Wishing I was at Essen, and other random thoughts …
Essen Spiel is happening right now. And I am here in Phoenix. Sad face.
What is Essen? It’s actually a city in Germany but it’s home to the world’s largest board-game convention. About 100,000 people are expected to attend the 4-day event. A bunch of new games are also expected to debut there. Board-gaming is huge in Germany; it’s a part of their family life. And many of the big classic eurogames all originated from Germany. Sigh, one day I will totally make it out there!
And now for a completely different topic … couples and board-gaming. I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently. How important is it that your significant other is board-gamer? I have friends whose wives and girlfriends enjoy board-gaming, and then I have other friends whose significant others couldn’t care less about it, and/or worse yet, won’t let them spend a lot of time playing the hobby. And I know I specifically mentioned wives and girlfriends, because most of the people I’m friends with in the board-gaming community are male.
And then we can get into a whole debate about how wives and girlfriends who do board game only like lighter or party-type games instead of the heavy, 3-hour plus games. Only a few couples come to mind where both partners gladly play those types of heavy games. How I envy those couples!
As a woman who recently jumped back into the dating pool, I keep asking myself, how important is it that my significant other likes to play board games? And by board games, I’m talking about the ones I like to play: strategy eurogames such as games from my Top 9. Not mass-marketed stuff like Monopoly or lighter party games like Munchkin and Cards Against Humanity (which I don’t even consider a board game — yes I’ll admit I’m a total game snob). There is a time and place for these type of games, but it’s definitely not when I meet up with my board-gaming buddies. We all get along so well because we enjoy playing playing the same type of games. Believe it or not, we like it when our heads hurt trying to squeeze out victory points from such limited resources!
Maybe it’s ridiculous of me to put such an emphasis on a hobby when bigger-picture characteristics are what I should really be looking for. But when you live and breathe board games as I do, it would be awesome to find a nice guy who is as passionate about it as I am. And then he would be equally excited to accompany me to the board-game conventions I go to. Bonus points if he’s amused by my “Uwe is my homeboy” T-shirt or that I took a photo with the Battlestar Galactica people holding up my game.