Gaming Wrap-Up #1: 2010/2011 Overview
Ok, so to put the "it's a board game blog" chapter of this little diary to rest, I figured I'd give an overview of what I played in my April-to-April gaming "fiscal year," post a giant mini-review of all the new stuff, then post this year's top 100 list. Then we move on to other things I'm obsessed with. Like dill.
So, event-wise, the gaming overview of the year was relatively bleak. The weekly Friday Game Night at my house pretty much died out entirely, I attended the monthly game night down at the church a total of once, and left early, and I made it to the bi-weekly game night at the local store another 1 time. for 1 game. I skipped the Origins Game Fair for the first time since moving to Ohio, and I only showed up for 1 day of GenCon, at which I played fewer than 3 games. Bleh.
Looking at the list of what I actually played, numbers were likewise down. I played 213 (-71 since last year) instances of 103 (-10) different games, but only 4 (-5) of them got 5+ repeat plays, and fewer than half (43, to be precise (-19)) got 2 or more plays. I played 35 (+4) games for the first time, but only once, while 24 (-15) more made it onto "the list" because I played them for the second-ever time.
Now, last year, there was a significant drop in gaming, but I said (this from my 4/1/10 blog post) that this was largely due to choosing to play really long games, and an increase in the amount of video games I'd been playing. Not so this year. We unplugged our TV before heading to the beach last July, and never found the time to plug it back in; it eventually migrated to the basement. I don't think I played a single video game through to completion this year (no, I take that back - I played through Monkey Island 1 one afternoon in a fit of 1980s retro-ness). Nor did I get in a single role-plaing session, save a lone 2-hour 1-shot (terrible) game of "Kobolds Ate My Baby" at GenCon.
Rather than Kobolds Ate My Baby, I should have entitled the year "Baby ate my Gaming." Last year, I ended this wrap-up post with "So, all in all, having a baby was not the free time disaster I expected. Of course, he hasn't figured out how to walk yet, either. Next year may tell another tale." And boy did it....
1-year-olds are a) active and need constant supervision, b) need to go to bed early regardless of what night of the week it is, c) usually sick and willing to spread their germs to you. I have never had less free time, or felt sicker. I basically stopped running, dropped yoga classes down to 2 nights a month, stopped staying at work late, did minimal housework, quit going out on weekends... and gaming survived at the level it did only because we have wonderful friends who were willing to tag-team parent anytime it wasn't their turn to play. Which, in case you are wondering, doubles/triples the time it takes to play anything.
None of which is to say that I regret having my son; I'd happily trade time playing games for time playing with him. But, for the moment at least, the free time black hole I feared last year has finally come to pass. Hopefully by next year he'll have figured out how to play by himself, and how to go to sleep without one or both of us there.
So, event-wise, the gaming overview of the year was relatively bleak. The weekly Friday Game Night at my house pretty much died out entirely, I attended the monthly game night down at the church a total of once, and left early, and I made it to the bi-weekly game night at the local store another 1 time. for 1 game. I skipped the Origins Game Fair for the first time since moving to Ohio, and I only showed up for 1 day of GenCon, at which I played fewer than 3 games. Bleh.
Looking at the list of what I actually played, numbers were likewise down. I played 213 (-71 since last year) instances of 103 (-10) different games, but only 4 (-5) of them got 5+ repeat plays, and fewer than half (43, to be precise (-19)) got 2 or more plays. I played 35 (+4) games for the first time, but only once, while 24 (-15) more made it onto "the list" because I played them for the second-ever time.
Now, last year, there was a significant drop in gaming, but I said (this from my 4/1/10 blog post) that this was largely due to choosing to play really long games, and an increase in the amount of video games I'd been playing. Not so this year. We unplugged our TV before heading to the beach last July, and never found the time to plug it back in; it eventually migrated to the basement. I don't think I played a single video game through to completion this year (no, I take that back - I played through Monkey Island 1 one afternoon in a fit of 1980s retro-ness). Nor did I get in a single role-plaing session, save a lone 2-hour 1-shot (terrible) game of "Kobolds Ate My Baby" at GenCon.
Rather than Kobolds Ate My Baby, I should have entitled the year "Baby ate my Gaming." Last year, I ended this wrap-up post with "So, all in all, having a baby was not the free time disaster I expected. Of course, he hasn't figured out how to walk yet, either. Next year may tell another tale." And boy did it....
1-year-olds are a) active and need constant supervision, b) need to go to bed early regardless of what night of the week it is, c) usually sick and willing to spread their germs to you. I have never had less free time, or felt sicker. I basically stopped running, dropped yoga classes down to 2 nights a month, stopped staying at work late, did minimal housework, quit going out on weekends... and gaming survived at the level it did only because we have wonderful friends who were willing to tag-team parent anytime it wasn't their turn to play. Which, in case you are wondering, doubles/triples the time it takes to play anything.
None of which is to say that I regret having my son; I'd happily trade time playing games for time playing with him. But, for the moment at least, the free time black hole I feared last year has finally come to pass. Hopefully by next year he'll have figured out how to play by himself, and how to go to sleep without one or both of us there.