Okay, I signed up for #reverb10. It’s the now annual event, the continuation of #best09 from last year. A prompt a day, all month long, to contemplate 2010 and reveal 2011. In the way of my world, the evening after I signed up, I discovered a new Twitter book club and I joined in for that, too. So this will be a busy month.
December 9 – Party Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans. (Author: Shauna Reid)
My favorite gatherings this year have been game nights. A set of my friends gather, usually at my place, for a long evening playing board games and sometimes card games. One of the number is a game collector and enthusiast and he brings generally not-well-known, often foreign games to play. We generally go into the wee hours of the night. Lots of rum and cokes, pots of tea, pizza, chips, and pretzels are consumed each time.
The games are good ones. The rules may or may not be complicated, but the gameplay is almost always satisfying—even games with simple rules can make for challenging play. I can’t say I have a favorite kind. There have been betting games, map games of exploration and conquest, travel games, trump/card games, and so on. The game collector is a shrewd opponent and wins the most often but not always. One member of the group has strange strategies (or no strategies sometimes, just playing chaotically) and including him makes for most interesting play and outcomes.
I always have a lot of fun on game night. I don’t care if I win or not. I get upset if I think I played poorly, but winning isn’t the goal for me: fun is. The challenge of the game and playing well is it. My friends care more about winning, or at least not coming in last. I get that, but seems to me, that if you have a good time with friends and have fun playing, no matter how well you do, then you’ve won.
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