For those of you who haven't seen me much in the past two years, you may not know about my new obsession: board games. My college friends will probably only remember that they refused to play the one board game, Axis and Allies, that I brought to school, even though one year for my birthday all I asked for was for people to play it with me (for shame!).

However, since my exodus down south, I have broadened my horizons some. It all starts with the Spiel des Jahres (German game of the year) for 1995, The Settlers of Catan. My acquaintance with this game occurred somewhat circuitously. My friend Otto mentioned to me that I might like it probably my junior year at Wash U. Then, shortly after I came back to Fayetteville, I joined a once-a-month game night group who introduced it to me. Not long after that, my step-brother Brian got a copy and the craze spread from Brian and me to the rest of our family.

After a while of playing Settlers, I began to thirst for a little more variety in my gaming. I soon began buying other European games, and now I have quite the collection. Not yet the collection of my friend George, the host of our game night who owns probably over fifty games, but I’m working on it.

You may have noticed that my favorite website is boardgamegeek.com. You should check it out sometime if you haven’t already.

This begins my series of posts about gaming. I will devote an entire post to different games that I own and that are out there. You should think about trying out some of them.