Board Games Bring Us Together
By: Kyle Arguello
When I decided to come to CSU, I was very nervous. For my entire life, I lived in the same city, in the same house, with my family and friends all around me. I was familiar with the streets, restaurants, and things to do. Coming here was the first time ever where I was almost completely alone. It was a new town and atmosphere: unfamiliar territory. The closest people I knew all lived 3 hours away (which in hindsight isn’t terribly far). It was now my responsibility to take care of my life, meet people, and keep myself on track. However, I wasn’t as alone as I thought I was.
My parents came to Fort Collins to help me move into the dorms for Ram Welcome in Fall 2019. Unfortunately, my dad wasn’t able to stay for the entire welcome, and had to leave the same day I moved in. He’s a high school math teacher, and their school happened to be starting the same week as us. I could tell that he was upset that he wasn’t able to spend the entire weekend with his youngest son, who was finally leaving the nest. Hugging him goodbye was one of maybe three times in my entire life that I have seen my dad cry. As he was leaving, he gave me an unopened cardboard package, and told me to open it when I was all settled in for the night. Here’s what I opened…
Galaxy Trucker is a funny, light-hearted space adventure games, and it is by far my favorite board game of all time. My dad is the person who got me into tabletop games, being a life-long gamer and owning a huge collection. This was his way of kickstarting my own collection, and also giving me a piece of home when I was far away. But while this was a nice slice of home, it was also an encouragement to interact with other people.
Board gaming is by nature, a social activity, promoting cooperation, critical thinking, and face-to-face quality time with other humans. Our lives are dominated by so much screen time, whether it be for work/school, or for entertainment, that we are forgetting what it is like to interact as people. Board games anchor us back to reality. There are even some studies done on the benefits of playing board games regularly, suggesting cognitive stimulation can lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease among the elderly. The Bead Game blog also gives more great benefits, such as lowering blood pressure as, “It is believed that the release of endorphins provokes muscles to relax and blood starts to circulate much more easily, which likely lowers blood pressure.”
Aside from physical pluses, there is a great community around the world of board gaming. Stonemaier Games is an independent board game publisher, based out of St. Louis. Like many indie publishers, they use crowdfunded websites like Kickstarter.com to produce their projects. Because of their experience with this, they have created an extensive page of Kickstarter lessons, advice, and failures for entrepreneurs that want to create their own projects. Every post has comments with responses from one of the founders, Jamey Stegmaier. Their dedication to the board gaming community is representative of how the board gaming community itself interacts.
“We strive to create memorable, beautiful, fun games that engage and delight gamers worldwide. We aim for games that capture the imaginations of all types of people, as our goal is to include, not exclude: experienced gamers, new gamers, solo gamers, partners, larger groups, people of all races, genders, creeds, cultures, nations, sexualities, and ages. We also seek to add value to our fellow creators in a way that extends beyond board games by sharing our entrepreneurial successes, mistakes, and insights.” (Stonemaier Games mission statement)
These values are not exclusive to Stonemaier Games. These are values of board games as a whole. My father certainly shares this thinking, and has passed it on to me. Board games are for everyone, and these ideas can change the world for the better.
The Haunted Game Cafe is just one local shop/café that I have been to, offering a variety of games you can try before you buy. I encourage you to try a new game with some family and friends, or even some strangers. You will be surprised by the friends and memories you can make through the hidden gem that is tabletop gaming.
