103. A New Year 2019: 12. What's so great about Board Games (Individual)

You might be wondering.... what's the deal about board games? What's so special about this hobby. Let me share with you my thoughts in this post and the next.

Today, I look from the perspective of the individual gamer. What's so good about it, for me?

1. Strategic thinking: All games have different objectives, and all games have different ways of achieving them. As a player, one is placed in a position to think of the different ways one can meet those objectives. For Solo games, one has to meet the conditions set. For cooperative play, one has to achieve the joint goals and for competitive play, one has to beat the rest to achieve victory.

2. Creative thinking: For all games, there are usually more than one way to achieve the goals. As a player, one is forced to come up with ideas on the fly to meet the different challenges posed by opponents or the games themselves.

3. Planning and analysis: Most games are not straightforward. Many require planning ahead, many turns ahead, and this definitely makes one plan and then analyse the plan as the game goes along, changing tactics if required.

4. Forward thinking: As most games go on, the games themselves may take a twist, or opponents make surprise decisions that may cause one to be at a disadvantage. To minimise the risk of this happening, one has to think forward, in advance, and preparing to meet head on what may or may not come up in a game.

5. Consideration of options: A player will have many chances at every point of most games, to have to weigh options. Is move A better than move B? What if my opponent makes move C? Will I have to make other options? The to and fro of the game dynamics gives a player choices to make all the time. This leads to quick thinking and fast analysis skills that have to be developed and practised.

6. Decision making: After consideration of options, the crux of the matter will be making the decision. If a player was an indecisive person, that will change quickly as the game waits for no one. One will be put in situations that require not only quick thinking, but firm decision making as well. This is the best place to train our decision making skills, and make us better decision makers over time.

7. Prioritising goals: Numerous games have multiple ways to win. Which ones should we focus on? Is one way of winning better than another? What if we try to meet all goals? Like real life, we do not have the luxury to meet all goals, so we need to learn to prioritise. What can we do with the limited resources we have?

8. Building personal competitiveness: Do we feel lethargic in life? Do we just want to remain status quo? Games keep us on our toes... games keep us balanced, between competitiveness and cooperation and also working alone... they keep us well....

What other strengths do you know of? Let me know.....

Stay tuned next week for more strengths, from a group perspective....