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I think most of us have played board games since we were very young. For me boardgaming is a hobby because I have spent so much time on my collection ( not near as much as many in the hobby ). Boardgaming did not really "start" to become a hobby for me until I was about 11 years old or so. My hobby started due to a commercial. This was around 1990 or 1991. It was a commercial for a game called "HeroQuest" (image below).
Though I did not know it at the time, it was presented in such a way that it almost looked like a dnd session. It had actors dressed up in monster costumes and special effects. It had the players at the table and someone seeming to "run" the game at the table. I had not yet heard of Dnd at that age. What I saw on the screen looked amazing. I didnt care as much about the fancy special effects or the players. What I cared about was a game that had a three dimensional board. It had opened and closed doors and furnature and....treasure chests. It looked amazing. I remember begging my parents to head over to our local walmart just to look at the box. It was to expensive for my parents to buy but I wanted it badly. I lost count of the number of times I would go to the boardgame section of walmart just to look at the box. For the life of me I also cannot remember how I was able to get a copy. But, after a couple of months I finaly had it. Every one of my friends that I introduced it to loved it. It saw a lot of play. I would pull it out on my own and try to come up with solo rules for when I was alone. Then came the day that it "disapeared". This was during a time when the huge "demonic panic" was going around. My parents attended church and HeroQuest definately fit the bill for the types of mundane objects that could be "Demon Possessed". So we are pretty sure that my dad threw it away like he did other things that he felft were potentially having a demonic influence on the house.
About the age of 13 one of my friends, who's parents owned a local hobby store, called me on our landline. He asked me about coming over to play a game of "magic" with a "gathering" of people. All I heard was gathering and magic. I didnt want to be around a lot of people and I really didn't like magic tricks at the time. I asked him what he was talking about so I could shut him down and avoid it. He told me it is a Game. I asked how magic tricks were a game and that I really wasn't interested in magic tricks. He told me it is not magic tricks. I was so confused. What was he "on about"?. He was begging me to come visit him so he could show me. He only lived a block or two away. So I agreed, very reluctantly, and made my way over to his home.
When I got there I saw piles of brown colored cards with different colored gems as artwork (image below).
Great....it is a magic trick game. Ugh..here we go. He then went on to insist that I try to play after he explained the rules. I was not following, he told the rules to quick, he didn't give examples. I was lost. So he said, lets play and you will get it. He was not wrong, I figured it out and we played and I had fun despite loosing over and over. "Magic: The Gathering" would then become and obsession for the nexy 4 years of my life and an on again off again addiction before it would finally become a rare pastime to have fun with. I had good experience and life lessions from playing the game and interacting with my peers in a competitive environment. I was lucky it was allowed in our house. Around he age of 12 is about the time that my mother, in particular, started backing off of the satanic panic button. My father would still have isses for some years on "some" things. He seemed to be picky about what demonic things looked satanic or just...fictional. I never did figure that out. But irregardless this was a good time for them to start easing off the panic as it allowed me to be introduced to the card game.
Right around the same time ( I would have been about 15 ) I would visit a store on the square owned by my friends parents ( The same friend that introduced me to Magic: The Gathering ). They had all sorts of things at their store. They had computer games, lead & pewter miniatures, doll houses, board games, terrain, paints, game rule sets. I loved his parents store. In the back of the store things got a little interesting, dont worry, not that interesting. They had tables that were placed togther and what looked to be rolling hills, cliffs, trees etc. On these boards I would find tiny soldiers with spears, swords, hourses, elephants, you name it. Lining each side of the table were groups of adults and they were rolling dice and moving these "stands of men" across the table. It was like they stole a miniature reinactment peice from a museum and decided to play with it. I had just witnessed my first miniature war game. They even let me participate. I was their "die" ( dice ) roller. They soon learned that I was best reserved for the "low rolls" as I tended to roll ones and twos for some reason. They would chear every time I finished my roll. The other team would get jelous. They would even say that it was not fair to use me for rolls and that it was some form of "cheating". It was fun to watch and listen to them. I would then go home and tell my father about it. He took interest and decided to visit himself. My friends father was more than happy to talk about the miniature wargame to my dad. My father seemed very interested but he explained that the "ancients era" that they were playing was not his favorite part of history. He asked if there was anything out there that focused on "Knights and Armor". Why yes there was and the store owner was more than happy to order a rule book and metal miniatures for us. My father was very happy, my mother was not. $40+ dollars for a game manual and miniatures was NOT in the budget and was not cheap at the time. This would turn into future DIY and painting projects for me and my father ( that is a story for later in the hobbies section ).
Some time later around 1994-1995 I would see older teens, and sometimes my friend, going to the back of the hobby store. I always thought it was just for adults. I would eventually get the guts up to ask my friend what was going on back there. He said, "Oh...they are playing BattleTech. Want to see?" I always had to have permision to go back there so I was nervous but he led me back, and this time, instead of ancient warriors there were giant hulking "robots" (image below) on the terrain tables. I didnt know what I was looking at but it looked really cool.
I was so excited about what I saw. I wanted to know all about it. After hearing about what it would cost for the terrain and everything else that went into playing it I knew I wouldnt be able to get into it. Too much money. I would still stop by and check out their games in progress. I would listen to their campaign stories. not quite a year later, on my birthday, my father would walk through the door with a ton of plastic bags. The store owner knew how much I loved the game. He knew I had never played it. Evidently my father and the owner got to talking and the owner was wanting to sell his battletech terrain they had in the back. So he made my father a discounted/used offer and my father took him up on it. So in those bags were TONS of terrain. My dreams had come true and I had no idea that it was coming. The terrain got a LOT of play with me and my friends. Although I do not have the terrain any more I still have my original 2nd edition battletech boxed set with my notes from when I was a young teen.
Battletech would be my last non-standard boardgame ( eventhough it is technicaly a miniatures game ) that I would get into until I was into my 30s. I didnt have a lot of people to play with and I was in small town USA. So buying board games would be buying something that would just sit on the shelf. Also, funds for a while were tight enough that I chose to invest in other forms of more immediately rewarding entertainment.
When I hit my mid to late 30's I started to invest in boardgames again. I still had the issue of not being able to find a game group or friends to play with..but...things had changed in the board game world. There were a LOT of board games that were considered cooperative or "solo". This meant that I could play many boardgames on my own. I wouldnt have to jump to another side of the table and play as my own opponent. So as of today I have a modest collection and 90% of my titles are cooperative/solo board games. I was also able to get ahold of the relaunch of the original heroquest (gifted to me by my stepson).
More to come...
