Kris Hall: What to do in a gaming drought
I’m in a gaming drought. Because of various member work schedules, the Appalachian Gamers haven’t been able to get together much recently. And the one time I did show up at a session, I had to leave early because of work commitments.
Like most of you, when I’m extremely busy there isn’t much time to think about my hobbies. But during odd hours, I find myself missing the camaraderie of our meetings, and looking forward to the next one.
So what to do in a gaming drought?
Buy new games. There’s plenty of new stuff available for the Christmas rush, and many of the Essen games are showing up at online retailers. If you can’t play a game now, you can buy one for your next meeting. And if your next meeting is several weeks away, think of how much time that will give you to master the rules of your purchases.
Play something solitaire. There are a few one-player games around, and a few that have a solitaire scenario (Agricola anyone?) I used to play games solitaire a lot more than I do now. I tend to save my current gaming time for regular sessions where the social activity is just as important as the games themselves. But I’ve played a few games by myself just to master the rules before showing up at an Appalachian Gamers meeting.
Seek out gaming info online. If you’re reading this column then I don’t have to tell you much about this one. I find exploring Comsimworld or BGG a wonderful means of procrastination. And occasionally I discover a new game of interest or something on the horizon that will make a good topic for a Boardgame News column.
Give a game to a child without one. If this is the season of new toys and games, it is also the season to remember those who have to do without. I’m already hearing about Christmas toy drives in my area, and I bet there is one in yours as well. There are selfish reasons for donating a game or three as well as altruistic ones. Good deeds are a natural stress reliever, and if you’re not doing much gaming because of work, you probably need to siphon off some stress. A win-win situation. How often do we see that in a game?
Posted by Kris Hall on Nov 21, 2008 at 01:00 AM in Columnists, Kris Hall / 913
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Due to picking up an outside (unfortunately non-game related) project, I’ve only logged 24 ftf games since the beginning of October. It may not sound like a drought, but it’s roughly sixteen games per month contrasted with ~69 games per month for the first nine months. I’ve fed my addiction with your first and third options, buying games and reading BGN and BGG. In addition to these, I’ve read some rules online and/or from the purchased games. These don’t completely scratch the itch, so I’ve turned to online gaming. Actually, I was already there, but have upped my number of games, particularly the non-realtime variety. I had to quit the Internet Up Front league because I couldn’t get my games in. Dominion’s arrival at BSW certainly rekindled interest in BSW (not quite 100 games, yet). My number of games on Yucata and Mastermoves have gone way up along with some Spielbyweb and Roborunner at eyeplaygames. These games are ideal for logging in for a short time here and there and catching up. Add in some games of Titan and Twilight Struggle at ACTS for some meatier, but still involving only short continuous time commitments, to make a move or two a day. So, PBeM is not as fun as ftf, but it is doable even with a busy schedule. The arrival at Dominion in cardboard form has made for more ftf interactions with the kids. (We’d been logging into BSW on separate computers.) And I am hoping to increase my meager win rate against my son this evening. Posted by Scott Russell on Nov 21, 2008 at 02:28 PM | #
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Scott, I’m fairly certain you’ll never be able to win consistently against H… He’s a Dominion shark! Dale Posted by Dale Yu on Nov 21, 2008 at 03:45 PM | #
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Of course, there’s also option #5: Write articles for BGN so that others going through a gaming drought have more options with #3:) Posted by Jeff Allers on Nov 23, 2008 at 05:53 AM | #
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For the love of god, don’t take option #1! I tried that during my last gaming drought and having all these new games sitting round the place that I *still* didn’t have time to play just made things much, much worse! It’s a vicious circle. Don’t go there. You have been warned. Posted by Matt Thrower on Nov 26, 2008 at 05:21 AM | #
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