as they usually complicate game rules that are already notably intimidating and hard for me to get to a table; As such, I do appreciate you separately stating the with and without expansions opinions.

[Comatoseful]

What do you think if there r only 2 players? Is 7 wonders still the better choice?

[apollonia]

Can you please tell me the difference between the two boxes of 7th Continent you have on your shelf behind you ?
Would buy the game but not sure if the errata in the rule edition has those ?
Thanks and Shalom.

[dancheston]

Will you be getting the KS version of the Ascension expansion in stock once that ships? I recently acquired the Heritage edition of the base game and now sadly found there's no way to get the KS version of the expansion.

[MaVarcon]

Alex, you should definitely start using the Cities-expansion. It integrates seamlessly with the base-game and leaders and just offers more variety with basically 0 additional rules-overhead.
Personally, 7 Wonders if one of my most-played and favourite games of all-time due to the way it plays smoothly with differing player-counts and how it stays interesting between all levels of player-skill.
Didn't get to play Wonderful World much, just one game at Essen...I want to, but 100€ up-front for the full experience just felt too much for me for a simple drafting game.
Btw. Rahdo mentioned Paper Tales as his favourite drafting game in one of his videos and I recently acquired that, so looking forward to seeing how it compares to 7 Wonders.

[mikolajedi]

I own both games and number of expansions for 7W (except Babel). I'd say I prefer 7W but it loses to IWW in terms of ease of set up and speed/ease of play (unless you play 7W often your decisions would take some time). So practically IWW wins because it's more likely it'll get to the table.

[Wealtharch]

This video has been extremely helpful in helping me decide whether I should get IAWW. Please do more videos like these. I’m a recent subscriber and all your recent videos have been fantastic! Keep up the great work!

[LootShaman]

Another great comparison. Good day to you all.

[VendettaGoRgOn]

It's a Wonderful World and 7 Wonders are both great games, with very clean designs. I believe 7 Wonders is easier to get to the table and benefit from having great expansions, but ultimately to me IAWW is a better puzzle and a more interesting game to play. You have more choices overall, and a lot of forward thinking is required if you want to do well, while the choices between building and discarding are tougher than in 7 Wonders in the first stages of the game.
I'm pretty happy to have both in my collection anyway.

[JohnHoliver]

"Should you play it?" Hahahah
You mixed the series names!

[caseypeterson]

To be fair, I haven't played it's a wonderful world too many times. But I agree with you, 7 wonders just feels like the better game. And I think the thematic element that you touched on is key, because it helps draw you into the game. I like the artwork on it's a wonderful world a lot, but you're right, the theme just really isn't there.

[thedoctor]

I have to give it to It's a Wonderful World for me. Though I am interested in give 7 Wonders more tries since my first two were so rough.

They both lack strongly in theme for me in different ways. 7 Wonders gets a plus for resources like wood and glass, while IAWW lacks that in simply producing science, money and energy. 7W fell short for me in the world because I felt like there was going to be more emphasis on the wonders when in return they don't really matter, sure some points and abilities but you I didn I 't feel like your building that wonder up. Card art can be wacky in IAWW sometimes, but felt like I was investing in that world a bit more, I do love the setting of 7W more though.

For ease of play, it's IAWW for me. I played 7 Wonders twice, and I was still confused about everything. Granted my first play of 7W was with Leaders & Cities so it was a bit more to take in, second play was just base, I still didn't fully grasp Science for example. IAWW started clicking after 2 rounds.

Expansions 7W easily takes though. IAWW's expansion watching a quick bgg coverage doesn't seem that interesting to me, just more production and more points. The scoring cards for pairs of cards could be nice. Plus up to 7 players. 7W cities and Armada interest me the most, but Leaders is respectable.

[thibautchinois]

Thanks for your video! I usually agree with your viewpoint, but I prefer by far IWW, as it has more interesting choices and needs more practice to be mastered. That said, I agree 7 Wonders is far more thematic and easier to pick with my family and non-gamer friends.

[modemacabre]

I sort of went about this backwards. I backed the Heritage edition of IaWW and because everyone kept comparing it to 7W I got both 7W and 7W Duel. I loved IaWW from the first play. Of the new acquisitions we played 7 Wonders Duel first and it was...okay. I found the concept of how military and science were integrated interesting, but the actual play felt lacking, Then we tried 7W. It was better experience for us, even played a ton of games, but at the end of the day it just felt a little dated. I've spent a fair amount of time trying to decided just why I prefer IaWW by so much over 7W and I think it comes down to one thing - engine building. I love this mechanic, it's one of my favourites, and IaWW is just the much superior engine builder of the two.
In addition, there is a fair amount of luck in both IaWW and 7W, in which cards come out and you actually get to see, but how the luck played out in 7W was a much worse experience for me. And perhaps here is the reason: in 7W you are given a city card that somewhat directs the best strategy for you in the game, what wonders and associated bonuses you will be able to build. If you don't get the right supporting cards it's game over. In IaWW you decide which strategy you are going for (unless you play the A side empire cards, or as I call them the 7W's side, which I recommend only for your first game) and you have some opportunity, albeit small, to pivot your strategy should the cards prove unkind. It's knowing when to pivot that can make all the difference.
In closing, I think it is just the thrill of seeing how quickly in each game I have been able to build a pretty powerful engine and if I am able to achieve the goals I set out for myself that really pushes IaWW over the top for me. it has definitely become my favourite light to medium weight game. My game collection is still relatively small, but if I were to start selecting games to cull from my collection tomorrow the 7 Wonders siblings would be in line soon after Azul.

One last note: There was a fair amount of talk about theme in the games. I find the theme pretty light in both without either feeling more thematic. But, I far prefer the art in IaWW, which is a direct consequence of the dystopian theme. The images on the cards just make me smile. And the art in 7 Wonders, well, we're just back to my previous comment, 'dated.' Oh, and I love the pretty resource cubes!