These Games of Ours

I remember that fateful night as clearly as it were yesterday. We were sitting around at Cindy’s house and TJ & Michelle pulled out a boardgame that I had never heard of. That game was none other than The Settlers of Catan. I was instantly floored by it; this was exactly the kind of game I dreamed of!

Before Catan, the only Euro game I had ever played was Mille Bornes, and I loved it for the strategy and theme. I used to think “I wish there were more games like Mille Bornes” but every time I saw games on the store shelf, they looked more like Monopoly than Mille Bornes... Of course, I had no idea what a Euro game was, else I might have had a chance of finding more. But along came Catan and my eyes were opened.

As soon as we finished that first game of Catan, we started another. And then as soon as I got home, I started searching on the internet for more information. I stumbled across rec.games.board, and the rest is history. Holy crap! I actually just found my original first post to the newsgroup, it gives me serious chills to find this and read it again! Wow...

Anyway, that started a serious buying frenzy as I wandered wide-eyed through this newfound treasure-trove of entertainment. As I said in that thread, I ended up buying Bohnanza and Tigris & Euphrates. Bohnanza is still one of my favorite games, and one that I turn to time and time again to help introduce non-gamers to the realm. T&E, however, was far too deep for the people I was gaming with, so I eventually traded it off.

As for the people... First, I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that Kara too enjoyed these games. However, you can’t play Settlers with only two players (trust me, we tried and tried and tried) and since we were new to Seattle, we didn’t know anyone, let alone anyone that wanted to play boardgames! So, I looked up Seattle game groups on BoardGameGeek and discovered Peter Sarrett’s group. Funny thing, I had no idea when I emailed him that he was a bit of a gaming celebrity, what with his magazine, The Game Report, and a published game under his belt (and not just any game, but Time’s Up, the best party game out there). All I knew about him was that he ran a weekly game group.

Gaming at Peter’s was exactly what I was looking for! First off, the guys were all really nice (Nate, Damon, Michael, Peter) and I got to try tons of new games. Peter’s game collection was absolutely huge, and so every game night I’d leave having found another game or two that I wanted to buy. But if I was going to be buying my own copies of these games, I’d need some people to play them with! I started meeting guys at UW, and I recruited them into our little game group. My two very successful converts were Phil and Nolan. They’d come over nearly every time I’d send a “games tonight?” email, and then we’d play for hours and hours. There were others that came and went (K.D., Brad aka ‘Windopaene’, the Claesons, and some other scary dude that only came once), but Phil & Nolan were my mainstays.

And then we all graduated, and Phil & Nolan moved to other cities. Now I was sitting on a sizable collection of games, with no game group to speak of. And so it stayed for a year or so. Every once in a while I was able to play a game when Dave or TJ would come to visit, but I definitely wasn’t getting to use my collection the way I wanted to! Eventually I floated the idea of a game night to some of my coworkers at MS, and after a few attempts I was able to persuade a few to come over. Brett & Jess were the big converts from that attempt (they got their own copy of Catan and played a few different games when they came down a few weeks ago). The seeds of the new game group were planted, but it wasn’t meant to be because we ended up moving back to Portland (Brett just told me a few days ago that he and Jess met up with Rich and Hilary to play Settlers. He made it sound like it might become a weekly thing, so it sounds like the new game group might go on without us!)

And now that we’re back in Portland, I’ve got both Dave and TJ nearby to fill the seats. The last three months in Portland have been more game-filled than probably all of the last year! The proselytizing has continued as well, as I’ve gotten Scott and Katie to try Settlers, and Scott has already come back for more! This renewed game action has really started getting me excited about the hobby again, and I’ve been visiting BoardGameGeek and Funagain a ton lately looking around at all the hot games that have come out in the past year. I’ve also started sending out feeler emails to a few people with advertised game groups in the area. I’d prefer to get my own group going, but there’s no better way to meet other area gamers than to attend other groups as well.

My extensive time over at BoardGameGeek recently has got me listening to the GeekSpeak internet radio program, which I’ve been enjoying. I’d heard rumblings about it on Defective Yeti and Static Zombie but hadn’t had the motivation to start listening until a few days ago. It’s pretty neat hearing them talk to the industry leaders because the game industry is such a small world. When I went to the Gathering of Friends a few years ago, I met a lot of these people and it’s just a neat thing, this web of gamers and designers.

Well, there you have it... My history in the realm of the German game. Initially this post was just going to be me pointing out the new ‘Board Game List’ link on the right sidebar, but it ballooned into so much more! I’m guessing there are few, if any, that will make it through the whole thing, but lately I’ve been using Less Than Me more as a diary of sorts. But, yeah, the new link! It’s a list of all the board games I own (I generously included my American games as well) and each one links to the BoardGameGeek entry. If I’ve piqued the interest of any of you, definitely contact me! I’d be more than happy to suggest good starter games and even teach them to you if you’re in the Portland area.

Game on!