My favorite board game these days is the sprawling, civilization-building epic called Settlers of Cataan. Although it is
very popular and can be found in any major games store, it is not in the same spirit as typical plastic Milton Bradley fare. It attracts a finer taste. (And, at least online, some very foul-mouthed Scandinavians)

The game is played by building settlements and cities across a randomized board of different land types. Based on your real estate, you get cards when the dice are rolled, with which you can trade with players and buy more real estate. The game is played until one player accrues the equivalent of 10 settlements (a variety of other point-getting alternatives also exist). I loved to play this game with a few of my close friends. The games were long and social, and gave everyone the chance to trade and form alliances with and against each other, with the winner a relatively minor afterthought. It was what one might call 'good weeknight fun' - although I secretly looked forward to those nights even more than the weekends.

Last week I found an online version and since then my life has pretty much come to a screeching halt. The variety in the types of games is greater, opponents are always available, and there is no set-up required. I am doomed. The biggest difference in the actual gameplay is the speed of the games. In addition to the lack of board set-up (which actually takes a while), there are intermittent steps during the gameplay which are automated, increasing the speed slightly. The main reason, though, is the urgency of the players involved. Everyone flies through their turns and urges everyone else to hurry up, reducing game times to, at most, a third of the original time.

Now, despite every one's dire fascination with board games, this is a blog meant to comment on business issues and I want to satisfy it's readers by steering in that direction. The inevitable analogy is this: converting from in-person games to online play shares a lot of the same peculiarities as switching from in-person sales to more diffuse models. In both cases, speed and anonymity is enhanced. And in both cases, there is upside and there are drawbacks. But, like my turn to online gaming, switching away from face-to-face sales is an inevitable change that will and in most cases has been made.

This analogy leads me to the most interesting aspect of switching to playing online. In person, very basic trades are proposed and discussed every turn. They compromise the most basic component of competitive advantage and are of critical importance. Online, they almost never happen. In fact, the only trades that are ever made are extremely complex and happen late in the game between desperate players. There are several reason for this phenomenon:

- The increase in the physical speed creates a context within which everything is done faster and 'drag' during turns, such as trades, is reduced or removed.

- The anonymity of playing online removes physical and verbal cues and actually makes the trading process slower than in-person.

- Playing against new players every game reduces the ability to predict other players' habits, reducing the chance of stable trade alliances.

Compare that to the phenomenon of e-commerce. Are certain helpful sales processes removed for the sake of speed or efficiency? Does anonymity reduce the ability for salespeople to read their clients? Does engaging a much wider market create distraction and decrease the odds of forming a stable long-term relationship?

So if these sound familiar and you thought these aspects were particular to market, I can tell you they are not. They affect all online interactions, selling or otherwise. Keeping these challenges in mind is important to changing your sales incentives and your demand forecasting. You can't use the old 'handshake contract' model to represent new online buyers. If you make your product or service available to the greater online, worldwide market, you have to expect changes in the way you deal with your clients and how they deal with you.

One last thought: another change I noticed was opponents' lower reluctance to tell you what they think of your latest move. In the case of several Norwegian players I encountered yesterday, they told me in no uncertain terms, where I could put the dice after the game was over. Overlooking for a minute the impermanence of digital dice and the impossibility of this request, it's important to note that this is likely to happen in some form with online buyers. Remember to take it for what it is: not a decrease in cordiality itself, but an increase in the immunity to punishment afforded by increased anonymity. I forgot this, of course, and tried to punch my laptop in the face. But you should not. Despite the anonymity afforded to e-vendors, the cornerstone of good relationships, online or not, is still customer service.