Category Archives: Board Games

Since this is the time of the year for reflection and thankfulness, I thought I’d ask my fellow admins what games they were thankful for. This is what we had to say:

My sister has always been my best friend but, as we get older and life becomes increasingly more hectic and stressful, our time together is precious. For the last couple months, we have started playing Hearthstone together. It’s almost a tradition now, where we play the latest Tavern Brawl and chat with each other. I spam the emotes and she gets annoyed. It’s a good time, really! It can be so easy to be consumed with all of the stuff around us that we get disconnected with some of the people that make life great. So thank you, Hearthstone, for being a wonderful part of our friendship and helping us connect around brutally hitting each other’s faces with beasts and mechs and stuff.

~ Avenue

Dungeons & Dragons has been ever-present in my life. Even though I didn’t start playing until I was in my early 20s, I’ve found that D&D has always had a special place in my heart. My brother and his friends played it weekly and two of my older sisters would join in every once in awhile. My brother was always talking to me about it and telling me all about the monsters and the races, etc. By the time I was old enough to play, my oldest siblings were already out of the house, so I had nobody to play with. Fast forward to 2013, when Crymson invited me to play in my first campaign. I’ve been playing ever since. Not only has it brought me closer to many of my good friends, but it’s also allowed me to connect with my siblings in a way I couldn’t before. So, thank you Dungeons & Dragons. I hope you continue to bring people together.

~ Vanri the Rogue

I have had one game that has been a constant in my life. My whole family plays it. We trash talk and make bets. It is mini golf. I know, I know. This doesn’t sound like the type of game that we would normally be blogging about, but it is a game that I love to play. My mom, dad, younger brother and I played a lot of mini golf. It was affordable and fun. My dad used to patiently try to teach me how to line up a shot while reminding me to just stay calm. It was good practice for life and playing other games, since I get so frustrated with myself.

My older cousins and their kids play with us now and there is a lot of competition. We go in a big group and split up in different teams. We play, we tease each other and then we eat ice cream. It is always fun. We tell stories about playing on the same courses when we were kids. Most importantly, we all get to be together.

~ Thia the Bard

The first video game that I ever got for myself was Pokemon: Yellow for the GameB
oy back in the year 2000. I had been collecting the cards, so getting the game just seemed like a natural outgrowth of that CCG obsession (I managed to snag 5 Charizard cards over my collecting career, by the way, all booster pack pulls. I still have three of them). Ever since then, the Pokemon series has held an important place in my gamer heart. I got at least one game from each generation. While I may not have caught ’em all since the early days of the games (I mean, really, who has time to catch over 700 ‘mons these days?), there is something exhilarating about that ‘click!’ when a pokeball successfully locks tight around a rare pokemon, even after all these years. It makes me so happy when I can help my friends by breeding pokemon that I have and they need. Most importantly, though, Pokemon led me to be a gamer, and, without that, I may never have made the wonderful relationships that I have, including my husband, my best friend, and many of my closest friends. So thank you, Pokemon, for turning me into a Real Woman of Gaming, and for making my life complete.

~ Rinshi

I have to say the game I am most thankful for is EverQuest. It was my first MMO. The people I met through that game and the experiences I had there helped build my beliefs on how women can be just as included in games as men.

I had a good guild and was never harassed. I made great friends and, even though we all went separate ways, I still remember the experience as a great one and always strive to find it again in anything I play.

~ KinkedNitemare

I can’t say that I am thankful for any one game, really. Everquest was my first MMO, and it did make an impact on my life. I was first introduced to it when I stopped by a buddy’s room in the barracks while I was stationed in Alaska. I was amazed at the game. I would just hang out and watch him play for hours a night. Eventually, he let me make a character and try it out for myself. I was hooked at that point. I got my own account and would play for hours after work and all weekend long, many times pulling 24+ hour marathons. For $15 a month, I was transported into a new world, making friends from all over the planet. I played steadily until 2005 when a bunch of us in Afghanistan got into playing WoW, which ended up taking the place of Everquest for a few years (though I would still jump into it every so often). Eventually, I got burned out on the daily grind of WoW and moved back to EQ. MMO’s were my escape from the daily grind of work and deployment.

~ Fluffy the Necromancer
When I was a kid, my grandmother worked at Kiddy City and the Nintendo was the newest thing, so she bought it for us that Christmas. At first, I really wasn’t sure what to make of it, but I got my

Credit: Victoria Mallon

hands on Super Mario Bros and was hooked. Mario was not my first love, though, Final Fantasy was. My father had picked it up and helped me play. It got to the point where we would talk about things that happened in the game. It was exciting and new and a great bond I had with my father. That is what got me into gaming but, all these years after his passing, I have those memories to look back on and remember him and all the fun we had together so fondly. I often wonder what he would think of the games out today. I hope that one day I can share a bond like that with my daughter.

~Crymson Pleasure~

What games are you thankful for? We’d love to hear your stories. Thank you for reading and have a great holiday!