I was inspired by Dice Tower’s recent podcast (Dice Tower 475) that had a segment on "the person most responsible for getting you into boardgaming" and decided to journey back in time to see if I could also give acknowledgement to the person(s) responsible for getting me into this hobby.
I grew up in the era of Game Boys, Playstations & PC Gaming but we couldn’t afford any of that and when we could (once the technology was obsolete), we then had to take turns among the four siblings. And so, on many occasions, we turned to mainstream boardgaming, games like Monopoly, Cluedo, The Game of Life, Risk and later Pictionary & Taboo were among our firm favourites. The first people to thank and acknowledge then are my Singaporean aunts & uncles, who spoiled me shamelessly with boardgames every Christmas. It was the only thing I would ask for each year and I ended up collecting various editions of the above games, especially Risk (Parker Brothers really milked the cow on this one and I was lining up for all the milk).
So many hours spent on rules lawyering the harder English words in the rulebook
I did have some minimal exposure to non-mainstream games such as an inappropriate introduction to Grass, a one-time play of Advanced Heroquest but none were more pivotal in introducing me to modern Euro gaming than my love for the Avalon Hill classic, Titan. Introduced to me by my uncle when I was around 10 years of age, it coincided with the release of Heroes of Might & Magic which I absolutely loved watching others play as the monster slugathon theme was and still is one of my soft spots. Titan’s appeal to me was nerve wracking as I spent 11 months of each year thinking up ways to defeat my uncle only to be handed my behind when I met him for our annual bouts of Titan during my year end school holidays.
Owning a copy of Titan then became an obsession. I would ask relatives going overseas to check in at the local game store and see if they had a copy. When I was old enough to drive, I scoured the old hobby shops like The Mind Shop & Game Castle to no avail. Whilst I was in Melbourne doing my undergraduate studies, the owners of game shops at both Melbourne & Sydney were at a loss as to what I was referring to. That the Valley Games reprint came as a glimmer of light in the darkness was exactly that, just a glimmer, as the shipping cost from the US was the same as the cost of the game itself.
The bane of all collectors the world over
Whilst in Melbourne, I had introduced my housemate, Alan, to Colossus, the PC adaptation of Titan, and he remembered how nuts I was about the game. He calls me up and tells me he’s seen it in this new toys & hobbies shop called Toybox. And there it was! Sitting on the shelf not more than a 20 minute drive from my house... ... and I couldn’t buy it. After nearly 15 years of scouring game shops and bookstores across countries, Titan appeared in my life at exactly the wrong time. I had just spent all my savings on the down payment for a new car as my new job required me to have transportation, I was dating and probably worst of all, I now knew the value of money and knew deep down that whilst I loved the game, I had nearly no one to play the game with.
And so 360 words later, I looked up from Titan and noticed all these other games on the shelves. I had never even heard of any of these, and for me, it was like being in the bookstore for the first time. This little 15 x 10 store room was suddenly the most magical place in existence. Camera phones being another luxury I couldn’t afford until nearly 3 years later, I committed as many names of games as I could to memory and then back home after some keystrokes on my keyboard, the internet led me to the wonderful world of boardgamegeek.com.
The BGG Con Library... What a library
The rest as they always say, is history.
So in no particular order, here are the remaining persons I would like to acknowledge and thank for not just introducing but also growing the hobby that I have come to love:
Uncle Joe
Thank you for always making time to play Titan with the bratty boy who rearranged your entire storage system just for the heck of it.
Alan
Who not only accidentally introduced me to Euro gaming but gifted me a set of Titan for my birthday, introduced me to the wonderful designs of Vlaada Chvatil (one of my favourite designers) and now himself is a boardgame hobbyist as well.
The owner of Toybox
Taught me that boardgamegeek rankings are not the ultimate judge of a game although I didn’t believe him at the time.
Hiew Chok Sien (aka hecose)
We have never met but it was your blog that influenced many of my first boardgame purchases. Your session reports on Through The Ages & Race For The Galaxy with your wife shaped my initial foray into Euro boardgaming and most of all, introduced me to Jeff & Wai Yan from boardgamecafe through your posts on OTK sessions.
Jeff & Wai Yan (boardgamecafe)
I am nowhere close to being your best customer but you’ve been the best... I can’t even bring myself to call your establishment suppliers, because you have always been kind to a growing boardgame hobbyist. Never being one for forums, I still visit the boardgamecafe forum every day, just in case the next great pre-order or kickstarter shows up there so I won’t miss it. Apart from an Essen pilgrimage, my second wish is to be able to join the boardgamecafe retreat some day.
Kareem (aka onetonmee)
Organizing kickstarter group pledges even though it was so troublesome, and always offering to teach and sit out games at event days/nights. You may not know it but you are my role model for facilitating my own events nowadays.
Log (Meeples)
You may not remember all the stuff you’ve done for a high school classmate from Lord Zhe’s clan but here and now I just want to acknowledge that it was and is greatly appreciated.
Gideon & Jimmy (SWAGamers)
For going along with my crazy idea of hosting boardgame events on a semi-regular basis and we are now well along into our third year. It has been a blast to have you guys along for the ride.
The Siblings
You were the first people in my life to play boardgames with me, the greatest family Pictionary team I’ve been on, always "ungraciously" putting up with me when I get my rules explanations wrong, the guinea pigs in all my boardgaming experimentation, the best and worst "flip-the-table" competitive Players alive and most of all the sisters and brother I love that I wouldn’t wish on anyone else. God knew what He was doing when He created JAMM.
In closing, I quote the master crafter of words, William Shakespeare, who like me, also found difficulty putting his thanks into words, when he said, "I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks".
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