Games

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I've been an avid game player, a gamer, for twenty years. Since 1996, that has meant boardgaming, some wargames, but especially the interesting, high-quality multiplayer strategy games that come from Europe (Germany in particular). But let's start from the beginning, with my gamer biography.

I'm 34 years old, have two young children that are slightly interested in games (my 7yo son at least plays video games with me), and a wife of 12 years that has moved beyond tolerance to actually play some games with me. Her favorites are word games, like Boggle and Scrabble, which I've learned to enjoy, too. We live north of Los Angeles, in a town called Santa Clarita, where I try to keep my distance from the sprawl!

Wargames are what first hooked me, back in 1978. Back then it was the pocket-sized, simple science fiction wargames called Microgames, which essentially gave way to roleplaying thru high school, college, and even a little today. We mostly played Traveller, The Fantasy Trip, Champions, Justice, Inc., and GURPS. During grad school I hooked up with Steve Jackson Games, did a lot of rpg playtesting, wrote a couple small GURPS supplements, and served as SJ Games playtest coordinator for a short while. With all that roleplaying, CCGs were a breath of fresh air when they exploded on the scene. I thoroughly enjoyed Magic from 94-96, and dabbled in some others.

I discovered German boardgames in mid-96 by reading rec.games.board. Within a few months I formed a weeknight boardgame, made a number of online friends in the hobby, and things took off. When I changed jobs and moved 300 miles south in '98, I quickly hooked up with an existing group (private, which isn't my preference, but it's nice to *not* be in charge for once!). Besides that weekly gaming, I also get in a short game or two at work during the week. I almost never make it to conventions, but once in a while manage to spend most of a Saturday gaming. Throw in the occasional short (1-night) wargame, too, and I'm quite happy with all the gaming I get to do, and frequently have to turn games down! Though I've had a computer almost the entire time I've been gaming, I never really enjoy computer games. The only ones that really do get played are Hasbro's Em@il Games, which are more like boardgames than other computer games (well, I think so, anyway).

So that makes my gaming chronology look like this:

1978-1982: Wargames (microgames)

1981-1998: RPGs

1994-1996: Magic (some other CCGs)

1996- : Boardgames, card games (and some wargames)

I've been really fortunate to hook up with numerous people that already have sizeable game collections, so that even when I started, I've had access to a variety of games (without having to buy them all myself). My favorites tend to be the lighter games, with notable exceptions for thematically strong games (esp. exploration, nature, or military/history themes). Entdecker, Vinci, Verrater, Medici, Basari, Ausgebremst, For Sale, David & Goliath, Drunter & Druber, and Battle Cry are some recent favorites. The place-blocks-for-majorities sort of games generally fall kind of flat with me, El Grande and Tikal being notable examples.