GameALot 2014 review

I am so tired, wired and inspired. This past weekend was a whirlwind blur of board game excitement called GameALot. First off I would like to thank the planning committee, as well as John and the crew at Mission Fun and Games for all their hard work at bringing together another successful event. Sorry to everyone that should be mentioned in this post but I really suck at remembering names.

I have to say I really needed a fun weekend. Particularly after the week of suck I had at work that peaked on the Friday of gruelling misery. I got out of work a little late, raced over to pick up the wife from her work and we were off. After aggravating delays on St. Albert Trail out to the event I was just about ready to explode in rage. Needless to say I started off in a little bit of an antisocial mood and had a desire for destruction and chaos.

It’s a good thing our first game was King of Tokyo. Kaiju monster brawling mayhem really lets out the frustration. The guy running this one was really friendly and explained the game well. Being surrounded by jovial people, the slap of cards and the rattle of dice quickly melted away the stress and I just had to get more. I raced over to the Valley of the Kings table while my wife took off for Survive: Escape from Atlantis. I followed up with Citadels then met back up with the wife for Lunch Money and Beer money. We finished the night apart with the wife on Ticket to Ride and me playing Gloom with some very creative story tellers. It was at this point my wife reminded me she had only had a bag of chips and a box of candy to eat all day. We went off in search of late night food then crashed into bed.

Bought two games, picked up three door prizes

Contrary to my usual greeting the day with a groan, I jumped out of bed on Saturday eager to get another day in. The wife… is even less of a morning person than I am but she crawled out and was quickly ready to roll. This year included a “play it to win it” contest for the game Enigma. Being able to play a game for free and getting a chance to win a free copy tickled every cheapskate bone in my body. The wife and I both had to play. The wife took the first play at Enigma while I bought raffle tickets. My first game of the day was Fantasy Frontier. The wife and I met up for Roll through the Ages. We followed up with Legendary Encounters: Alien which we had to buy after playing. We played a short game of Resistance which flowed into the event announcements. We followed up with Pandemic until John walked up and uttered those three words I needed to hear from him: “Walking Dead Risk.” My heart aflutter I raced over to meet up with another Matt, only this one is from the shows Caution: May Contain Nuts and Tiny Plastic Men. I held my own for a little while but the zombies would not leave my prisoner army alone. I had to leave the game for Betrayal at House on the Hill which I had signed up for long ago. I was already doomed in the Risk game as the dice's hatred for me was strong that day. My team was all Carl's and Lori's I think.

I had some issues on Sunday because I hadn’t slept well overnight. I woke up with my neck muscles all kinked. It took a while to get moving but the wife and I headed back out for the final day. My first game of the day was the epic fantasy game Runewars while the wife took off for a day of Princess Bride and Cthulhu Munchkin. After my first game I had a raging tension headache, John was kind enough to get me some painkillers. After spending some time outside in the quiet cool air with a Redbull and the painkillers kicking in I was able to resume playing. I probably shouldn’t have because I still felt pretty blah. I finished the day with A Touch of Evil. I wish I had time to meet up with Roberta Taylor who came out to play and sign copies of her game Octopus Garden, but I was too into the games I was already in at the time. I wanted to talk to her about game design advice as I have some ideas kicking around in my head.

All in all I had a great time. I played quite a few new games and had some fun times with old favourites. I wish we had signed up earlier and taken time to host some games as I really like bringing new people into the hobby. I want to get more involved in the local community. Hold me to it next year readers! I’m told I need to work on my social skills and human interaction, so could you give me a hand? I also missed out on getting into games I wanted to try like the Firefly game, Princess Bride: Storming the Castle, Blood Bowl Team Manager and so many others. Games filled up quickly. Unfortunately we didn’t know for sure if we would be able to go until the week before. Next year we will need to plan ahead.

I have to finish off with what I loved most about this event. Even though I’m socially inept I was able to meet a host of gamers and network into the local game community (although to be honest my wife did a better job of that than I did.) There were some fantastic people who came out with a love of games we were able to share with the larger community. I got to sit in on games I love and discover new strategies from new players. The event introduced me to people I really want to game with again. I am really looking forward to getting into the drop in gaming this year.

Here’s another big thank you for all the fun to everyone who participated in GameAlot. I will definitely see you again next year!