We celebrate Thanksgiving today in the States. This holiday is, buried underneath all parades, the food, the shopping deals, and the four day weekend, about counting our blessings and listing off the things we are thankful for. I’d like to use this opportunity to talk about some of the things I am thankful for, at least in the context of gaming.
- My Current Groups: Most board and role-playing games are worthless without other people to play with. And, while the current groups I play with aren’t exactly perfect, I’m thankful for the times we manage to put aside, and get together to play the games we play!
- The People I Met Through Gaming: I don’t make friends that easily, never really have. I’m not really that great at meeting new people or just hanging out either. Playing games with other people, however, gives me a shared experience with them, and really helps me get to know them. Sometimes the people are assholes and really aren’t worth continuing to play with, but more often than not they are good people who are fun to hang out with. Most of the time, we go our separate ways after the game (be it a one-off board game or a full RPG campaign) ends, but I am still thankful for the chance to meet them. I’m even more thankful for the couple of folks that have stuck around after the games are over and I’ve counted among my true friends ever since.
- The Internet: There’s lots to be said about the internet, but right now I am thankful for its ability to bring gamers from all sorts of different places together. As much as I love my meatspace friends, they can be almost impossible to corral into a regular meeting schedule for some regular gaming (we’ve been working on a game of Pandemic Legacy for over 8 months now). Thanks to the internet, I’ve been able to meet some great people and have some really fun games even when my current circle of friends has been lacking.
- The Community: Like any community, us gamers have our fair share of bad eggs. It doesn’t help that we love to argue, sometimes even about who those bad eggs are! But even through all the jerks, trolls, and people who insist you are having fun in the WRONG WAY, I love the creative and generally helpful nature I find to be in abundance in all healthy gaming communities. I’m thankful to be a part of it, and for having been turned on to some really cool games through it!
- The Opportunity to Play: This is huge. I’ve got a safe, comfortable space to play in, and the free time that I don’t need to dedicate to making ends meet, or simply surviving. I have electricity to power my video games, and I have disposable income to buy frivolous things like video, board games and RPG rulebooks. I don’t get to play as often as I would like, but all that goes into being able to play at all makes me a lot better off than a lot of people in this world are.
I’m sure there are plenty of wonderful gaming goodness that I am forgetting to be thankful for, but I think those are the big ones! It is nice to stop and think about this sort of thing now and then. What about you? What gaming things are you thankful for?
Turkey image found at Good Free Photos
You All Meet in a Tavern 