Larry Levy:  A Gamer Is Born

It all started about a month ago, when the Tanga web site went public.  I’m sure many of you have enjoyed working through their nightly puzzles.  I’m not all that great at puzzle solving, but it looked like it might be fun, so I mentioned it to my wife, Sheryl.  Every night, we’d work on our separate computers, sometimes giving hints, sometimes working together on the thornier ones.  It was a nice joint activity.

Many of the early puzzles were quite tough, so on the occasions when I hit an absolute brick wall, I headed over to BoardGameGeek, where there was a forum dedicated to the Tanga puzzles.  Each night there was commentary, triumphant posts by early solvers, and many spoilers which gave out hints.  After a while, Sheryl asked me where these hints were coming from, so I gave her the URL.  Little did I know where that would lead.

I have from time to time in the past spoken of my non-gamer wife.  Early in our marriage, she actually avoided playing games, as she was a victim of too many ex-boyfriends who were bad winners and worse losers.  Eventually, I was able to show her that gaming didn’t have to be all about winning, but she still considered the perfect game to be “where you roll the dice, move your piece, and then talk to the person on your left until it’s your turn again.â€?  Slowly, inroads were made. We’re both writers, so word games like Upwords and Boggle saw some early play.  Later, my good friend Mark Jackson advised me that Flowerpower was a fine gateway S.O. game, and he proved to be accurate.  Just as pot leads to crack, Flowerpower led to Carcassonne and we were soon laying down meeples with the best of them.  Mystery Rummy 3 and 4, Balloon Cup, and Can’t Stop were also successful experiments.  Still, these were primarily ways of spending time together.  Sheryl enjoyed them, but if all games vanished from the face of the earth through the deployment of some highly specialized neutron bomb, she wouldn’t have been distressed at all.  In short, she was playing games, but she was in no way a gamer.

Sheryl knew that I liked surfing a lot of gaming websites, but she never asked about them and I never bothered to tell her.  So this was her first visit to BoardGameGeek.  She was fascinated by it almost immediately.  The weird and clever ID’s, the avatars, and the sheer scope of the site drew her in.  It’s funny, but when you visit a website like this multiple times a day, you take it for granted, but I can see how wondrous a place it must seem like to a complete newcomer.  After a few days, she had created her own account, become a BGG supporter, and was posting things, both to the Tanga forum and elsewhere.  Aldie then made a friend for life by sending her a Geekmail saying that he liked her style and included a generous GeekGold gift.  Sheryl was thrilled and immediately made him a GeekBuddy.  The gift allowed her to buy an avatar and she designed a very clever one.  Soon, she was exchanging notes with other gamers, filling out her personal Top 10 and Hot 10 lists, and making a name for herself on the site.  It’s safe to say that after three weeks, she was a more active member of BGG than I had ever been.

It was more than just exploring a new website, though.  Bit by bit, she was becoming immersed in the gaming hobby.  I noted some aspects of her new awareness from time to time, always to my delight, but I didn’t really grasp the extent of it until a few days ago.  Sheryl and I had created a simple card game about five years ago and we had always kicked around the idea of submitting it to a publisher.  Just recently, we decided to get serious about this, and so we started working toward that goal, including Sheryl using her artistic skills to create a nice prototype.  On the day in question, we were talking about whether the theme had sufficient appeal.  Sheryl then said, “Of course, even if we do get this published, they’ll probably change the theme completely.â€?  I joked, “Hey, if Hasbro wants to publish this, they can use whatever theme they like.â€?  My wife then coolly responded, “Actually, I was thinking more about Days of Wonder…â€?

I was stunned.  It was like a perfect stranger had suddenly decided to take up residence in my wife’s body.  Just a few short weeks ago, she barely knew a meeple from a magpie, and now she’s throwing around company names like Days of Wonder?  What a miraculous transformation!  Of course, Sheryl just laughed when I mentioned this and said, “Maybe I was just listening to you ramble on about games all these years more than you thought I was.â€?  Maybe so.  But I have to think that BoardGameGeek has been working its magic.  In my eyes, she is a non-gamer no more.

Ironically, this has made no difference in the area where you’d think it counted the most, the actual playing of games.  My new job has led to slightly longer hours and the last couple of weeks have been spent in religious retreat, which is what I call it when the N.Y. Mets are involved in the baseball playoffs.  With a solid three hours of focused sports viewing practically every night, there’s been little time for games.  The bad news is my beloved Mets have been rudely eliminated from the festivities, but that may allow time for me to test some of my darling wife’s newfound gaming knowledge.  It’ll be nice to spend more time with her, since she never has had any interest in baseball whatsoever.  Hmm, you don’t suppose there’s a website called BaseballGeek.com, do you?

© 2006 Larry Levy

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So has Vera made an appearance at the DC Gamers yet?  That will be the final test - can she survive them?! Posted by Anye Mercy on Oct 22, 2006 at 06:03 PM | #

Hey, one step at a time, Sellers!  Maybe I could introduce her to something a little less intimidating first--like a game of werewolf with a biker gang! Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 22, 2006 at 06:59 PM | #

I’m sory, Larry, but your story strains the bounds of credulity. No gamer has ever come into the hobby via Boardgame Geek. All gamers are recruited exclusively via brick-and-mortar stores. I think I read that somewhere. Posted by Paul Sauberer on Oct 22, 2006 at 07:42 PM | #

Sheryl here. Or Vera, I answer to both. Now that Larry has outed me, I thought I’d respond. Anye, I’m waiting for the DC Gamers Simpleton Ladies Auxillery to form to make an appearance. And Paul, you’re right! He used to drag me to game stores, and got me addicted to collecting Star Trek CCG cards in order to make me go back. But when that monetary black hole was complete, I had to start paying attention to the games he was bringing home (kind of a pork chop around the neck thing) and then I really did get into playing some of the games - even surprised him that Tikal was my favorite. As he said, BGG got me to reveal that I actually HAD been paying attention all this time, I was just reluctant to let HIM know that. Kinda like he hid the fact that he can make bacon and eggs from me for 14 years. Keeps the marriage interesting! So pay no attention to that woman behind the curtain. She lurks but she sees all, hears all, plays a few. :-) Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 23, 2006 at 01:02 PM | #

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