Why does nobody talk about how much better games got once my group banned phones at the table
Six months ago our Thursday night group in Columbus would take three hours to finish a game of Wingspan, and half of that was people scrolling and asking whose turn it was. We started a hard no-phone rule in January and the same game now takes about 90 minutes with way more table talk. The odd part is our win rates barely moved, so the extra time was never going into thinking. Has anyone else tried this and had a player quit over it?
Wingspan going from three hours to 90 minutes is wild but I totally believe it. My group in Denver had the same thing happen with Everdell, we were averaging two and a half hours and now it's right around 75 minutes after we started putting phones in a basket by the door. The scrolling really does eat way more time than people realize, and it hangs up everybody's turn because nobody wants to start their move while someone else is checked out. I feel for you on the player quitting question though, that's the part that worries me when groups try this. We got lucky and nobody left, but one guy grumbled for a month about missing texts from his wife, so we made a house rule that she can call twice and he steps out for it. Hang in there, the faster games and better table talk are worth the friction.