2007 State of the Gamer

I've been playing boardgames a lot lately. That certainly makes me happy, and I've been able to play some very interesting games... some of which have been sitting around, unopened, on my shelf for over a year. But I'm actually PLAYING them now! A few months ago, I decided to actually start a boardgame group to try and meet more people to play with. Since starting that group, I've meet several fun people and even more groups of gamers. I find it somewhat funny that when I was just kinda looking around for boardgamer groups in the area I couldn't really find much (See WGA below), but once I made the effort to try to create one, I was able to hook up into a network of area boardgamers. Hopefully this trend will continue, and even if it doesn't I've found some games that can be played solo.

I think a good part of me actually playing boardgames now is a bit of a "just do it" point of view that I've taken. Previous attitudes prevented me from participating in some of the weekly/monthly boardgaming events at the Game Parlor. I'd known that the WGA (Washington Gamer's Association) had a boardgame night every Tuesday there, and the occasional big event on Saturdays, but even if I was there to check it out, I didn't actually participate. Now, although I still prefer gaming in a nice friendly house, I will sit down and try a game out with complete strangers. I wonder if this means I might be ready to go to a con?

So, boardgames are my big thing now, in that I actually play them. I still enjoy RPGs... at least I enjoy reading them, listening to podcasts about them, reading about them, and discussing them. It's been over a year since I've actually played a tabletop RPG, but I'm assuming that I'd still enjoy it. Most of the ones I've been interested in lately are various "Indie" RPGs, some of which I've mentioned previously. These games tend to be more "rules-light" in that they're not giant tomes full of crunchy detailed rules (well, one of them kinda is), but they certainly still carry a lot of punch. Maybe this year I'll try to get out and run or play some RPGs too. I've still got eleven months to go, and maybe if I try to keep up with some blog posts that will help keep me on track.