This newsletter resonates with me like I was reading about myself or my dad (in both cases to an extent) and brought so many thoughts I have to apologise for my comment's length. Although we are more of video gamers than board ones, our gaming succes isn't better than mediocre. On the other hand there is my cousin, who's instantly goat in whatever game he plays, and who reached the greatest heights in all of my family, getting to earn some money from semi-professionally playing and streaming CS:GO and World of Tanks. I played with him exactly one match on an online server and my performance was so bad he had to argue with others who wanted to votekick me.
My dad loves playing strategic games, both board and video. He told me the first computer game he played was probably "Gettysburg: The Turning Point" or "Sid Meier's Gettysburg". He played it with one of his friends from the apartment block who had one of the first PC's (that guy must've either been having family in the West or in the communist Party, as there was no other way for him to obtain a piece of such technology in the socialist Poland). They both spend countless hours unsuccessfully trying to win the title battle. Dad, if you're reading this comment, I hope one day you'll find the way to beat general Lee.
Fast forward to many years later, I found home an old, unused laptop and DVD with a copy of early Hearts of Iron game. I had some problems with understanding game rules, so I asked dad for help. Over the next few evenings we tried to run few scenarios and lost to the CPU while attempting to win WW2 as Poland (though in case of our country we simply wanted to resist longer than in reality), USSR, 3rd Reich, France, Japan, China and few other nations, each time getting conquered, even on easy mode. We had more success playing against "the game" in a board game about the polish-soviet war, winning several campaigns in "Year 1920".
Dad's biggest successes came in World of Tanks, where his stats climbed to above average, he even won some rare achievements, but his gaming record there was either a streak of victories or defeats, the latter causing him to loudly expressing his disappointment (for example: it's all fault of that hopeless [insert nation whose tank he was just using] gun!). If I wanted to get him to play FIFA with me, dad's only condition was that I have to score at least five goals more to consider myself victorious.
When with my two older cousins and brother we started playing FIFA tournaments, on most occasions it was the cousins who were winning. I was better organiser and manager of the tournament system than player, but still managed to win a couple of times.
I like cooperative approach you mention especially when team victories are key for better statistics, as was the case in old ranking system of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Often I tried to play alongside my brother, because he was better and on many occasions single-handedly "carrying" the team to victory.
"Successfully playing a new board game is like having your first conversation in a foreign language. It feels like an accomplishment to pull it off, even if all you did was ask for directions to the bathroom with the syntax of a caveman. If my group mastered the rules to a new game, that was a win, even if I lost." - I have two thoughts about this part:
1) I know the feeling about instructions good. Long time ago I had an extracurricular activity, which vast part of was trying to understand board games by mates and me. Getting some of them to know the rules was a big success, and sometimes the guardians told to do those losing a favor, so that they wouldn't have temper tantrums.
2) My first and most successful conversation in a foreign language happened almost five years ago in Vienna, where using my not too good German I helped an elderly Austrian woman to put an umbrella into a stand in one of the museums. Normally I would explain it in English, but heraring „Entschuldigung, aber können Sie mir mit dem Regenschirm helfen?“ (Excuse me, but can you help me with my umbrella?) - I though she might not understand. I think I said sth like (while pointing at button that opened and closed the locker that held the umbrella "neck" standing): "Zuerst müssen Sie es hier öffnen, dann müssen Sie den Regenschirm hier platzieren und zu letzte müssen Sie dieses Schloss mit diesem schließen". (First, you must open here, then place the umbrella, and finally you have to lock it standing with this button). I don't know if she understood me, but her umbrella stayed in the locker, so I'm calling that a win.
"The first advice the instructors gave was that, in nearly any dangerous situation, your best bet is to run away." - I heard exactly the same thing in JH school during subject named "Education for Safety".
"In my town, you need a permit NOT to carry a gun. Given that there are three times more firearms than people, it’s best to be polite to everyone." - my country is the exact opposite. We are least armed land in Europe, and getting a permit for a gun is a procedure that's long and full of paperwork. Bar bordering Russia (via Kaliningrad) that wouldn't be too much of a concern for me. But I agree on the politeness part - proceeding with kindness truly is key to befriend people.
I love the image of your dad playing Sid Meier's Gettysburg in Communist Poland. I've never tried it myself, but that game is legendary. I've enjoyed many other Sid Meier's games. I imagine your dad and his friend were like Peter and I playing the computer version of Axis and Allies, which is also ancient. I sympathize with you when you played video games with your cousin. My brothers are like that. They're worlds better than me at first-person shooters, and my only job is to not drag the team down enough that I single-handedly cause us to lose.
When I lived in Spain and Scotland in 19something there wasn’t a lot to do. Back then the TV only played in Spanish (obviously Spain) and while I loved the BBC in Scotland you can only watch so much. So, my husband and I plus our best friends played games. In Spain it was card games. We’d have tournaments with spades and pinochle. I’m talking 24 hours where you could drop out to sleep and someone would jump in in your place. Nobody ever really won because of all the jumping in, lol. In Scotland it was Risk. The couple we played had one very angry loser (Lane) and one very indifferent winner (Kathy). It was because of her indifference that he would get mad, lol. Some people play as if they were in it for life or death. Some play to pass the time. That was her. Everytime she’d win (in any game) she’d be like “eh”. Drove him insane. That was the real entertainment. He could never understand why she didn’t care on way or the other. I think I was an average player. I wanted to win but if I didn’t I wanted her to win so I could watch Lane go bonkers. Hey, we were military and bored and young. Our entertainment levels were set very low.
Risk drives me crazy. I don't mind losing, but I had when sixty armies all die trying to take a space defended by two armies because of the die rolls. I direct my anger at myself, though. There's always room for more self-loathing. Your card tournaments in Spain sound amazing.
It really was, lol. Marines and Navy playing, drinking, sleeping, eating. Rinse and repeat till work took one of us out and couldn’t be replaced. I think the longest we went was...2 weeks.
Truth! I like to win but I’m not a sore loser. Kathy’s husband was though. Not at losing but because when Kathy won, she didn’t care. Needless to say we all ended up divorced. I blame Risk.
OMG! My husband and his brother wouldn't talk to each other after Risk when they were younger, and there's a fave family story of my husband getting mad and dumping the whole board once when his brother started winning (they were kids!). I don't doubt that Risk has caused marital discord as well. That's why I won't play...
I should join your game group; then you would no longer come in last, because that’s my spot. I would only be able to play the old time children’s games, because the rules to most games are beyond me. As it is, I do Wordle and Connections on the New York Times page first thing in the morning and post it on Facebook; several friends then benefit somehow from seeing my mistakes and post their better efforts beneath mine. Works for me.
I used to be the person who everyone wanted on their Trivial Pursuit team. Thirty years of added facts have put me out of the game completely. For example, the only game you mentioned that I know is Chutes and Ladders. I like to do jigsaw puzzles on line and my completion time is never less than three times anyone else’s. I feel your pain.
You sound like my dad. We used to always play a game of Trivial Pursuit from the 1980s, and he was unstoppable. But on the newer versions, he was as lost as the rest of us.
I may not show it if it happens, but I hate to lose. I don't have to win the whole shebang but I'd better win at least one hand or one round or whatever to call it a good game. And by the way, every time the Princess Bride movie says Westley and Princess Buttercup had the perfect kiss, I beg to differ. MrP and my first kiss was at a kitchen table in 1971 after having played double pinochle with friends. Best kiss ever and never duplicated again. It's always a nice memory and I do not remember what team was the winner but that would have been the only time in my life I didn't care if I'd lost....because I really did win.
It just makes games that much more special when you get a chance to play them. I recommend checking out Board Game Arena. You can play it in a web browser, and many of the games are free. Forgive the pun, but for me, it was a total game-changer.
I am an only girl with 3 older brothers and somewhere around 5, I decided I was goin to be able to do anything they did..only better. I remember my mom yelling at me one time that boys wouldn't like me because I was "too" good at "boys" stuff (she was born in 1929) and I was like, if he can't beat me why would I want to be with him anyway LOL I was the best boy my mom had, she would tell people.
In college we played Castle Wolfenstein on a Mac IIG. The graphics were super basic (think stick people), but the game was a lot of fun. We also played a lot of Avalon Hill board games; Gettysburg, Diplomacy, Luftwaffe, and my favorite, Kingmaker. Many an hour was spent on games when we should have been studying!
I used to love Diplomacy, but I finally sold it. It's an elimination game, and also a friendship eliminator. Avalon Hill does indeed have a solid lineup.
We should be Board Game Arena friends. I suck at games even though I love them. If I win by some weird accident I immediately think I’ve entered the Twilight Zone. But I am always looking for new people to lose to so anyone feel free to friend me: Nikakat
I love games that don't take a lot of time to learn how to play. I don't want to have to watch an hour long video to find out all the rules and then inevitably miss one of them that caused me to lose. =)
This newsletter resonates with me like I was reading about myself or my dad (in both cases to an extent) and brought so many thoughts I have to apologise for my comment's length. Although we are more of video gamers than board ones, our gaming succes isn't better than mediocre. On the other hand there is my cousin, who's instantly goat in whatever game he plays, and who reached the greatest heights in all of my family, getting to earn some money from semi-professionally playing and streaming CS:GO and World of Tanks. I played with him exactly one match on an online server and my performance was so bad he had to argue with others who wanted to votekick me.
My dad loves playing strategic games, both board and video. He told me the first computer game he played was probably "Gettysburg: The Turning Point" or "Sid Meier's Gettysburg". He played it with one of his friends from the apartment block who had one of the first PC's (that guy must've either been having family in the West or in the communist Party, as there was no other way for him to obtain a piece of such technology in the socialist Poland). They both spend countless hours unsuccessfully trying to win the title battle. Dad, if you're reading this comment, I hope one day you'll find the way to beat general Lee.
Fast forward to many years later, I found home an old, unused laptop and DVD with a copy of early Hearts of Iron game. I had some problems with understanding game rules, so I asked dad for help. Over the next few evenings we tried to run few scenarios and lost to the CPU while attempting to win WW2 as Poland (though in case of our country we simply wanted to resist longer than in reality), USSR, 3rd Reich, France, Japan, China and few other nations, each time getting conquered, even on easy mode. We had more success playing against "the game" in a board game about the polish-soviet war, winning several campaigns in "Year 1920".
Dad's biggest successes came in World of Tanks, where his stats climbed to above average, he even won some rare achievements, but his gaming record there was either a streak of victories or defeats, the latter causing him to loudly expressing his disappointment (for example: it's all fault of that hopeless [insert nation whose tank he was just using] gun!). If I wanted to get him to play FIFA with me, dad's only condition was that I have to score at least five goals more to consider myself victorious.
When with my two older cousins and brother we started playing FIFA tournaments, on most occasions it was the cousins who were winning. I was better organiser and manager of the tournament system than player, but still managed to win a couple of times.
I like cooperative approach you mention especially when team victories are key for better statistics, as was the case in old ranking system of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Often I tried to play alongside my brother, because he was better and on many occasions single-handedly "carrying" the team to victory.
"Successfully playing a new board game is like having your first conversation in a foreign language. It feels like an accomplishment to pull it off, even if all you did was ask for directions to the bathroom with the syntax of a caveman. If my group mastered the rules to a new game, that was a win, even if I lost." - I have two thoughts about this part:
1) I know the feeling about instructions good. Long time ago I had an extracurricular activity, which vast part of was trying to understand board games by mates and me. Getting some of them to know the rules was a big success, and sometimes the guardians told to do those losing a favor, so that they wouldn't have temper tantrums.
2) My first and most successful conversation in a foreign language happened almost five years ago in Vienna, where using my not too good German I helped an elderly Austrian woman to put an umbrella into a stand in one of the museums. Normally I would explain it in English, but heraring „Entschuldigung, aber können Sie mir mit dem Regenschirm helfen?“ (Excuse me, but can you help me with my umbrella?) - I though she might not understand. I think I said sth like (while pointing at button that opened and closed the locker that held the umbrella "neck" standing): "Zuerst müssen Sie es hier öffnen, dann müssen Sie den Regenschirm hier platzieren und zu letzte müssen Sie dieses Schloss mit diesem schließen". (First, you must open here, then place the umbrella, and finally you have to lock it standing with this button). I don't know if she understood me, but her umbrella stayed in the locker, so I'm calling that a win.
"The first advice the instructors gave was that, in nearly any dangerous situation, your best bet is to run away." - I heard exactly the same thing in JH school during subject named "Education for Safety".
"In my town, you need a permit NOT to carry a gun. Given that there are three times more firearms than people, it’s best to be polite to everyone." - my country is the exact opposite. We are least armed land in Europe, and getting a permit for a gun is a procedure that's long and full of paperwork. Bar bordering Russia (via Kaliningrad) that wouldn't be too much of a concern for me. But I agree on the politeness part - proceeding with kindness truly is key to befriend people.
I love the image of your dad playing Sid Meier's Gettysburg in Communist Poland. I've never tried it myself, but that game is legendary. I've enjoyed many other Sid Meier's games. I imagine your dad and his friend were like Peter and I playing the computer version of Axis and Allies, which is also ancient. I sympathize with you when you played video games with your cousin. My brothers are like that. They're worlds better than me at first-person shooters, and my only job is to not drag the team down enough that I single-handedly cause us to lose.
When I lived in Spain and Scotland in 19something there wasn’t a lot to do. Back then the TV only played in Spanish (obviously Spain) and while I loved the BBC in Scotland you can only watch so much. So, my husband and I plus our best friends played games. In Spain it was card games. We’d have tournaments with spades and pinochle. I’m talking 24 hours where you could drop out to sleep and someone would jump in in your place. Nobody ever really won because of all the jumping in, lol. In Scotland it was Risk. The couple we played had one very angry loser (Lane) and one very indifferent winner (Kathy). It was because of her indifference that he would get mad, lol. Some people play as if they were in it for life or death. Some play to pass the time. That was her. Everytime she’d win (in any game) she’d be like “eh”. Drove him insane. That was the real entertainment. He could never understand why she didn’t care on way or the other. I think I was an average player. I wanted to win but if I didn’t I wanted her to win so I could watch Lane go bonkers. Hey, we were military and bored and young. Our entertainment levels were set very low.
Risk drives me crazy. I don't mind losing, but I had when sixty armies all die trying to take a space defended by two armies because of the die rolls. I direct my anger at myself, though. There's always room for more self-loathing. Your card tournaments in Spain sound amazing.
It really was, lol. Marines and Navy playing, drinking, sleeping, eating. Rinse and repeat till work took one of us out and couldn’t be replaced. I think the longest we went was...2 weeks.
My husband's family has always played Risk and they are all pretty angry about it. I stay away. Haha!
Truth! I like to win but I’m not a sore loser. Kathy’s husband was though. Not at losing but because when Kathy won, she didn’t care. Needless to say we all ended up divorced. I blame Risk.
OMG! My husband and his brother wouldn't talk to each other after Risk when they were younger, and there's a fave family story of my husband getting mad and dumping the whole board once when his brother started winning (they were kids!). I don't doubt that Risk has caused marital discord as well. That's why I won't play...
I should join your game group; then you would no longer come in last, because that’s my spot. I would only be able to play the old time children’s games, because the rules to most games are beyond me. As it is, I do Wordle and Connections on the New York Times page first thing in the morning and post it on Facebook; several friends then benefit somehow from seeing my mistakes and post their better efforts beneath mine. Works for me.
Words puzzles are a challenge where you'd definitely best me. I might use words as a job, but I'm terrible if I try to use them for fun.
I used to be the person who everyone wanted on their Trivial Pursuit team. Thirty years of added facts have put me out of the game completely. For example, the only game you mentioned that I know is Chutes and Ladders. I like to do jigsaw puzzles on line and my completion time is never less than three times anyone else’s. I feel your pain.
You sound like my dad. We used to always play a game of Trivial Pursuit from the 1980s, and he was unstoppable. But on the newer versions, he was as lost as the rest of us.
I may not show it if it happens, but I hate to lose. I don't have to win the whole shebang but I'd better win at least one hand or one round or whatever to call it a good game. And by the way, every time the Princess Bride movie says Westley and Princess Buttercup had the perfect kiss, I beg to differ. MrP and my first kiss was at a kitchen table in 1971 after having played double pinochle with friends. Best kiss ever and never duplicated again. It's always a nice memory and I do not remember what team was the winner but that would have been the only time in my life I didn't care if I'd lost....because I really did win.
That's a great first kiss story! Who knew double pinochle was the secret to lasting love?
Love cards and board games. Unfortunately, the rest of my immediate family doesn’t. I have to visit my brother in Florida to find game players. Sad.
It just makes games that much more special when you get a chance to play them. I recommend checking out Board Game Arena. You can play it in a web browser, and many of the games are free. Forgive the pun, but for me, it was a total game-changer.
I am an only girl with 3 older brothers and somewhere around 5, I decided I was goin to be able to do anything they did..only better. I remember my mom yelling at me one time that boys wouldn't like me because I was "too" good at "boys" stuff (she was born in 1929) and I was like, if he can't beat me why would I want to be with him anyway LOL I was the best boy my mom had, she would tell people.
In college we played Castle Wolfenstein on a Mac IIG. The graphics were super basic (think stick people), but the game was a lot of fun. We also played a lot of Avalon Hill board games; Gettysburg, Diplomacy, Luftwaffe, and my favorite, Kingmaker. Many an hour was spent on games when we should have been studying!
I used to love Diplomacy, but I finally sold it. It's an elimination game, and also a friendship eliminator. Avalon Hill does indeed have a solid lineup.
We should be Board Game Arena friends. I suck at games even though I love them. If I win by some weird accident I immediately think I’ve entered the Twilight Zone. But I am always looking for new people to lose to so anyone feel free to friend me: Nikakat
I added you as a friend! What kind of games do you like to play?
Spacebase, Alhambra, Wingspan, Dog Park are my favorites.
I love games that don't take a lot of time to learn how to play. I don't want to have to watch an hour long video to find out all the rules and then inevitably miss one of them that caused me to lose. =)
You are not alone. I tried to teach a more complicated game to my Christmas at my parents' house a few weeks ago. To put it mildly, it didn't go well.
You know the secret of board games - the camaraderie (and occasional smack talk)!
AI cheating is so rampant! Take it as a compliment. It's the only way they can hope to keep up with your superior intellect.