Gaming

I've talked some here about the more negative experiences I've had gaming as a woman. A couple Fridays a month, C. and I attend a boardgaming meetp local to us. (We had been going three times a month, but we're cutting down to two times a month, so we can attend Friday night services twice a month rather than the once a month. (Better yet, this is at C.'s suggestion. I'm the Jewish one, and as a result I refuse to push him beyond his comfort zone, but this, this was at his suggestion.)) But gaming.

A couple times a month, C. and I attend a boardgaming meetup local to us. With his current work schedule, I am getting there before him. I am not the only female gamer, and it is an extremely welcoming group. Last night, having got there, a little after it started, I was able to jump into a game of Goa. I lost horribly, but having never played it before, I was ok with losing. In learning, even after hearing the rules, I am the one who asks questions, clarifying what I can or cannot do, verifying what a card does what. In all these questions, never once am I told I am asking too many questions, or made to feel like I may be too slow at the pick up. (Yes, I've had that happen before.)

Second game, I played was Puerto Rico. It was around this time C. showed up, and upon seeing what I was about to start playing, he made the correct observation it was a little heavier than I normally go for games. (I very rarely go for pure-strategy based games, and here I was playing two in a row.) I was up for it, and as the one teaching pointed out, it was no heavier than Goa. This game I won handily. (I went for a pure building strategy, and actually triggered the end-game by completing my city block.) I like worker-placement games, I typically go for lighter games. I joke I have a gaming attention span of two and half hours, and it's typically true. Both these games played at right around two hours. And neither felt like it. It never seemed to me like they were dragging. Never seemed like I was dragging in my attention.

C. and I, when playing just the two of us, play games we both know we like. We have games we share, games I like - I like Carcassone more than he does, for example, games he like - Battlestar Galactica, which he knows not to expect me to play ever - and games we want to purchase - some on my list, some on his list, some on both our lists.

This group is pushing me out of my comfort zone. Getting me playing games I never would have expected I would like. And it's in a welcoming to all environment. It's pretty great, actually.

(Plus, last night, I got to have a conversation about Star Wars, in which no one looked at me funny for knowing my way around sci-fi. So win.)