Last year, I had to face the facts. I don’t have very much time for playing games anymore. There, I said it. Life with 4 little kids means a lot of my time and attention goes to them. By the time they are asleep I usually have very little energy left and I want to give that to my wife. And much of my hobby energy is spent creating articles, podcasts, and videos with Pub Meeple. These past months have seen me playing games once, maybe twice per month. As much as I’d like to play more games, I just can’t. Priorities win.
But while I was playing less, I wasn’t necessarily buying less. This led to a burgeoning shelf of unplayed games and growing frustration. I’m not the type that buys games to put on the shelf. I buy them to put on the table. This put me at a crossroads. Continue to buy games I know won’t get played or bring my buying down to a level closer to my playing?
I opted for the latter of the two options. I already have around 100 games in my collection and those games cover almost any situation I could think of. Why not just play the games I have for a while until my situation changes?
Matching my buying habits to my playing habits has actually increased my enjoyment of the hobby.
As of now I have only bought one game in 2017 and I’m happier for it. I still keep up with all of the board game news through blogs, podcasts and videos but I haven’t been ordering any of the games I’m excited about. I still keep track of them and someday I’m sure I’ll pull the trigger again on a Cool Stuff order.
Until then I will be content playing all the games I already own. Or the games my friends buy. Matching my buying habits to my playing habits has actually decreased my frustration whereby increasing my enjoyment of the hobby. I am content here.
Often times we see what others are doing and want to match ourselves to the standard they have set (thanks social media). And when we can’t, we feel frustrated. We want to be in their shoes – in this case, to be buying and playing more games. But I want to encourage you that where you are is ok – you don’t have to own, play or buy a certain number of games to be a gamer. You don’t have to meet any standard set by anyone else in your gaming habits. Set your own standard and be happy with it. You know your priorities. Enjoy the hobby where you are.
Excellent post Brian! I have decided to do the same for this year and maybe the next one (although I`ll receive Mint Delivery on june, kickstarted last year). I buy games because I love the game I have, I could play them so many times. Maybe is my experience with abstract games (reversi, arimaa, go, etc), games that people play hundreds of times, always with the same pleasure. I feel that compared with that situation, the actual trend of almost playing and storing don`t let the game offer all what it could do and to feel the joy of getting better at it, develop an strategy, etc. In the last two years with a large group I gather in a game store, I played a lot games just once!.
From other perspective, you say “Often times we see what others are doing and want to match ourselves to the standard they have set (thanks social media)”, this is a general statement, closest to my point: consumerism has arrived to boardgaming too. And, as in any other aspect, of our lives, “you don’t have to own, play or buy a certain number of games to be a gamer”. In the last four years boardgames reviews has changed from “hey look this very very cool game” to “here is the list of the X most anticipated games of the year/month/convention”. I have seen reviewers disappointed with a game much appreciated … 9 months before they could actually play it. So, it is good to know the news, to know what`s going on in the field, but it is much better to play a game several, a lot of times. I think my 30 games (without counting the abstracts) has a lot fun hidden to be discover in the year(s?) to come.