Gamers

On Saturday, David, Hannah, and I joined friends Andrew and Mindy, and went were I've never been before, to a game tournament at a game store in the local mall.

Andrew and Mindy love to play games and we have enjoyed getting together with them periodically to play Settlers of Catan, Colosseum, Small World, Arkham Horror, Dominion, or whatever. Often some other people will join us and it is a fun time, visiting and playing the game for an evening. Sure we all want to win, but we all love playing and have fun even if someone else pulls out the win in the end.

On Saturday we all headed to the mall to join in a Dominion tournament Andrew had heard about while in the store. I wasn't so sure about this. I love to play the game and find it quite fun. But a tournament? With strangers? Were they going to be cut-throat? Un-kind? Look down on my not-so-cut-throat-amateur play? I was hesitant, but now I'm glad I went. It was quite fun!

We arrived and the leader, Zack, said, "Welcome large group of new friends." And everyone else there (another 7 people) greeted us kindly. We played 5 rounds of the game, each time randomly put into groups of three by the computer. All four tables played the same cards and we kept points and what place one finished in each game.

At each game I met some nice players and enjoyed friendly banter as we played. I also learned a bit about the game and these gamers. Some of them (well, most really) have strategies and keep score as they're playing and anticipate what their opponent will do. Not me and as you might guess then, I placed third or tied for second with each of the five games! But I had fun, lots of fun, and I'm the only one of the "large group of new friends" that won a prize! For last place overall, but hey, it was still a prize! Guess what it was?

Yep, a game! Guillotine, a card game I've never played. I'm looking forward to trying to out, it looks like fun from the directions.

So I left my comfort zone and played in a tournament with gamers and had lots of fun. All of us who participated received a 10% coupon for future store purchases - for more games of course. I'm glad I went and who knows, we might even take the gamers up on their offer to come some Tuesday evening when they have their weekly game night.