The actual competition part of a game is not generally what I like about a game. Believe it or not. Yes, you guys in my group for board games probably think I'm just super competitive, but I'm not really. I actually prefer games where I'm not pitted against other people in the room. Seriously! And come on, none of you actually lost a limb or eyeball or anything...
It's funny how Monopoly has gotten many hours of my life, deep in the competition of it all, and I actually don't really like to play it solo versus everyone else. Well, okay this depends on who I play it with. I suppose that's part of it. I really enjoyed playing both Ticket to Ride and Modern Art with my group in that I enjoyed playing with the group. I feel like we all got to "bond" over the game. In spite of how much I didn't like Modern Art, nor did I like losing... or being screwed over.
Since I'm not usually up for competitive games because I don't like being head to head so much, I have a hard time with the realization and acceptance of something Tracy was saying in class tonight. She only just touched on it: how Americans never want to play harder, more complex games because they don't want to learn how to play and then since they've never played they really don't want to bother to learn and play even more. That's funny to me, although it does strike me as true, because I don't mind learning a complicated game (although I get impatient and want to start and learn as I go more than to just sit there and read through a giant book of rules) but I do mind the competition part of it. I guess I would have guessed that this society would be very competitive and be excited to play games that pit you against each other.
After having played these games while thinking about how the games work and how the players interact, it seems a bit more like since we ended up bonding over the game, maybe that does fit with the American standard of not playing complicated games or not playing them much because we tend, as a society, not to want to get involved with each other. Maybe being a gamer, at least identifying as a gamer, means that an individual is more open to going against that tendency in society and being more open as a person.
In spite of my lack of desire to compete, I do consider myself to be much more open and open minded than society's standard. So... I guess somehow that matches up with how things work, in spite of how I didn't see things that way before.
Brownie points to whoever know where my subject quote is from. ^_^