Losing To My Shelf

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans…”

John Lennon

We all wish we had more time to do the things we enjoy.

My primary hobby is solo board gaming (probably no surprise, given the focus of this blog). Like most hobbies, many other things take priority – family, work, chores, etc.

That means I don’t have a regular solo gaming routine. I fit it in whenever I have the free time (and available energy) to get something to the table.

My already limited gaming time has taken an additional hit recently. I started a new job a couple months ago. That’s further limited my free time and impacted my gaming sessions.

It occurred to me recently that the additional demands on my time haven’t significantly impacted the time I spend on my hobby. It’s simply changed the way in which I experience it.

I’ve been spending less time at the table to be sure. But I’m still engaged in activities that I had considered “board game hobby adjacent” – keeping up with content on BoardGameGeek, watching board game-related YouTube videos, even rearranging my board game shelves.

After more consideration, I no longer view those things as “hobby adjacent” at all. They’re just other activities within the hobby itself. Reading about games, watching videos about games, playing games – they’re all just different forms of hobby engagement.

Even buying more board games is part of the hobby. My playing time has been reduced lately, but I’ve still found myself adding new games to my collection.

That seems almost non-sensical. Why buy more games when I’m struggling to find time to play any games?

I’m sure part of it is that board games have a unique availability lifecycle. Games hit the market in limited print runs. Popular games quickly become hard to find and may disappear from retail shelves for months before another print run is produced. Less popular games may never see another print run.

That anticipated scarcity certainly drives FOMO and can cause board gamers to nab certain titles when they become available for purchase, not necessarily when one has time available to play them.

But other times I find myself falling victim to simple consumerism. Something I’ve read or watched or heard about on a podcast triggers interest in a new game.

I rarely buy games on impulse and typically do quite a bit of research before adding a title to my collection. As I learn more about a title, I form a mental picture of me sitting at the table playing it.

10 different characters to play? I can see myself playing the game repeatedly, trying out the different abilities and options!

50+ hours of campaign content? I imagine the game left set up on my table as I’m drawn into this new world and its story over multiple sessions!

Expansions already available? I envision hours spent digging into everything, starting with the base game and then gradually adding the expansion goodness!

That new game could offer weeks, maybe even months, of enjoyment! I’ve gotta have it!

But the truth is a new game is unlikely to see weeks on my table. Any game spending months on my table is pretty much unheard of.

Maybe the new title doesn’t live up to expectation (or hype).

Maybe my infrequent availability to play anything causes my interest in a new game to wane before I’ve spent much time with it.

Maybe some new video or article or podcast sparks interest in another game and the whole consumerism cycle starts again.

I suspect what drives many of my game purchases is not so much the game itself.

It’s the idea that I’m buying time to play games – the sense that if I have that game on the table, surely I’ll find (or make) time to play it. That, in turn, will reenergize me and lead to more time playing all of my games.

That individual purchase isn’t just about the game. It’s an investment in my hobby!

But that’s not how it works.

My board game shelves are full. They’re overflowing. If I spent a week with every title I own, it would take years to get through them all.

I don’t need more games. I need more time to play games. And that’s something that’s just not found inside any game box.