I just read this article Games are Useless by Jacob Russell at Fortress Ameritrash and I quite like it. It's quite frank. Nowadays I too feel I can't be bothered anymore with trying to "convert" people to the hobby. I won't be shy about my hobby, but I won't be trying to actively "sell" it either. If I come across people who are interested, I'm happy to recommend games, or to invite them to game sessions. But I'm pretty sick of trying to make people like boardgames, trying to set up opportunities to introduce muggles to boardgames. It's much easier to just find others to play with who are already gamers.
8 comments:
I agree it's a painful exercise, but in my case it is unfortunately also a necessity, as I live in a small town. I cannot complain too much though, as I have been lucky to find quite a few avid gamers in the local area.
Hi Frank,
Indeed if you live in a small town then it's harder to find people who already are gamers, and you'd need to create some gamers yourself so that you have people to play with.
I guess one option is playing online, but for me I always prefer face-to-face games to online games.
sometimes i find it helpful to equate boardgames to 'religion', we go through the phases, we get excited, we start evangelising and we bring the light to the unwashed masses. After awhile, we realise that some people are just not borned to game and some people just like other activities or other 'religions'.
It's just an activity and it's one that I like. I try to pace myself as to not burn out on it. But being one who designs boardgames in his youth, I don't see it going away anytime soon for me.
I rarely feel the need to pace myself in game playing. I normally want to play more frequently than I already do. There were only a few times that I felt a little burnt out, but I came back quickly enough.
Instead of trying to "convert" people to play board games, I actively look for those that already enjoy playing. A great place to find people in your area with the same interests is Meetup.com. I'm always raving about them on my blog, GlobalQuestGame.com. I figure, why bother wasting your time, begging people to play if they have no interest in the hobby?
Instead of trying to "convert" people to play board games, I actively look for those that already enjoy playing. A great place to find people in your area with the same interests is Meetup.com. I'm always raving about them on my blog, GlobalQuestGame.com. I figure, why bother wasting your time, begging people to play if they have no interest in the hobby?
I agree that it's pointless to convert people. And I don't just mean boardgames. I have views and interests that are considered rather eccentric. That said, my wife and I have had some success at playing games around the house while there's a family gathering going on and managed to get some family members involved in some light games that way.
What frustrates me the most is that we know some people that we're positively convinced would love boardgames based on what we know about them but it's just so difficult to engineer the right occasion to demonstrate a game properly. This is especially true for the friends at our age as most of them have young kids that require constant attention.
I have a colleague who has played a few games, and did quite well in them. He would be a very formidable foe to play against and would make an excellent gamer. But he lives quite far away and is not really keen enough to be playing regularly. What a pity.
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