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For many gamers, their group is a critical part of how they grew up and who they are. Some relationships start in childhood and last a lifetime, but often life takes people in different directions and one can find themselves LFG - Looking For Group. Your group is more than folks to play games with; they hold a vital role in helping you feel fulfilled as a person.
Ray Oldenburg, urban sociologist, explains why having a gaming group might be so important in his “Third Place” theory. Simply put, an individual needs a relaxed place where they are recognized as individuals to feel whole. The “First Place” is Home. The “Second Place” is work. Typically in these first two places our relationships are hierarchical: Father, son, boss, employee, etc. To be a happy/satisfied individual, Third Place theory says a person needs another location where they are recognized as just another person rather for their role or responsibilities. An environment with a flat social structure, like a coffee house, barbershop, bar or favorite local game store, a location people gather and can become regulars.
"your third place is where you relax in public, where you encounter familiar faces and make new acquaintances." - Rebekah White
Oldenburg argues that these locations are not only essential for individual fulfilment but for building community. Oldenburg is talking about real physical places, but what you do during lockdown? Next door to Oldenburg’s Third Place is Dr. Adam Frazer’s Third Space.
Frazer is a performance researcher from Australia. He encourages people to create a mental space between work life and home life where you do three things before transitioning from one to the other - Reflect, Rest, and Reset. Reflect contains three questions: What went well? What did I achieve and How do I do better? Rest asks, “can I be still and present?” Reset wants you to seek the right mindset for the environment and know your intentions. All of these seem like something you do when you’re learning/playing a new game.
Oldenburg is talking about building places for thriving communities. Frazer is talking about building routine to make happier families and relationships. Both are recommending taking time out from work and home to be an individual in the moment. In the current state of the world, never has it been more important to have a community to belong to and happier relationships at home. How do you get that break from work and home when they are one in the same during the Pandemic? This is how a gaming group adds to your life and if you’ve never had one or yours is on pause, finding one should improve the total quality of your life.
A gaming group introduces you to new games and people in a social structure that is relaxed and helpful. The social contract is simple - if you’d like to learn or play a new game (and there are always new games), come join us. The goal is fun and the byproduct is friendship. Sharing laughter lowers the barriers between people and connecting with others helps with both stress and burn out. Reducing stress and burnout will help with both work and home life.
The good news: it has never been easier to find a gaming group! The bad news: for the next couple months, it might require more screen time. There are any number of online games and gaming communities that would welcome you. And of course, you're invited to join us board gamers at our Game Night.
Sometimes, folks need permission to take care of themselves. Selfcare is allowed to look like a game and sound like laughter. Come find someone to enjoy them with.
Release Updates
Publisher: The City of Games
Sovranti Developer: Paul
Paul’s been working on the architecture and plan of attack for the new titles. Laying out good code architecture is very important for faster/easier development.
Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group
Sovranti Developer: Eric
Over the past few weeks, Eric has been at work on Point Salad! It has similar elements to Sushi Go Party, so we’re excited about faster development!
The current focus is table layout but progress has been made on the main turn logic as well. Point Salad is straight forward but there are still some challenges. Namely, finding the optimal way to display cards to the user and find the best ways to calculate and display the end-round and end-game scoring. He’s looking forward to getting a beta version out soon!
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