And now for something completely different...
Over the past few years, I have fallen in love with board games. Growing up, I enjoyed playing board games from time to time, but by my early teens, I would rarely play them and wouldn't think of them as something I would prefer to do. This changed in college. I was introduced to Settlers of Catan. I would spend weekends with my friends playing game after game. It was during these late night game sessions that I started to notice something about the game that caught in my brain like a thorn. It was an aspect of playing board games that I had noticed when I was younger, but hadn't quite been able to formalize. Winning the game is an ultimate, individualistic, aim that allows the player to do what is right in his own eyes. Playing Catan in college was a lot of fun, but I started to see that we could do things in the game that we would not do in real life. As I have started to play more games, I have tried to keep track of this theme.
Over the past year, I have been introduced to a plethora of new (or at least new-to-me) games. From table top card games like Dominion and Love Letters, to tile laying games like Carcassonne, worker placement games like Five tribes or Alchemist, and even some co-op games like the Dead of Winter, I have noticed this same element.
Normal social rules seem to disappear as each player seeks every opportunity to score more points or prevent other players from scoring. The rules of many games are set up to reenforce this mindset and I think one of the biggest complaints people have about board games stems from this. The game allows us to act outside of our moral framework and in extreme cases we begin to forget our humanity as we become utterly goal oriented. (Wow, that sounds pretentious).
This does not make board games bad. Rather, it reflects the nature of the people playing the games. I have had a lot of fun playing board games as well as one or two tense games that made me uncomfortable. I don't want to sound like I am the one who plays games correctly and I just see others abusing a social activity for self aggrandizement. I have noticed my own action in games and am ashamed at some of the ways I have played. I have thought through how to better participate in games and in social settings. Winning is still a goal, but it is not the goal. The goal (to sound trite) is to have fun and build friendships. This has helped me have a lot more fun playing games as I play with people more than playing the game. (As an engineer, I must remember to think through this sometimes)
There is another genre of board game that does allow all the players to not worry about competing against one another, but working together. These co-op games are typically hard to play and require a lot of thinking and discussing as a group. There is generally only one way to win the game and several ways to lose the game. Pandemic and Forbidden Island/Forbidden Dessert are good examples of these games. These games are not without there own problems, but they do seem to foster more of a team spirit and support for healthy social activites.
If you've read this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts? Do you have a favorite board game or board game genre? Do you have any recommendations of good board games? Have you changed your game play based on morals or ethics? If you're in the Czech Republic, are you familiar with Forbidden Desert? I'm planning on using it in my English lessons this summer.
Over the past year, I have been introduced to a plethora of new (or at least new-to-me) games. From table top card games like Dominion and Love Letters, to tile laying games like Carcassonne, worker placement games like Five tribes or Alchemist, and even some co-op games like the Dead of Winter, I have noticed this same element.
This does not make board games bad. Rather, it reflects the nature of the people playing the games. I have had a lot of fun playing board games as well as one or two tense games that made me uncomfortable. I don't want to sound like I am the one who plays games correctly and I just see others abusing a social activity for self aggrandizement. I have noticed my own action in games and am ashamed at some of the ways I have played. I have thought through how to better participate in games and in social settings. Winning is still a goal, but it is not the goal. The goal (to sound trite) is to have fun and build friendships. This has helped me have a lot more fun playing games as I play with people more than playing the game. (As an engineer, I must remember to think through this sometimes)
There is another genre of board game that does allow all the players to not worry about competing against one another, but working together. These co-op games are typically hard to play and require a lot of thinking and discussing as a group. There is generally only one way to win the game and several ways to lose the game. Pandemic and Forbidden Island/Forbidden Dessert are good examples of these games. These games are not without there own problems, but they do seem to foster more of a team spirit and support for healthy social activites.
If you've read this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts? Do you have a favorite board game or board game genre? Do you have any recommendations of good board games? Have you changed your game play based on morals or ethics? If you're in the Czech Republic, are you familiar with Forbidden Desert? I'm planning on using it in my English lessons this summer.
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