What Are We Doing Here?

Welp. You’ve found this place. Now that you’re here, you might wonder what the heck we’re doing here, you and I. Honestly, I’m hoping to build a place where we can chat about board games pretty informally. I’ve blogged a bit in the past (when it was cool) about my life and shit, but I feel like the time for that is long gone. So.

Maybe you wonder who I am. Hell, some days I do, too. So lemme do an infodump.

Aww. Look. It’s me! Yeah the mouth thing is from birth. That side just doesn’t do what it should. Meh. After almost 40 years, I’m over it. But I doubt I’m why you found your way here. If it was, ahoy! If not, here come the relevant deets.

I’ve been playing board games all of my life, which started with an infatuation with Mouse Trap and continued through Grape Escape, Splat, 13 Dead End Drive, and Chess. I used to get my butt kicked a lot by the Kasparov robot chess board. I’m…not good at chess. And honestly, I’m not that good at any games, but I always have fun playing them.

Except the couple of times that Canasta almost ended friendships. Or the game of Trivial Pursuit where I ended up leaving a Super Bowl party over not remembering Meredith Viera. But I’m much more chill now than I used to be. Anxiety medication works wonders for social interaction!

In 2014, my fiance (Robb) and I went to GenCon in Indianapolis with some friends with whom we’d been playing games casually. We only went for a day, but it opened my eyes to this gigantic hobby and what it could do. We’ve been hooked ever since. I think that first convention was when we blindly bought Nuns on the Run after spotting it on a table and knowing we needed it. All those numbered spaces drew me in! It’s still Robb’s favorite game of all time!

My favorite game is…well, you’ll see, I’m sure. And by the time I tell you what it is, it will probably have changed. That’s something that even surprises me. I rank my games on PubMeeple.com a few times a year, and the top five or so are almost always consistent, but their order changes from time to time. More about that later.

Right now, I own around 350 games, host a game night every other Thursday evening at my apartment, and would drop everything to play a board game at basically any time. I just…always want to be playing. And when I can’t play games, I’m probably watching a review or a playthrough on YouTube. And if I can’t do that, I’m probably thinking about them.

Which is why I’m here. I’m a writer. It’s how I pay my bills. So I figured it was only natural after almost ten years of being deep in the hobby to turn my writing attention to board games.

I have some misgivings about blogs being dead and all, but I’m not really looking to make money doing this. I just want to share with people. So I hope you’ll join me.

We’ll talk a little bit more about what to expect next time. See you there!

~Justin