Resolutions

I know, it’s Christmas Eve, so talking about New Year’s resolutions might feel a little early, but I thought I’d get them out of the way now, so I can enjoy the holidays. As this blog is about tabletop games, my list of resolutions featured here focuses solely on what I promise to do, or stop doing, with regards to the hobby. Of course, there are many other things, that are personal and private to me and that I aim to become better at next year, but that I won’t mention below.

I think the most obvious resolution is to continue working on becoming less of an alpha player. As I described in my article “Alpha One“, I feel I have already made some improvements this year, but my journey will continue in 2020. I hope that I will become even more fun to play games with.

My next goal is to play games more repeatedly. I want to stop chasing after the latest and hottest, but instead enjoy the games that my friends and I already have, until such a point that we have literally played it enough. I have already done that with some games this year, but I still have added a lot of new games to my collection.

The pressure here comes from the blog. I want to publish one review article each week, which means I have to play 52 new-to-me games every year. That’s insane of course, and that’s one reason why I have introduced my Takebacks series of article, where I take a second look at games I have previously reviewed. So as part of my previous goal, I also want to reduce the pressure I put on myself through the blog.

Generally, my plan for next year is to play more – both with my wife and daughter, as well as with my friends. After all, playing games is so much fun and brings us together. I want everyone to enjoy this amazing hobby of ours.

So leading on from that, my last resolution is to continue to be a positive voice in the tabletop games community and do what I can to support positive change. There is only so much I can do, but even if I just send someone a message of support or help by sharing the amazing work other people in the industry already do, I will have done something. Of course, I hope I can do more by taking a more active role and do my bit to move this industry closer to being a safe place, with an equal playing field, where everyone is respected, as long as they respect others, and where we can all come together and enjoy playing tabletop games of whatever type, complexity, length or style we want, without fear of being marginalized.

What tabletop game New Year’s resolutions can you come up with? Are there things you want to do differently next year when it comes to playing games? Are there new types of games you want to try? Have you got other plans to do with the hobby? Please share all your thoughts in the comments below. I’d love to hear what you are planning for 2020.

Audio Version

Links

• Blog article “Alpha One”: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2019/12/03/alpha-one/