MyDoorsAreOpen
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2003
- Messages
- 8,549
Mostly since getting married, I've been introduced to a number of people who are pretty serious gamers (who don't all belong to the same social circle). I'm talking gaming in the old-school style, pre video games: Dungeons and Dragons, Settlers of Catan, and other board games that require multiple layers of strategizing, and are meant to be a social activity amongst 3-6 people, lasting many hours. I'm talking about people who shop at stores in gentrified neighborhoods that carry nothing but arcane, complicated board games, including many that are imported from Europe.
One thing that has struck me about ALL of such people that I've so far met, is that they tend to be markedly averse to putting things in their brains, legal or not. I have not been offered alcohol at most gaming nights I've been invited to attend, and have gotten the sense that drugs are in no way whatsoever on the radar of such people.
Some of these old-school gamers are geeky as all hell, but others not really at all, so I don't think that explains it.
I have NOT seen this correlation among people who are strictly into computer or video games -- a lot of those types that I know toke like champs. Nor have I seen this amongst casual enthusiasts of highly traditional games like chess, poker, and scrabble -- I've been at drug- and alcochol-fueled parties where all of these games have been whipped out. No, I only see it among enthusiasts of long games that are heavy on the complicated strategizing, including but not limited to board-based roleplaying games.
Have any other people here noticed this trend? What do you attribute it to?
My working theory is that these types of games are really only attractive to people who strongly associate 'a good time' with having a clear head. To them, strategizing and the thrill of besting other players at something strategically complicated takes the place of any sort of rush a drug would provide. In this sense, they're similar to people who find 'the life of the mind', and intellectual inquiry, as intrinsically pleasurable as any drug, if not more so.
In other words, it takes someone disinterested in alcohol and drugs to even think to try one of these games, I theorize.
Having attempted to learn and play one these games (Rail Baron) while comfortably stoned, I can also say that these sorts of games are rather unforgiving to people who aren't at their mentally sharpest. I don't think the same thing can be said for, say, poker or Super Mario Bros. Still, why DON'T I find people who like a sober game of Rail Baron or Settlers of Catan one evening, and then a night on the town the next?
It's funny, because I grew up playing board games, and generally used to think highly of them. Oneupsmanship and 'playing to win' was never something that I took much joy in, but I did enjoy the socializing that a game can provide. But now, I tend to associate being a serious board gamer with being anti alcohol and drugs.
One thing that has struck me about ALL of such people that I've so far met, is that they tend to be markedly averse to putting things in their brains, legal or not. I have not been offered alcohol at most gaming nights I've been invited to attend, and have gotten the sense that drugs are in no way whatsoever on the radar of such people.
Some of these old-school gamers are geeky as all hell, but others not really at all, so I don't think that explains it.
I have NOT seen this correlation among people who are strictly into computer or video games -- a lot of those types that I know toke like champs. Nor have I seen this amongst casual enthusiasts of highly traditional games like chess, poker, and scrabble -- I've been at drug- and alcochol-fueled parties where all of these games have been whipped out. No, I only see it among enthusiasts of long games that are heavy on the complicated strategizing, including but not limited to board-based roleplaying games.
Have any other people here noticed this trend? What do you attribute it to?
My working theory is that these types of games are really only attractive to people who strongly associate 'a good time' with having a clear head. To them, strategizing and the thrill of besting other players at something strategically complicated takes the place of any sort of rush a drug would provide. In this sense, they're similar to people who find 'the life of the mind', and intellectual inquiry, as intrinsically pleasurable as any drug, if not more so.
In other words, it takes someone disinterested in alcohol and drugs to even think to try one of these games, I theorize.
Having attempted to learn and play one these games (Rail Baron) while comfortably stoned, I can also say that these sorts of games are rather unforgiving to people who aren't at their mentally sharpest. I don't think the same thing can be said for, say, poker or Super Mario Bros. Still, why DON'T I find people who like a sober game of Rail Baron or Settlers of Catan one evening, and then a night on the town the next?
It's funny, because I grew up playing board games, and generally used to think highly of them. Oneupsmanship and 'playing to win' was never something that I took much joy in, but I did enjoy the socializing that a game can provide. But now, I tend to associate being a serious board gamer with being anti alcohol and drugs.
