When I first discovered Euro-games in 2003, I was totally enthralled. Here was a different breed of game that wasn’t long and boring, that offered a different experience each time you played. I found that I couldn’t get enough of them and thought about them constantly.
Like most new game geeks, I bought games at a rate that amazed not just my family but myself. A new game would get one or two plays before the next shipment would arrive but still the hunger persisted. I wanted to experience all there was of these amazing games.
In the last month or two I’ve felt that enthusiasm waning until the bonfire has burned down to a few coals. I can’t believe it, but I have no desire to buy or learn a new game, or even play an online game. I realized that I hardly think about games now except to try to find something worth sharing with you, and I don’t feel that I’ve been very successful at that lately. Obviously my brain felt the need for a vacation and made reservations without consulting me.
Summer is actually a good time to take a vacation from the gaming scene since any free time my husband and I have will be spent doing home improvements like painting the house (phhtt!) and repairing the sidewalk (double phhttt!).
I hope I’m able to find my “groove” again but until then Yehuda told me not to stop writing so I’ll try to put some thoughts in my personal blog even if it’s just day-to-day activities with an occasional nod at something game-related. I hope you all will drop by once in a while and talk to me.
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Until next time, place your bet on the Colossus.
Mary
8 comments:
Enjoy your vacation, Mary. We'll keep the fires burning.
I'll give one more piece of advice, which you seem to already know: take all but ten of your games, lock them away, and start the slow and enjoyable process of becoming good at the games you already have, instead of chasing after the latest sparkles and components.
Some suggestions:
Puerto Rico with variant buildings
El Grande
Any GIPF game or similar
Go or Chess
Bridge or other card games
Torres or similar
A light wargame, such as Memoir '44
A party game or dice game
Any similar games with multiple levels of strategy that you enjoy.
Rotate slowly.
Yehuda
Hi Mary,
While I'm sorry to hear that the honeymoon period is over, it must be a natural feeling after playing so many games for such a long time.
I've often wondered *why* people react this way - if the sudden immersion in a new hobby requires an eventual withdrawal for balance, if the "sameness" of a single hobby becomes slightly boring over time, or if the smell of a new spring pushes us to new and different endeavors - but I've learned never to worry about stepping away for a well-deserved vacation.
Enjoy the summer! Get outside and try something you've never done before - whether that means frisbee, rock climbing, gardening, or even lying on the beach reading.
If you get the urge later on (and my guess is that you probably will) the games will be waiting for your return. If not, hopefully you'll have found a new passion in the meantime! :D
I am sad, but you have to follow your passions...or lack thereof. I suspect you will find your "old self" long before the end of summer. Could it be due to lack of equally passionate opponents?
Keep in touch, and have "fun" on the repair work.
I'm with Ekted on this one Mary... perhaps a short break and then introducing some new people to various board games will reignite your desire?
The only times I have ever not regularly played games or ferverently wanted to play were periods when new babies or new jobs consumed all of my time. Of course, there were those periods when no gamers were in reach and that was torture.
For the record, I always enjoy your entries here on "Gone Gaming" and I'm looking forward to your getting over this bout of craziness and returning.
I go through the same thing from time to time, especially after playing a ton of new stuff. After getting back from Essen last year, I had something of a crisis of faith around December ... such a huge percentage of the new games I played were, quite frankly, garbage. It was a demoralizing experience.
My New Year's resolution was to play fewer lousy games. A lot fewer. There was no reason to subject myself to some of that stuff just to write it up in my blog. Having more or less stuck to that commitment for the first quarter of the year, playing a lot of games like Elasund, Hacienda, Ra, Tigris & Euphrates, Beowulf, San Juan, Blue Moon, Modern Art, Lord of the Rings, and Civilization, I feel a lot better. Like I might be able to tackle a few of the games from Nurnburg again (it doesn't hurt that alea has two new games and Knizia has Blue Moon City).
What's my point here? I dunno. I guess just that there are so many German games of such great design elegance and artfulness already existing that it's easy to get lost in what is now a huge tidal wave of mostly medicore stuff that comes out each year. At the end of the year, out of the hundreds of games that come out, maybe a dozen will get more than 2-3 plays and only a handful will make it to the next year. You can lose sight of the sheer brilliance of the best of the best when you get too focussed on the new.
Your Wednesday articles here most certainly will be missed. I will keep an eye on your blog site for new additions, when you feel like writing.
In the meantime, get outside and enjoy spring, and get ready for all that summer work. I'll bet you will be back to writing about games before you know it.
We'll miss you, Mary. Enjoy your summer of home maintenance, leave those games around and one day the call of the dinosaurs, or of the Hanseatic league, will be too much for you and you will *WANT* to play again.
For the record, she only lasted a few days. The next post on her blog was 10 days after this and she is happily talking, playing, and probably buying boardgames again.
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