Resolution: Failed.

Welcome to the 200th post on the Game Dork's Gaming Corner! I've got to say, it's kind of amazing to me that I've come this far.

Enough woolgathering. Let's get to the issue at hand.

Some of you may know that I made a new year's resolution to play 80 of the games on the top 100 list over at Board Game Geek. Tomorrow is the last day of 2017, so I think it's safe to call it. I did not meet that goal.

Here's how the numbers ended up: the most games that I had played that were in the top 100 list at any one time was 31. This is a shame, as four of the games I had played that were at one point on the top 100 dropped to 101 or lower at some point over the course of the year. In fact, if we were to expand our criteria to include anything in the top 200, that would add another 16 games to my list, for a total of 47. Still thirty three games shy of my goal, but a good deal closer...


There are several reasons I didn't meet my goal. First and foremost is the fact that I am so very busy. My work life is insane; I have to leave home by 6:15 in the morning to get to work on time, and I usually don't get home before 4:30 in the afternoon. If I'm going to get a decent amount of sleep in a night, I need to be in bed by 10:00 at the latest. That leaves me five and a half hours, maximum, in which to make and eat dinner, do any chores that need doing, and the essential rest time to recover from a busy and stressful day at work.

That doesn't leave a lot of time for games. And it certainly doesn't help that it's very difficult for me to convince my friends to join me at my local board game cafe. Plus, I have a lot of additional obligations. There are several organisations I work with outside of work hours, and that tends to eat up a lot of time. Obligatory time spent with the Dork Spouse also takes up some of my free hours. And I can't even do much gaming on the weekends, because that's when I have to get the big chores finished that can't be done on the weekdays; things like laundry, balancing the finances, etc.

Another part of the problem is a phenomenon I touched on back in my post about the downside of the golden age. There are a lot of great games coming out pretty frequently. Nominally, that's a good thing, but it does mean that it can be hard to keep up with all the games being released in a year. And when those games often quickly wind up on the Top 100 list, it makes it harder for me to keep that particular resolution.

Also problematic is finding copies of some of these games. There are several titles on the Top 100 list that I couldn't find. None of my friends own a copy, and there's not a copy in the local board game cafe's library. I could buy a copy online, but that seems a little extreme for a game I've never played, and may well not like. Especially older, harder to find games such as Paths of Glory. Not only do I not know anyone who has it, but the cheapest I could find it was for $80 on ebay.

And as much as I love playing games with my friends, they often want to play something that's not on the top 100 list. As I've said before, I love trying new games, but it was a little frustrating when I was trying to work on achieving a goal, and people were not willing to help me try to reach that goal.

Anyway. So I fell quite short of fulfilling that resolution. Maybe I'll try something similar again one day in the future. But for now, I'm just going to focus on playing games that I enjoy and not worry about where it falls on anyone's list.

So, as we approach the new year, a year full of hope and promise (perhaps more so than any year in a long time), remember to go forth and play lots of awesome games. Keep the peace, remember that everyone is welcome at the gaming table, and strive as always to

Game on!