Off late, I am exhausted. Largely from medical issues and from work. I feel like a haze sometimes. Perhaps this is how long CoVID feels like. Still, game nights perk me up. At least that is true during the span of time that I am pondering options and possibilities. But before that, since I am host, I like to make sure that the best game is selected for the proper player count. Essentially, I take my hosting duties seriously and I usually spend time reading through rules getting acquainted or reacquainted with the nitty gritty details. This can be exhausting too. Off late that is.

I have taken the easy route recently and chosen games with lower rules complexity or with ones I am very familiar with. Not surprisingly, these are the oldies from an aging cadre of designers that seem somewhat forgotten. Your Kramer, Knizia, Dorra and Schacht . Your Dorn, Seyfarth, Sackson and Ornella. No insult to these guys that I love, but their names no longer linger at the lips of the modern board gamer who pine for Tascini, Luciani, Lang, Childress….. Just as well though.

Unlike a single complex game, I am more than thrilled to play a handful of lighter games. I can even fit several within a single night. Even though I occasionally feel the pangs for a heavy Euro, most often, I never regret totting out the oldies. It is like comfort food: I know what I am getting and I know it will be great even though I have eaten it hundreds of times.

Of course, this concept of playing classics clash with my other trait of wanting to play something new. While that desire still burns strongly, the rate of return is diminishing with each year. More and more, the percentage of games that thrill me or push me to hunt for a copy have gone off the cliff. I suspect this trend will continue up to a point where I stop buying new games. Alas, that is somewhat only true since I still buy new old games instead of new new ones. I am eager to try out new games, just not the latest behemoths.

Oh well, one must have some vices I suppose.