And Here you
are!!!
Another
blog. They are everywhere. So why should you read mine? I don’t have a clear
cut answer for that, so I will lay out a quick question and answer section
before I get started.
Who am I?
Well, that depends on who you ask. To my two beautiful daughters, I’m simply
known as Daddy. My exceptionally beautiful, incredibly talented, unbelievably
supportive and all-around fantastic wife…well, she calls me Wes, just like the
rest of my family and friends. And finally, to my fellow Sailors in the U.S.
Navy, I’m known as Petty Officer Ward. I spend half my time at home with my
family living a semi-normal life, and the other half of the time surrounded by
miles of deep blue sea and a variable number of Sailors and Marines. My
circumstances have forced me to adapt to a very diverse set of social
interactions with very diverse groups of people. Because of this, I have kept
an open mind about the kinds of games I play. I try out lots of different games
from lots of different genres, and I’ve enjoyed many of them. I know not
everyone likes every kind of game so I will do my best to convey who the games
I play will appeal to. Enough about me for now…
What is this
all about? Board games. But more specifically, my experience with board games.
As stated, my life is split between two worlds, and living in those two worlds
has generated the opportunity for many unique and memorable experiences. I want
to share my experiences with anyone interested. I’ll tell my stories and I’ll
talk about the games I’ve played. I don’t want to be just another game review
blog, but rather I want to share my unique perspective through a combination of
storytelling in addition to providing my thoughts and opinions on the games I
play.
And
Now..[insert seamless and clever transition to bridge the introduction to the
“actual” entry] :)
I like board
games. I like sitting around the table and fostering positive, meaningful
interactions with other people. My introduction to board games was the same as
many others, I grew up playing Monopoly, Life, and Candy Land. I always enjoyed
getting out all the pieces and sitting down to play a game with family or
friends. But, my fondest memories involving board games always revolved around a
tradition my family had while I was growing up, every year on Christmas Eve we would, as a family, head to the store and pick out a new board game to play before going to bed and waiting for Santa to arrive. I
always enjoyed and anticipated these trips to the local Wal-Mart or Target to pick
out a fresh new game to crack open and learn together as a family. I continued
this tradition as I entered adulthood, got married, and had children, and for a
while it all worked out just as I remembered. However, a few years back, I
headed to the store with my wife, and stared blankly at the meager selection on
the shelves of my local superstores. The few interesting games I saw were
already on my shelf, and the rest were either games for young children or
countless reiterations of monopoly or various party games.
After reading several game backs, I settled on a spin-off of Scattegories. We put my daughter to bed (she wasn't quite old enough to play any games yet), put out the presents and broke open our new Scattegories Categories. Splat! We hated it, the game felt hollow. So, slightly defeated, but determined to enjoy a tradition we had carried on for years, we took our well-played box of classic Scattegories off the shelf and ended our Christmas Eve with a game I enjoyed, but it wasn’t new…and it wasn’t my tradition. It seemed to signal the death of a tradition that had been a part of my family’s holidays since I was a young child, but maybe board games had lost their place in the world as electronic entertainment took center stage. Maybe we had just experienced everything there was to offer. I didn’t know exactly, but the holidays ended, we moved on, and we came to grips with the fact that maybe we would just have to settle with our superstore mini-collection of games.
That is until one day, shortly after a co-worker of mine returned from a tour in Djibouti; we were talking about what he did to pass the time in his remote outpost and he told me about the many evenings he spent playing this game that he was certain not many people had heard of. The game he spoke of: Settlers of Catan. He explained the rules, and I tucked his enthusiastic description in the back of my mind, deciding to look it up when I sat down at the computer later that night. I didn’t. I got home and spent my evening playing Call of Duty, and the game about settling Catan was quickly forgotten.
It was until later in the year when my family was all visiting for Thanksgiving that I would revisit thoughts of Catan. After some obligatory small talk and catching up, the atmosphere started to dry up and a board game seemed appropriate to stimulate some interaction. While looking through my games, my sister mentioned a game her husband had played when he was on deployment. You guessed it, Settlers of Catan. Now I had heard of this game twice, so I grabbed my brother-in-law and headed to Barnes and Noble and purchased this mysterious game that had now piqued my interest. I brought it home, cracked it open, read the rules and the following hour was filled with laughter, negotiation, strategy and, most importantly, quality family time. Settlers of Catan was something entirely new to me. The mechanics presented were intriguing and I remember thinking, “Well, if this game exists, are there other games that I just don’t know about?” I was excited, I had always like board games, and now a shred of hope was restored that I’d probably be able to find at least a couple more decent games to keep my tradition alive.
Thanksgiving weekend ended, and my extended family returned to their homes, but on that Thanksgiving Day, gathered around the table, trading wheat for wood and laying down settlements, I got a glimpse into the wonderful world of board games. A little taste of something that would soon be fully realized and evolve into the most healthy addiction for both me and my family.
After reading several game backs, I settled on a spin-off of Scattegories. We put my daughter to bed (she wasn't quite old enough to play any games yet), put out the presents and broke open our new Scattegories Categories. Splat! We hated it, the game felt hollow. So, slightly defeated, but determined to enjoy a tradition we had carried on for years, we took our well-played box of classic Scattegories off the shelf and ended our Christmas Eve with a game I enjoyed, but it wasn’t new…and it wasn’t my tradition. It seemed to signal the death of a tradition that had been a part of my family’s holidays since I was a young child, but maybe board games had lost their place in the world as electronic entertainment took center stage. Maybe we had just experienced everything there was to offer. I didn’t know exactly, but the holidays ended, we moved on, and we came to grips with the fact that maybe we would just have to settle with our superstore mini-collection of games.
That is until one day, shortly after a co-worker of mine returned from a tour in Djibouti; we were talking about what he did to pass the time in his remote outpost and he told me about the many evenings he spent playing this game that he was certain not many people had heard of. The game he spoke of: Settlers of Catan. He explained the rules, and I tucked his enthusiastic description in the back of my mind, deciding to look it up when I sat down at the computer later that night. I didn’t. I got home and spent my evening playing Call of Duty, and the game about settling Catan was quickly forgotten.
It was until later in the year when my family was all visiting for Thanksgiving that I would revisit thoughts of Catan. After some obligatory small talk and catching up, the atmosphere started to dry up and a board game seemed appropriate to stimulate some interaction. While looking through my games, my sister mentioned a game her husband had played when he was on deployment. You guessed it, Settlers of Catan. Now I had heard of this game twice, so I grabbed my brother-in-law and headed to Barnes and Noble and purchased this mysterious game that had now piqued my interest. I brought it home, cracked it open, read the rules and the following hour was filled with laughter, negotiation, strategy and, most importantly, quality family time. Settlers of Catan was something entirely new to me. The mechanics presented were intriguing and I remember thinking, “Well, if this game exists, are there other games that I just don’t know about?” I was excited, I had always like board games, and now a shred of hope was restored that I’d probably be able to find at least a couple more decent games to keep my tradition alive.
Thanksgiving weekend ended, and my extended family returned to their homes, but on that Thanksgiving Day, gathered around the table, trading wheat for wood and laying down settlements, I got a glimpse into the wonderful world of board games. A little taste of something that would soon be fully realized and evolve into the most healthy addiction for both me and my family.
In my next
entry, I will talk about how a trip to Missisippi for work generated the
opportunity for me to be introduced to the world of tabletop gaming as I know
it today. It was during my three months spent in the humid heat along the coast
at Keesler AFB that I really and truly became fully immersed in the world of
tabletop games. During this trip, I bought my first heavier game, “Firefly: The
Game,” and I will spend some time providing an overview of that game as well as
my thoughts on it.
I hope you enjoyed
this first leg of my journey, and I hope you stick around, as My Cardboard
Journey is just beginning. I have plenty of stories to tell, a multitude of
games to share, and many more seas to sail. Please, feel free to share your thoughts and
requests.
If you would
like to be notified when the next entry is posted,click subscribe or you can e-mail me at mycardboardjourney@gmail.com and I
will send you an e-mail when I make my next post (I’m not sure at this point
what the exact periodicity will be) Thank you, and always remember to Keep
Flying!
Great first post! Your story about playing games around the holidays rang true with me. Part of the excite,met of each Thanksgiving and Christmas is the excitement of cracking open a new game or playing a well worn favorit
ReplyDeleteThanks Brett! I'm glad you enjoyed it and it's good to hear that the holiday gaming resonated with you. Connecting with people through similar experiences is one of my goals with this blog. I hope you'll continue reading!!
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