“Hey! They’re having a better time than us!”

I was at a gaming convention a few months ago (imagine that), and was playing one of “Will Kenyon’s Signature Games” with a bunch of my really good friends. We’d been playing the same game for a couple of hours, and I guess we were getting a little boisterous. It wasn’t a situation where someone asked us to settle down, though - people at game conventions are generally tolerant of a certain level of rowdiness.

Instead, a group of guys at a nearby table, who’d been sitting at THEIR game for a couple of hours as well, hunched over a bunch of cardboard bits and colored wooden squares, looked up at us, and one of them said,”Sounds like they’re having a better time than us.”

I think he was right. When me and my friends looked over at them, we saw nary a smile - only hunkered down, sweaty guys glowering at their game board. And the thing I immediately wanted to ask them was: Are you not having a good time? Because if you’re not, why are you playing that game? Or any game, for that matter. If it’s not making you happy, then what’s the point?

Playing board games is supposed to make you happy. Otherwise, why do it?