I've been reading through some of the Gulf Games reports, photos, etc. and I'm having a different reaction this time. I wanted to go to Gulf Games for years. Heck, I even DID go to one a few years ago. Now, though, I'm happy to skim the reports but don't need to be there in person. That's a little delicate--I consider several of the folks that attend Gulf Games my friends, and some of them may read this weblog. I hope it's clear that this doesn't mean I don't care to visit them--of course I do! However, it's not easy to get myself halfway (or more) across the country to play a weekend of games, and near impossible to include my family. If you've been reading this weblog for any length of time, it should come as no surprise that I think I'll just stay at home and enjoy the company of my local friends.
The other realization that supports this decision came from the trip we took to visit my brother last month. Though we see him, his wife, and my nephew a few times a year at my folks' place (e.g. Thanksgiving), that was the first time I'd made it all the way up to Eureka to visit their own home. At the time, I thought that the vacation time and airfare I used on the Gathering would be better spent visiting my brother. He even plays games with me! :-) Different people have different circumstances, different budgets, different whatever. If I could visit my brother, play with local friends, AND go to Gulf Games/the Gathering I would, but I can't fit it all. That means those far-off game weekends don't make the cut. Hopefully I can put my money where my mouth is and visit him more than I have in recent years.
It certainly makes it easier to skip those big game events if you've got enough gaming going on closer to home. I do. I've made it to the Santa Clarita Boardgamers several weeks in a row. If I had more stamina I'd be writing up session reports here on the weblog, or submit something to the Geek, but I generally just write up a little something for our own group. (That's the purpose of session reports, I feel. This is the core of an article I've been wanting to write for a while.) Game of the Month for July was St. Petersburg, and now for August it's Fette Autos. (We also played St. Pete and two rounds of Feurio! last week.) Though I missed the last SoCal Games Day entirely, I'll get to play lots of games with my friends over a weekend soon enough.
I'm back in the swing of playing online at Brettspielwelt, getting in lots of St. Pete. There it's easy to play games with just 2 or 3 players, which I find SO much better than a full complement of 4. In fact, I'd rather not play SP with 4 players any more than I'd play Big City (another favorite) with 5. I'm surprised so many people are still playing SP with 4 (all of the photos I saw from Gulf Games had that number, for instance).
I played a few games with my family recently, too. With Sam I finally got to try Thunder Road. He actually got to play this earlier when Mark Jackson came down for a visit, but I'd missed out. I picked up a copy off ebay and gave it to him. Cool pieces, and the "dropoff board" mechanic is a wonderfully simple and thematic way to emphasize the race as much as the combat (better than Car Wars ever did, and truer to the Mad Max movies). It would be better with more players, though.
With Molly we broke out Roller Coaster Tycoon, the boardgame. I like this quite a bit. The timer mechanism built into the event card deck and of course the many auctions for "properties" are right out of German-style games, while the board & dice to move the customers around are familiar for Americans. All in all, a good blending. I hope we can get Sam and my wife Candy to play sometime--it would be a good one for the whole family.
Candy even played a couple games with me last night. Mostly we played Scrabble, her favorite. Then we tried another word game I've had for a while (waiting for a translation), Rondo. The latter was okay, we'll try it again sometime. She wasn't too thrilled with it at the beginning, but we stuck it out for a few rounds. Enough to see it has some promise.
Today I picked up all three of the Mission Command ultra-light "wargames" from Milton Bradley. They were on super sale at the mall toy store ($5 apiece, and the third one was free), so worth a shot. The pieces look great. Then I went to a real game store to track down some packs of the new collectible miniatures game, Pirates of the Spanish Main. Truth is, I don't care much for miniatures (the imprecise movement, facing, and distances irritate me), but I'm intrigued by this one. All you need are $4 booster packs--not any "starter." The ships are constructed from plastic punch-out pieces, just like those Z Cardz toys. It doesn't hurt any that I'm currently listening to the audiobook The Great Explorers by Samuel Eliot Morison.
It is difficult to argue with your choice, visiting your brother or going to Gulf Games. I know how close you and your brother are, so the decision is easier.
However, even though I have ample gaming opportunities here in New Orleans, and I have a darned good gaming group (Westbank Gamers), none of this compares to the sheer joy that is Gulf Games. The folks who attend are a collection of my very best friends, and there truly is a special magic that permeates each and every event. I dare say that you wouldn't recognize it anymore ... the spirit has grown so tremendously that it is amazing.
Fortunately, I'm not forced to choose between (a) and (b). Gulf Games has become such an important part of my life ... and my wife's ... that we wouldn't dream of missing it.
Posted by: Greg J. Schloesser at August 10, 2004 10:19 PM