When Games are Ruined

A friend, brother-in-law, and occassional board-game opponent of mine (who I will henceforth refer to as "Josh") once told me a story about a very bad experience he had playing Settlers of Catan as a newcomer in a previously established group.

Let me get across an important fact here:  Josh loves Settlers of Catan.  He has every currently-available expansion for the game.  He has been known to stay up all hours of the night playing multiple games.  It's his number one game.

And yet, when he played with one particular group of guys, he didn't have any fun.  Why? Well, apparently their method of playing essentially ruined the game.