As a board game collector,
I love to get new games. There is something great about opening a box
for the first time, seeing all of those new components, and smelling
that new cardboard smell. Preparing and organizing new components and
reading new rules is all an enjoyable part of the experience for me.
But of course the real prize is actually playing the game, which is why I'm discouraged by a recent trend in my board gaming tendencies. At the beginning of last year, I challenged myself to play ten games ten times each. I failed spectacularly. I managed to play one game, Istanbul, eight times, and that was the most plays of any game on my list. I managed to play Carcassonne zero times, with most other games on the list garnering between one and four plays each. I also played a few games that weren't on my list, and often felt guilty when I did because I wasn't making any progress towards completing the challenge. Some of those were newer games that I purchased after Istanbul that I wanted to try.
But of course the real prize is actually playing the game, which is why I'm discouraged by a recent trend in my board gaming tendencies. At the beginning of last year, I challenged myself to play ten games ten times each. I failed spectacularly. I managed to play one game, Istanbul, eight times, and that was the most plays of any game on my list. I managed to play Carcassonne zero times, with most other games on the list garnering between one and four plays each. I also played a few games that weren't on my list, and often felt guilty when I did because I wasn't making any progress towards completing the challenge. Some of those were newer games that I purchased after Istanbul that I wanted to try.
Here's what is bothering
me. Five of the ten games on that list from January of 2017 were
Christmas presents from December of 2016, and all of them are really
good games that I enjoy playing. So why did those games get four or
less plays each, and why did the older games on my list get even less
plays? The answers to these questions are simple. First, I have too
many games and not enough of an opportunities to play them. Second,
in order to justify getting the newer games, playing my newer games
has taken precedence over playing older games. In this context,
“newer” and “older” may only be separated by a few months or
even weeks. Compounding this problem is the fact that I just received
ten new games for Christmas and my birthday (which also falls in
December). I still haven't played six of them.
What a problem to have,
right? Too many games! Well, yes. Plus I just added another new game
to my Amazon wishlist, and yesterday I got outbid on an eBay auction
for yet another game. Meanwhile, great games like Suburbia and Lords
of Waterdeep, not to mention Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan, are
already languishing on my shelf. Even now it's hard for me to look at
my game shelf and not feel like playing an older game that I love
would be doing a disservice to a newer game that I love, or an even
greater disservice to a game that I haven't even played yet.
Another downside to always
playing new games is that I'm always teaching people how to play new
games. It's not that I don't enjoy teaching new games, I absolutely
do, but while playing a game that I last month a friend of mine said
something that has stuck with me. We were playing a game that I had
just taught him and he said: “Man, I feel bad for you; you never
get to play any of these games competitively because you're always
teaching us new people how to play them.” He isn't completely
right, but he isn't completely wrong either. I do occasionally get to
play a game that everyone has played before, but lately I have spent
a lot more time teaching people how to play new games instead of
enjoying a game that everyone at the table already knows.
So for now I'm going to
take a step back from acquiring more games, and I'm not going to
worry so much about trying all of my new games as soon as possible,
or feel like I have to play all of my newer games before playing any
of my older games. I'm going to try to get comfortable with the
notion that playing a game that I love from two or even ten years ago
isn't somehow a disservice to a newer game. When the time presents
itself and with the right group of players, sure I'll spring a new
game on them, but I'll also look for more opportunities to play
something that everyone already knows how to play. In particular I'm
looking forward to playing some older games with my wife who,
incidentally, has recently grumbled about learning new games instead
of playing some of her favorites.
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