So far, I am on pace with last year. In other words, I am having another bad year in terms of number of games played. At this point in time last year, I had played 28 games of twelve different titles. This year, I have played 27 games of 14 different titles - though seven of those games are a special case as you will see below. It's amazing to me that I have dropped off that much.
I have received a lot of fun by learning new games. I have found that I learn a new game, and I am much better able to teach a new game, by playing the game through by myself with several players. It's a sort of "multiplayer solitaire", but it's been good. Of course, that's also kind of sad; I am getting the most gaming enjoyment from playing a game by myself. Ugh.
The good news is that the gaming group is managing to meet every month. The group was very hit an miss last year. Right now, we are hitting on all cylinders, and it looks like there isn't anything to get in the way this year. That's great, because my gaming outside of the group is down.
We also finally got the chess club started at the school. With only a month left, there was some question as to whether or not it was worth doing, but the kids really wanted it. We are just going to play, and not give much formal instruction. I played seven of the kids at once this past Wednesday, which is what I was referring to above. So instruction will be on an individual basis, as I point things out to the kids as they play.
We are going to try something different this year. I play a lot of chess on chess.com, which is a great site. (My number of plays doesn't include online chess games.) They have an associated website for kids, on which parents and coaches can control the amount of contact their kids have. I will be introducing it to the parents, so that the kids can continue to play over the summer with each other, and with me. I will be able to comment and keep track of their progress. If I can keep them playing, I will.
It's their move!
