I don't know when exactly Katr's game addiction obsession boundless enthusiasm for boardgames began.
She's always enjoyed games and we had a few games around the house for the first few years we were together. And she would try to get me to play these games and I would resist, because I am secretly SO competitive and such a TOTALLY immature douche that I always want to flip the table and take a shit in the Monopoly box when I lose.
That's right. I'm a real catch.
Eventually, I fell in love with a gentle train-route-planning game called EuroRails, that allowed a style of play that I enjoy; making my own plans and carrying them out without interference from other "players". I have never ONCE won EuroRails, but I still love it...so to me, that's a great game.
Buoyed by her success with EuroRails, Katr bought a few other games that she thought I might be convinced to play, all centred around themes she knew I liked.
"Look! This one is set in the Stone Age! It's like Clan of the Cave Bear!"
"In this one, you make DRESSES for the the Sun King's court!"
"This one happens in SPACE! You love space!"
"There are a lot of swears in this one."
"This one is about magical islands!"
When we moved to Vancouver, we acquired a few friends who liked playing games and I found that in the context of "Game Night", I could let go of my Monopoly shitting rage and just enjoy the company (except for when we played a game called Therapy, which was the cause of Katr and my most spectacular post-game-night, in-the-car-going-home fight. Then we played it another time and THE SAME THING HAPPENED. Trust me...if you want to break up a couple, get them to play Therapy.)
Poor Katr wanted to play games more often than on our occasional game nights. And she wanted to try NEW games. But like the shrew I am, I often refused, or countered with an offer to play EuroRails again - OR ChinaRails, which is like EuroRails but...that's right, in CHINA! Sometimes, I would GRUDGINGLY agree to try a new game, but no one wants to feel like their spouse is saying "I love you, but I'd rather chew bees than learn this complicated game about magicians."
Still, Katr was very patient. She played me out like a trout, letting me thrash endlessly before slowly reeling me in to play games with pandas in them (so cute!) or Jane Austen-themed games (so Regency!) or games where you get to annihilate the world (disasters are fun!).
It finally dawned on me that playing games was a real passion for Katr. She had discovered the glory of backing cool new games on Kickstarter and the boardgame floodgates had been wrenched open. One year, I delighted her for her birthday by giving her a coupon book full of coupons she could use to get us to play new games or certain kinds of games. If you think the ol' "coupon book as a gift" is hackneyed, get stuffed, because Katr actually CRIED she was so happy. But I was still a little slow to agree to trying new games.
Then Drtr came to stay and he likes games and he and Katr would play games together and I didn't have to play! Woooo! Everyone's happy!
At first I enjoyed having some time to myself to watch all the weird things on Netflix that Katr doesn't want to watch. But after a while, I got JEALOUS. Because they were having so much FUN. But the only way to participate in the fun was to ALSO PLAY THE GAMES. Unnnnnnnnngh FINE FINE, I WILL PLAY TOO PLEASE.
I wouldn't say that I'm an AVID gamer yet - I still resist watching walk-throughs and will often make Katr and Drtr learn a game first before I commit to annoying them by making them teach it to me. But I am in general less opposed to games and on occasion, am actually EXCITED to try a new game, like when Katr got me the Firefly game for my birthday this year (it's so fun! And we haven't even tried the expansions yet!).
Anyway, this is the bookshelf in our office now:
Not shown: the pile of five boardgames on top of the filing cabinet. Now, it might LOOK to the gaming novice that there are 42 games on this shelf, but keep in mind that some of these boxes contain EXPANSIONS to the existing games, so there are actually only 39 games here. So.
Okay, now this is the bookshelf in the bedroom:
Not shown: the deluxe edition of Tokaido under the built-in drawers behind the bedroom door. As a side note, the garbage can is on the shelf because our dog likes to chow down on cotton pads and Q-tips. Because she's disgusting.
Anyway, here's the living room shelf. Yes, some of these are books, we're not animals:
Anyway, the whole point of this post was a lead-up to a post I was going to do about a game called Anachrony, but now I'm too hungry. So if you hate stories about boardgames, definitely skip tomorrow.
