Blood Is Thicker Than Tonic-Water: Part One

Casual Interviews: Blood Is Thicker Than Tonic-Water

Sometimes, one needs to dig for the truth. Like an archeologist bravely plundering the sacred objects of some poor native tribe, I must delve the dark countries of the uninitiated for some sweet kernel of perspective. Too often the culture of games and gamers gets a bit myopic-- it is an echo chamber in which some things can go unheard in a cacophony of what has already been said.

And so I have left safe lands for the most dangerous of regions; family. My family members are not gamers by any traditional stereotype. They do not aggressively pursue news about boardgames the way I do, nor eagerly await the release of some second printing of an old classic. In practice, they are open-minded which makes them invaluable as a sounding board for a topic like this.

With a vodka-tonic firmly in hand, I made sure my mother, father, and brother had been drinking before I started the interview. And I started off as simply as I could.

Colin: What is your favorite boardgame?

Mom: I really like that boardgame you introduced to me over Mother’s Day--I don’t remember what it was--but I liked that. I’d play it again.

Colin: Shadows Over Camelot.

Mom: I think one of my favorites is Settlers of Catan. It’s very easy and it has different levels of complexity so you can start someone off with it [...] Some of them you know what you’re getting into, others-- I understand but... I don’t know. I know that I don’t know a lot about games and the culture, but I think that you guys tend to make it within your culture. A lot of the games you’ve introduced, the name just turned me off. You’ve always convinced me “No, try” and you’ve always been right.

Brother: I know with [my friends] if you tried to get them to play Eldritch Storm or Ascension...

Colin: Elder Sign.

Mom: I know I look at some of the names and I just cringe-- but then I play it and I’m like [excited] “oh my god!”

Brother: But we reduce every game. Like [Ascension] we reduce it. Once we’re playing, we’ve reduced it to the competitive, to the strategic aspect.

Mom: A lot of these games you’re not gonna see on TV, you’re not gonna get a window in the store. [Dad] do you remember when we were growing up? You’d see commercials for boardgames all the time! Do you remember? Now can you imagine seeing one on TV?

Colin: So the name is important?

Mom: I see the names of like Descent and Ascension and they’ve got pictures of horrible creatures on it-- what’s the one is it Descent?

Colin: It isn’t something I think about it, actually, now that you mention it.

Mom: I know, but I think about it all the time!

As critical as my mother seemed of the single-target demographic she perceived in boardgames she was quick to defend them as a valuable tool.

Mom: I can’t tell you how many times me and your father had to go to Parent Teacher Conferences and defend you and your brother playing Warhammer and D&D. [...] When your old teacher came to us about you playing Warhammer, when we told him how much math was involved. I was like “do you know what kind of math these kids are doing”? That’s when he came around to it.

I should note she was referencing my middle school math teacher, who had contacted her and my father with some concerns regarding my gaming habits. Being a deeply religious man teaching at a Catholic school, my teacher thought that my love of D&D and Warhammer Fantasy Battles was spiritually unhealthy and practically detrimental to my development as a young man. Credit where credit is due, my mother changed his mind on both accounts.

It was around this time my brother interjected regarding the theming of certain games-- a theming that was sometimes difficult for an audience like my mother. His was a defense of the game.

Brother: But I know that we reduce it. [When we played Ascension] we weren’t talking [Rune symbols and Fight symbols] we were talking symbols like triangles and circles. We reduced it to its most elemental form.

Mom: Which is what they don’t do.

Brother: But they can’t, they have to do window dressing when they’re playing to [the traditional gaming demographic]. We only play with the parts because we want to win. We’re a competitive family.

Mom:: I know my brother Jeff played Settlers of Catan and he liked it, and I know my other brothers and sisters would like it but the names really turn them off and shut them down. It’s you that’s stopped me from being that person.

Brother: No. No. Don’t write that down.

Despite my brother’s insistence that I not immortalize a compliment from our mother, there was a repeated theme. As unappealing as the theme, name, or artwork of a game could be, the gameplay itself was often a saving grace.

I tried to steer the conversation back onto what someone like my mother--familiar with certain boardgames but not the culture at large--looks for in a game.

Mom:  I shouldn’t say I don’t like fantasy because I like some fantasy based games. For me its economic stuff it makes sense to me, you know what I mean?

At that point my brother leaned over and held down the ‘w’ on my keyboard.

Brother:  I’m helping

I tried to catch up and fix the ‘wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww’ while my my mother talked and my brother sat back with his bourbon. Some duty specific to older-brothers had been satisfied, apparently.

Colin: So the economic aspect resonates with you because you recognize it in your life?

Mom: Now that you’ve asked that question that is exactly why I like it. I’m trying to think of the games I like. I like 7 Wonders, and you’re trying to get stuff and its economic. [...] And maybe that’s what why I like Settlers of Catan, you have to earn stuff and you have to get stuff and that’s how it happens. [...] I really like The Firefly Boardgame, it makes sense. You have to try and gather all this money so that you can do all those steps to complete a mission and its really-- its you alone in a game

Brother:  You know he’s paraphrasing you, I would demand editorial cut.

Ultimately, I think the conversation had helped renew my mother’s interest in boardgames and gaming.

Mom: We need to do game night again. I’m really desiring that now. But honey you have so many games I know I’m not giving them all relevance, I know I haven’t played them all. I think you’re-- if we could figure out how to get people involved, you are a great person--

Brother: Stop saying that.

Mom: I still think that Warhammer had one of the best models. You go in there, you can come in and play their games, it makes you want certain things. You guys got stuff for your battles and then there was Game Day Convention-- that’s what’s missing [from most boardgames]. It is like boutique marketing, I think you guys could capture so much more. I have to tell you, I hate games like Jutland and Panzerblitz.

At this, my father cringed. Those are his two favorite games.

Next week, Part Two!