2006 Gaming Resolutions

by Susan Rozmiarek

Well, with January almost coming to a close, I guess I better make my Gaming Resolutions for a year. Personally, I think New Year resolutions are made to be broken, but I do find that having a goal helps me to focus better. While I don’t always achieve my goal, I at least make some progress and that’s a Good Thing.

First, I want to state what I’m NOT doing. I’m not going to track my games played this year. I have done this in the past and after a month or two it just feels like a chore. I thought that I’d simplify things a bit last year and record my games played at BGG but I totally lost interest in November and quit. I’m not the type of person who likes playing around with statistical data so keeping track really does nothing for me. I sometimes find it interesting to see when I last played a certain game, but usually the answer is depressing. I certainly don’t want to know my win-loss stats as that is always depressing!

The other thing that I’m not going to do is promise to buy fewer games which has been a common resolution in the past. What we (Ed and I) are going to do is make sure that we stay within our budget and not allow our obsession to hurt the progress of our current financial goals. This also includes traveling to game conventions. I’m not sure how many games or cons this will mean for us this year, but I’m no longer going to feel guilty about how much we spend as long as the above criteria is met. Gaming is something our entire family enjoys in some way.

So, what are my Gaming Resolutions this year?

1. We have a long list of unplayed games on our shelves, all of which were purchased because they are supposed to be good. Some have been languishing on our shelves for YEARS. Shameful! I would like to get as many of these played as possible. We now have a son who is willing to play just about anything so we no longer have to wait for game day to play some of these. The first ones on the list are the ones that cause me the most shame.

• Kings & Castles
• Ad Acta
• Titicaca
• Dampfross – at least Ed has played this one
• Shoko & Co.
• Mare Nostrum
• Tycoon
• Princes of the Renaissance
• Traders of Genoa
• War of the ring
• A Game of Thrones
• 1825 – I love train games and have never tried an 18xx game
• Gargon – just a little card game, but why did we buy it if not to play it?
• Nexus Ops
• Arkham Horror
• Im Auftrag des König – another little unplayed card game lost on our shelves
• Empire Builder/Russian Rails – I would have never discovered the “crayon rail” games if Mayfair hadn’t sent me a review copy of Lunar Rails. I thought they were long, boring and complicated. Wrong! My newly found love is worthy of its own post someday. These are two in the series that I own but haven’t played. I only wish I could convince more people to play them with me. :-(

I will have to average more than a game a month this year to get all those games played. This will be hard to do so I’ll be happy if I just knock a lot of them off the list. Remember being a child and getting a gold star for good work or behavior? Well, that is exactly what I’m going to award myself for playing one of these games! Look for gold stars in my session reports this year.

2. My other resolution is to start up a gaming group in my new neighborhood. Ed and I would like to get more gaming in than just our once-a-month group. We live too far from the other local groups to attend their game nights that often. We’ve lived here for six months and it’s time to get off my butt and just DO IT. Unlike many others, I don’t feel that playing games like these are perceived as being “geeky,” especially if you approach non-gamers with the impression of them being a fun ,family activity. At least, that’s been my experience. Many people seem to be looking for an excuse to pull themselves away from a TV or computer screen and socialize with other fellow human beings. The few neighbors that I’ve approached have shown interest. Even if we never play more than the simplest “gateway” games or dominoes or whatever, it will still be fun, I hope. Look for the results of my efforts in upcoming blog entries here.

Posted by Susan Rozmiarek at January 23, 2006 11:57 AM