Icehouse pieces: good, bad, or ugly?

[Arakawa]

I know there are some board game inclined peoples on this forum, so I would be interested in asking their opinion/advice.

So it seems like these things are still around:

http://www.looneylabs.com/looney-pyramids

These are supposed to be plastic pyramids that are versatile enough to be used for a large variety of games. (They can be stacked/nested, distinguished by colour and size, placed upright or pointing in a specific direction, all of which can be the basis of some game mechanic or other.)

I was aware of them previously, but didn't pay much attention. But recently it occurred to me that I wanted to have a variety of board games on hand, while being ambivalent about the usefulness of accumulating a bunch of cardboard boxes (one per game). A versatile kind of game system might be a good alternative.

Beyond seeing them used for a game of Zendo in Chicago (and the irony of Zendo is that it doesn't really specifically require pyramid pieces), I have no personal experience. So I wonder how useful they actually are for gaming. It seems like most of the pyramid games are short, icebreaker style affairs -- which is kind of what is realistic to play if I need to entertain semi-acquaintances -- but I'm not sure if my assessment of their usefulness for this is accurate.

I'm worried that the game designs might actually bifurcate into two sets: really casual games without a lot of depth, and really weird, esoteric games that have more depth but require a whole bunch of effort to master (e.g. the original Icehouse game is a real-time strategy game, which is something that requires a special kind of etiquette to play well with physical pieces), with not a lot of games in-between these extremes. In that case it might be easy to get bored of them.

Thoughts? Anyone familiar with these things and can give me an estimate of their fun value?

[Merc]

At the end of the day, they're basically colored player tokens. You could use them for a worker placement game, bidding, etc, and it sounds like there are some generic games specifically designed for the pyramid/stacking function. Off hand, I can see them useful for a game of Can't Stop if paired with a pair of dice, and I'm sure there's other examples.

I'm not familiar with the games that use them though (like the Zendo/Icehouse you mention), so not sure how much fun you can actually get out of them.

[Arakawa]

Ok, I decided to get a set of pyramids. Will share my thoughts here when I have some thoughts to share.

[Merc]

Good luck!