Thinking vs Dreaming about Games

[Patrick]

My enthusiasm about games often causes me to bite off more than I can
chew. A sure sign of it is periodically ending up with a whole closet
full of games that never get played.

Some people can be happy with that. They just call themselves
collectors and enjoy buying new games, looking them over, and putting
them on a shelf, maybe hoping to actually play them--someday. But
I've never liked the idea of being a collector. A stack of unplayed
games weighs on my conscience, and eventually I have to sell them or
give them away.

It's a recurrent situation, and the older I get, the more acutely I
feel it. Way back when, I had my whole life ahead of me and felt sure
I'd find time for whatever I wanted to do. Now I look back at how
seldom I've actually played games over the years, and when I look
ahead I see only a couple decades left. Not that I want to measure my
life in games, but game playing is one thing I always meant to do more
of--so it's apt to become one of my regrets.

And yet--as my wife pointed out the other day, I'm basically a loner.
I'm not driven to get out and mingle with people for any purpose. I'm
fascinated with games for what they are--their rules and components
and all the possibilities of what can happen in a game. Most of the
time, I couldn't care less about socializing around a gaming table.

In fact, just yesterday or the day before, we had a friend over to the
house, and we started tossing around ideas of things to do. My wife
said, "We could play a game." The friend started to express some
hesitation, so my wife said, "We could play some dominoes." She knows
I like dominoes, and she knows most people think of dominoes as a
light, friendly game that even kids can enjoy (so it wouldn't require
any tough thinking). At that point, I should have been excited; it
was my cue to chime in. But I didn't. Instead I was hoping we
wouldn't end up playing a game. I kept quiet, the friend begged off,
and we just drank tea and chatted.

Isn't it weird that someone who's supposedly an avid gamer would react
that way? I've loved games all my life--thought about them, read
about them, written and talked about them. And yet, when it comes
down to actually playing a game, I balk. What's that all about?

Meanwhile, though, I've got some new games on order (some of the Lock
'n Load wargames), and I'm excited about that. And just this morning
I was reading a book on cribbage. Then I played some dominoes on the
computer over breakfast before heading off to work.

I do love games. And I love people too. But somehow I don't seem to
love mixing the two.

--Patrick

[Sukunai]

Yer odd Patrick, but I like you the way you are :)

I hate 'collector syndrome' too. It's bitten me a few too many times
in the past. But damn, I sure ain't one of those types that owns a
'mint condition' game. What they should be told, is owning a mint
condition game is like being proud to have soooo few friends they
couldn't put wear on a game to save their life.

I play role games (currently 4th edition D&D primarily because it is
one size fits all. If you have ANY imagination you can play a role
game. I like being the DM because I get to act out so many roles that
way.

But I'm all about the playing WITH people. I just rarely get the
pleasure any more to play wargames.