The first board game I remember playing was chess. I was five or six years old and my mom would drop me off at the student union while she went to her university class. I’d sit there with a chess set and students would just sit down and play me. She would come back to find me with a small crowd of people. I didn’t think much of it then<span style=”color: #000000″>,</span> but I don’t think you could get away with that these days.
Fast forward to <span style=”color: #000000″>age 12</span> and I’m at a small home school we <span style=”color: #000000″>called</span>, “Carol’s School”. You would show up, grab a sheet and decide what subject you wanted to study that day. Playing Dungeons and Dragons qualified for reading, writing and even math. I know…best school ever!
That’s how it started. Then I just began combining mechanics from different games and creating my own and playing them with my little brother and my cousins. I made “Car Wars” and we would play it with Hot Wheels, Lincoln Logs and dice. That was before I knew there was already a game called, “Car Wars”. Oh well, the list went on!
It’s just so much fun to create <span style=”color: #000000″>and play in </span>these worlds and universes. I invite others to join in and make it real. I wonder if that’s how life on this planet began, as a game. Then it became serious and we just forgot to play and have fun. Because play just seems so natural. Remember the spirit of play.