Games as Stuff

I do like the idea you mention that, on the sort of plus, side, board games actually sit there and force you to think about how much stuff you have. Steam can be extremely bad in this respect---a long list of games which represent money and resources but may as well not exist. I should think about how many steam games I have but I don't; I am forced to look at my board games (I have a lot) and think about if there are any I want to get rid of, are unplayed, etc.

To be clear, I worry about having a lot of games a lot less than a lot of people around here do, but I do think about it.

I would like to introduce the term "diminishing returns" to this topic. Each additional game that you own is worth relatively less, all other things considered equal, because it is in direct competition with all your other games for space and play time. And your games are all in competition with other potential uses of your free time, like watching movies, reading books or fishing.

Shellhead wrote: . . . because it is in direct competition with all your other games for space and play time.

Yeah, and I just got to see this to excess in our gaming weekend. There were about 75 titles available and everyone had (in advance) indicated what games they wanted to play, but didn't play them because other games were being cracked open. Had we just brought our "best" games all would have been played.

There are times where I intentionally leave games at home on game night because, though I like the game, I'm not interested in playing it that evening. If I only bring the game I'm really looking to play it has a better chance of making the cut.

Sagrilarus wrote:

Shellhead wrote: . . . because it is in direct competition with all your other games for space and play time.

Yeah, and I just got to see this to excess in our gaming weekend. There were about 75 titles available and everyone had (in advance) indicated what games they wanted to play, but didn't play them because other games were being cracked open. Had we just brought our "best" games all would have been played.

There are times where I intentionally leave games at home on game night because, though I like the game, I'm not interested in playing it that evening. If I only bring the game I'm really looking to play it has a better chance of making the cut.

Right now, I am lucky to be in a monthly group where only the hosts and I bring games. But attendance has declined in recent months, so we typically only have one game going on at a time. So I have cut back from bringing four games to just two, and sometimes I still only get one on the table. The struggle is real.

I looked at the konmari fault-line that was worrying people awhile ago, made a meager pile of old stuff I didn't need (none of which included board games), took the obligatory Instagram photo, then gingerly ignored it ever since (like a good Californian ignores most fault lines).

Maybe I'm weird, but I breathe clutter. I don't feel the need to dominate it or stamp it out, nor do I actively try to amplify it. Sure, there's a point where a boundary is crossed and you start to lose those pockets of comfort that are needed in any home and that's when some healthy konmari-lite should definitely kick in. Some people may tragically lack that sense of boundaries, perhaps because of the boiling frog phenomenon. I'm not going to start systematically piling stuff on beds for the joy-test, though. I steer clear of the self-deprecating or overly curatorial idea of minimalist open space that, in itself, often tries to signal how adult (per generational standards probably 2 generations removed) someone is trying to seem at the cost of access to the things they actually use and even perhaps enjoy in their visible "potential energy" of usefulness, abutting our living space because they're... a part of our life?

My house is full of the detritus of having two homeschooled teenagers, both musicians, one of them a visual artist. So the chaotic visual clutter doesn't really matter to me at the moment anyway. It's just our element. Much like the rest of the universe, not all of it "sparks joy" and I don't feel the need to exercise dominion over it.

My shelves aren't for collection display but for access, so the TV is surrounded by games, sitting inside a dark Kallax 2001: Space Odyssey monolith that could be the backdrop of any Youtube talking head influencer. It contains a core set of 80-90ish games that get randomly pulled out when I either corral some of the family into playing something or guests drop by for a game & some conversation. More Ikea shelves (some other nordic designation, about waist high) behind the couch and along another wall in the living room store a combination of schoolbooks, poetry/theory books for myself, some more games that I'll bring to a group that's starting to meet less & less (it's all Zombicide, so who cares really). In the cavernous hallway, ignored by most passers-by on the way to the bathroom, are my own darlings that I mostly play solo (dungeon crawls, adventure games, COIN, etc).

I used to feel a little sheepish about these shelf denizens gargoyling (or "peacocking") it up on my walls but... I've seen what inhabits these shelves & spaces otherwise, in other homes, and I feel like I at least have honest access and visibility into the things I enjoy, not stuffy baby-boomer style emblems of things that I feel obligated to enjoy but don't actually give a fuck about: collections of sun-faded canonical/college nostalgia books, perhaps a smattering of book club fodder for small talk, endless tchotchke's that signal my successful suburban-yet-worldly lifestyle, pictures in bad triptych frames with motivational Oprah slogans, furniture no one actually uses, etc. My home is mostly about *now*... and *now* is a fucking glorious mess of games, instruments, art stuff, rocketry parts and school supplies.

That said, I'm never considering additional shelves. This is it. My limit is locked in.

Gifts of new games (from people who don't know me well enough to understand that I don't actually want more games) are met with polite enthusiasm & appreciation followed by mysterious disappearances, while any impulse/hype for a new game is met with heavy self-skepticism followed by selections that would need to hit the chopping block to make room should I actually cave & buy something new. This has become rare since the Solomon test effectively kills this impulse. Expansion boxes are broken down & tossed into recycling, cardboard inserts chucked, bespoke over-designed plastic inserts chopped up for useful parts. With the exception of a handful of boxes, I hold no reverence for these containers as objects. If I could affordably send most of them to a service to break them all down into half their size, ruining their "resale" value (lol) I totally would.

I feel lucky, however, to have hit this limit somewhere on the cusp of the initial wave of the Kickstarter E.T. cartridge glut, when the quality-to-quantity ratio was a bit better, making it easier to hang onto the quality and less taxing to unload the dreck. Up until that point, my main release valves had been BGG auctions, garage sales, and Goodwill/thrift stores. CMON kruft will (probably?) always be easy to unload on Ebay or resell at cost. At this point, I think it's actually going to take more aggressive front-end filtering for newer enthusiasts but I see neither the critical apparatus nor the demand for this. It may take the post-KS generation a couple of years to hit their "my god, what have I done?" moment at which point we might see a revival of discernment and criticism. For now, though, it seems like a run on the bank steered by "influencers."

I think I have 2 or 3 separate places where I keep my board game at home. I also have like 3 or 4 in my office. On top of that, I have two shelves for my miniatures & Gundams. Then I have like a cardboard box and a minis carry case on top of my wardrobe. My house is very small, less than 500 sq ft.

I think I won't be buying any more. Since my wife & daughter (currently 4yo) moved in, I really don't play (I'm not complaining). I'm eyeing some old releases though, may be later. But if I can't buy them, no regrets.

When my father died, his beloved collection of opera recordings became a "thing" my sister and I had to deal with. I have no kids, so all these things I own will probably end up in a dumpster somewhere, if not rotting in a house waiting for someone to notice that the guy who lived there died in his sleep years ago.

I do not mind things that have a purpose, even if that purpose is just entertaining me, but things that only exist to be a thing, I'm done with. I don't need to hold on to every book or movie I've ever read or seen. I prefer digital, and I prefer it when I'm allowed to delete -- permanently if I choose -- items from digital libraries. (On the chance I want to revisit something, I don't want to page through screens and screens of junk I never want to experience again; just get it gone.)

I used to buy a lot of books, and the best thing that ever happened was the Little Free Library boom. Now the books I occasionally buy end up in my library, or get dropped off at a free library.

The next game I can't sell will end up in a Little Free Library.

I have been slowly paring down the collection in an attempt to remove redundancies. This does give some shelf toads a pass... I only have one game like Stronghold, and it’s Stronghold. I rarely play it, but when I want to do so, it’s there. I can deal with that.