When I last left my history in gaming we were at Christmas 2007 and Ticket to Ride Marklin. (thats the German map for anyone wondering). Enter January 2008 and my return to Westmont College. One of my section mates brought back his Catan set and we started looking for anyone who knew or was willing to learn. We found a couple of players, and eventually had a core group consisting of 4. We played just about every weekend, sometimes twice for the next 4 months. We mostly played Cities and Knights, but every once in awhile we'd add Seafarers in or just play the base game for a change.
After that I think we were all a bit burnt out on Catan, and even with a summer off, we still didn't play much in the years that followed.
That summer I ordered Ticket to Ride US for myself and that was the beginning of what my parents and friends continue to roll their eyes over. Not that TtR was a bad game, in fact it is probably my sister's favorite game, and one of mine as well. That next semester at school, so we're now in the fall of 2008 game play slowed down as school was more intense, but we managed games of Carc and Catan every so often. Then I finally saw that FFG was reprinting Cosmic Encounter and things were never the same.
When I came back to school in January a friend of a friend came by my room and asked if I'd like to play Starfarers of Catan. I had never heard of this, but he said it was similar to Catan and that I would enjoy it. So I went with him, learned the game, and ended up winning my first time which didn't please this friend. That was the start of a beautiful friendship, because after that game I said "I have this game called Cosmic Encounter, would you like to learn sometime?" That next weekend I had a few people playing, and he came and watched. When we were done, he asked if we could play another game with him in it this time. We agreed, and he became a mainstay at the table which lead to 75 plays of the game and many happy and frustrating hours. I gained much more than a friend through that, as his then girlfriend, now wife also played, as well as another couple.
Gaming to me is more than playing a game; it's about making lifelong friendships and having a good time with people that I might not have otherwise known had it not been for boardgames.
So to all the people I've met through games, thanks for all the great times, and sorry for the hat throws.
Plans for the future
I plan on introducing you to my "gaming family" at some point in the near future, and that will probably be the last of my history series. I'll give more of my history with an individual game as I work through my reviews. On that note, I plan to review 1 or 2 games a week, so stick with me as I work through those. I have a review queue at this point, so I'll be posting the top 5 or so as a poll for you all to vote on, and I'll take the top one(s) and get those done first.
As always, I'm open to any comments, questions, snide remarks, etc. Just comment below and I'll get back to you.
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