Games: Playing or Collecting? The 10 for 10 Challenge

A few weeks ago I began selling my game collection. It started innocently enough. I wanted to sell a handful of games to garner some guilt-free money with which to make more game purchases. However, something strange happened on the way to the eBay auction. As I combed my collection for auction candidates, I realized that I could never play all the games I own in this lifetime, or even three more lifetimes. Furthermore, I spend more time stressing over not playing the games than I do enjoying them. This led to yet another thought. Why do I buy games? Games that I don't have time to play, and finally, what am I going to do about it?

I believe we all buy games for several reasons. First off, we think we'll enjoy the game. That

This doesn't happen when you're discussing the latest
Duck Dynasty episode.

makes sense, doesn't it? Or maybe we like the way the game looks. That's becoming more and more important. Some folks buy games, especially in our niche war gaming corner of the market, to study a battle, learn its history. But honestly, those reasons are secondary. Primarily, I believe we buy games in search of a feeling.

Each of us has had that game, that time, and maybe that friend, when gaming was at its best. A title we played repeatedly into morning's wee hours, totally captivated with the story the game spun, the competition, the camaraderie. For most of us that time was college, a simpler time, when we had both the disposable hours and carbon-based RAM to better enjoy gaming. I think we buy games, at least subconsciously, to recapture that feeling, but in fact, what the constant buying accomplishes is exactly the opposite.

Games deluge the market. Dozens appear each month at Consimworld and BoardGameGeek; scores more on KickStarter. Buying even a small percentage of them adds more games to a collection than can possibly be played. “To be played” stacks grow, “get on the table lists” sprout up, suddenly games—the things we do for fun, for relaxation, are slipping onto our to-do lists, right beside taking out the garbage and mowing the lawn.  When we do play, we frequently plough through the rules, burn through a session, and then shelve the game, patting ourselves on the back for checking a title off our “to play” list. That isn’t gaming, that’s collecting, and this year I’ve decided to stop it.

I’m taking Sarah Reed’s 10 for 10 Challenge on BoardGameGeek.  The rules are simple. Choose ten games. Play each ten times. Yeah, that not only means that you learn the game, but that you spend enough time to get familiar with the nuances and strategies. It means that you spend more time playing, and less time collecting. It means that you might just spend enough time with a game to capture that feeling again.

Here’s my 10 for 10 list:

1. World at War
2. Lock ‘n Load
3. Nations at War
4. ARS Victor
5. Fields of Fire
6. OGRE
7. Marvel Dice
8. Omaha Beach Solitaire
9. Liberty Roads
10. Field Commander Napoleon.

Liberty Roads might get dropped in favor of Cry Havoc (I'm a huge fan of Odin's people). We'll see how it goes.

Let me know if you sign up and what you're playing. See you soon.

Mark H. Walker is the author of World at War: Revelation, a creepy, military action, with a love story, alternate history, World War Three novel thing. It's available from Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing right here. Just $3.99. Give it a try. What the hell?