One of Noah’s college friends invited us over yesterday to play games and ignore the super bowl. That worked for me. 🙂 I had such a great time. The entire attitude towards the games made me happy. People weren’t overly competitive and were quite cheerful about handing over a card that might help someone else “just because you are so nice.” That is exactly the sort of attitude I wish more people had about games. In cut-throat games I get angry and feel hostile and usually want to hit someone. I’m so happy that I got to have a pleasant gaming experience. I played three new-to-me games and even though I had to ask a lot of questions and get help no one was snotty or condescending.
See, this makes me want to play more. Most of the time when I play games with people I don’t have any interest in playing for years.
Yay!
I hope Terpsichoros reads this
He plays games in a very competitve, mean way. And he gloats when he’s doing well in an insensitive, unbecoming way. I don’t like playing because, from my perspective, he’s a bad sport.
Re: I hope Terpsichoros reads this
heh. Yeah, I like playing games with the attitude of “Yay! Someone one!” We are doing it just to spend time together, not actually *to win* so why does it matter if I win or if you win?
If you’re not familiar with them, you might be interested in the New Games foundation (http://www.inewgames.com/). Their games are mostly outdoors activities, but the philosophy behind them, fits your expressed attitude.
I feel much the same way vis a vis discomfort during game play.
OH! Cute icon….
I’m not much of a gamer myself, but I have friends who are and there seems to be an emerging class of co-operative games. I can ask around for recommendations if you like.
You’ve probably seen me post before about this. In my family, we play games like Boggle & Scrabble & Quiddler with our own slant to the rules. I figure, if you can make up a truly impressive word, you ought to get points for it. We’ve also allowed multiple languages and rotating teams. Rotating teams for us means that when it’s your turn, you can get help either from your partner (in life, like a spouse or boyfriend) or from the person who just finished a turn. We still keep score, but we spend more time and energy on “wow, that was a really lucky hand!” and “where did you learn that word?” Scoring for us is more about noting luck had within a game, and your own progress with that game over many sessions playing it.
It was a *big* adjustment for me and The Boyfriend playing games the first several times. He plays to WIN. I play for FUN. He’s still very much about the winning when he plays with other people, but he’s accepted that playing for fun has its place in the world as well.