Immersion and Investment trumps Win, Lose.

 In a time before the world wide web my friends and I would gather round the table and throw dice and move plastic or cardboard tokens on a board. We would accompany this by drinking beer on the weekend and coffee during the week. We would avidly dis each other for any in game infractions as par for the course. Someone would bring chippies or cheezels and these were downed quickly, and the residue spread all over the game playing surfaces. It was a different more primitive social event rather than what is now known as a dedicated games night. I loved these sessions, The core group of four to five guys played Talisman, Cosmic Encounter and for about 2 years an Avalon Hill game called Richtofens War. This last game was the mainstay of our mid weekly sessions. We refought a western front war in the air from 1916 to 1918. This was a day-by-day account not an abstract campaign. Two rather more dedicated members of the group rolled up characters and recorded their history. This history was written up as both personal biographies and also an overview of our campaign. I still have my unbound copy of this treasured epic. I think this demonstrated to me just how immersive games could be and how invested I could become. The owner of the game was going to give it a Viking sendoff (burn it) when our alternative war ended. I don't know if that ever happened.

Apart from the investment of keeping a character alive It never really mattered if I won or lost as long as I played to the best of my ability and added to the narrative. Apart from the game Cosmic Encounter I can't remember having any successive wins. I was good at Cosmic Encounter and won almost all the times I played. The problem became finding three plus challengers still willing to play against me, so this game slipped by the wayside. I don't think I have played it since 1987 mores the pity.

I have since played board games with adults who are for want of a label, the video game generation. Their playing style seems to be to max their stats at the expense of their fellow players immersion in the type of coop games that are really meant as shared experiences.

 If you play to win as your sole objective and in doing so alienate your friends, you have missed the point of most modern thematic board games. You might as well go back to playing video games.

No one I am now currently playing with really cares about winning or losing, just as long as you can share cool in game moments, like the time you......

My love for immersion and Investment in game play started here.

For a short time in my long life, I was unbeaten in this game.

Another early influencer.