David Fair: I am Gamer, I come with Pieces

It’s been a long time since I wrote here for BGN, and I thought I would shelve my “One Is The Loneliest Number� series for a bit longer, and bring you some random thoughts on a few different subjects.

Gamer: The Beginning
I have a buddy who has been coming to my game nights for over a year. His wife, we’ll call her “Liz� (because that is her name) came a few times at first, but then, not again for a long time. Liz just wasn’t interested in gaming, though the socialization was a draw. We got together for dinners and other things, and would sometimes play a game or two, but gaming just wasn’t for her. Scott (my friend) tried all the classic wife games: Ticket to Ride, Lost Cities, etc., but she just wasn’t that interested.

These days, however, she comes to almost all our game nights, and instead of being the first one to want to leave, she is often the last one to the door. What changed? She found a game she loves. It’s Tichu, which most people know I fell in love with this year, and I have been teaching it to all the members of my game group. It has infected them, and Liz, like a virus.

But what this thought is really about is this: You never really know what it will be that will catch hold of another person’s interest. I would never have picked Tichu as a game to even teach to a relatively inexperienced gamer, much less predict that it would get them gaming 3-4 times a month, but there it is. This game would not have hooked me when I was a non-gamer, like Settlers did, but it worked for Liz, and my buddy Scott couldn’t be happier. He’s practically giddy.

Gamer: The Reflections
Almost a year ago, The One Hundred was published on the internet by Mark Jackson & Stephen Glenn (check out Mark’s new Apples Project too!). A collection of the top 100 games as chosen by a bunch of hard-core gamers, it was fun to read and argue about. I decided to try to play the ones I hadn’t, and I got some help in that arena from several folks. Here is how things looked, then (Nov ’05) and Now:

Number of Games in The 100 that I owned/now own: 83/89
Number of Games in The 100 I had played/have now played: 78/89

I picked up a few of these games, and as a game collector, that is Ok with me. My collection recently passed 1000 games, and I don’t see myself slowing much if it all in the acquisition arena soon. Still, there are some there that just don’t do it for me, so I will never be 100% of the list.

The 22 games I had never played are (and I have bolded those that I have still never played): Cosmic Encounter, Civilization, Expediton/Wildlife Adventure, Roads & Boats, Bridge, Lowenherz, 1830, Titan, Daytona 500, Lord of the Rings, Wizard, Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage, Smarty Party, History of the World, Breaking Away, War of the Ring, Age of Renaissance, Um Reifenbreite, Res Publica, Vinci, Code 777, and Dune.

Last year I wrote that I didn’t think I would ever play “Civilization, Age of Renaissance, Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage, Titan, 1830, History of the World, Dune, or Cosmic Encounter�. As you can see, I proved myself wrong with regards to CE (which I liked, but did not love), but was dead on with the rest. Of the others, I played all of them in the past year, except for War of the Ring, Vinci and Res Publica. Some of them have become favorites in my house and with my group, just as they have with so many other gamers (obviously). I really need to get those last 3 on the table soon. I have no good excuse for two of them, but War of the Ring is going to be hard to get played as 2-player wargames are not my normal stock in trade.

Gamer: The Evolution
It’s interesting to see the evolution of tastes in gaming. I don’t think I would have liked Roads & Boats when I first started gaming, but I play it now, and love it. I liked Age of Steam at first, but loved Railroad Tycoon, but that has flip-flopped as well (I still like RRT, but AoS is more favored now). We used to play TransAmerica quite a bit, but the thought of playing it now is disconcerting. Formula De hit the table a lot in my early years of gaming, but I only play it once a year or so now. I used to play Werewolf at every Con as my late-night game of choice, but now Poker has sprung up at most cons (was it always there and I just never noticed, or what?) and Tichu is favored now as well.

Still, there are games that we played when I first started gaming that I still love and play regularly; Alhambra, Bohnanza, and Royal Turf, for example. These, and the others in my collection like them, have something for the new gamer but still manage to appeal to the old gamer in me as well. Those games are real treasures due to their staying power.

Gamer: The Designing
Many gamers I have spoke with tell of game ideas that they have had at one time or another. Many of us never do anything with them. I still remember a dream I had of moving cubes on a board in various regions, fulfilling order cards in those regions, and turning them in for points. It was an interesting game in my slumber, but has amounted to nothing in the waking hours.

Still, there is a creative part inside most of us, and I have started my first contribution to the world of game design. I have made a variant map for Age of Steam, and I should be uploading it to BoardGameGeek soon. Just a few more playtests…

There is something very fulfilling in making a game. Well, I haven’t made a game yet, but there was something very fulfilling even in just making the variant map. I studied the history of the C&O railroad, and I studied old maps to see what cities and towns I should use. I learned a lot about Adobe Illustrator (and Ted Alspach was a wonderful help in that arena. I owe him big) but more than all that, watching someone play your game (or even just your expansion) and enjoy it is a great feeling, like you have actually contributed in some small way to increasing the joy in the world. Yeah, I know that sounds very HallMark-ey, but it describes pretty well how I have felt about my map so far.

In my next column I will talk a bit more about this map, what choices I made that I think make it work, and why I made some of the decisions I did. Maybe one of these days I will see if I can get that game in my dream to come out again. I really enjoyed it while I slept, I remember that much…

Gamer: The Gathering
Speaking of Ted makes me think of something. There is an amazing community around boardgaming. I was a long time part of the online community around RPG’s, D&D in particular, and the support and ready friendship I see in the online boardgaming communities was practically unknown there. Even offline, the local boardgaming groups in my area are much more open and welcoming than the local D&D groups were, and the Games Club of MD, which both my regular weekly gaming groups are associated with, is an amazing resource of people and support compared to the larger groups in the D&D arena (like, for example, the RPGA).

I’m missing out on a great little convention in Raleigh, NC this weekend. I was at the first two meetings of “That BoardGaming Thing”, and I had a blast both times. The first time I went, I was invited out of the blue by the organizers. I never really thanked them properly, as going to TBGT that first year made a huge impact and I doubt I would have been to many of the other cons I go to without having gone there first. Thanks Rob, Justin, Paul, and the rest of you guys. I hope you have a great time. I’ll be there next year.

Final Random Thought: I’m a lucky guy, and it’s a great time to be a gamer.

© 2006 David Fair

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Comments:

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Re: Gamer: the Designing David, come and join us over in the Board Game Designers Forum (http://www.bgdf.com) where you’ll find a bunch of amateurs (and more than a few published designers) who have taken the same path but have managed, often with the help of the community there, to progress from imagination to concrete reality.  It’s a great place to bounce ideas around and be inspired to actually get to that next stage. Posted by David Brain on Sep 10, 2006 at 03:20 AM | #

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