Are you Addicted to Crowdfunding?

 Are you addicted to purchasing board games in general?

A quick note about this blog…

Remember: Dr. Matt is not a clinician. Nothing in this post is intended to diagnose or treat and disorder or illness. If you think you need help with your mental health and wellness, or are experiencing an emergency, seek qualified care immediately. 

Anyone who has ever played an RPG knows that choices have consequences.In a multiplayer scenario, we may tend to make difficult game decisions more quickly than when we are playing solo, because we don’t want to slow things down for everyone. But it can be agonizing to ponder the fate of a beloved character you have spent months developing. Sometimes the dice seem to stick in your hand. 

“But what if they die?”

Real life decision making also comes with consequences.And I have noticed a tendency among those of us who love geeky things to hoard them. It seems like there is an entire geek-onomy that is determined to separate all of us from our money by creating niche merchandise for our various fandoms. Yay, capitalism!  

Then there is FOMO. What if that game on Kickstarter is going to be really, really good? It will be so much more expensive in retail and I probably won’t be able to get that cool, first player token made out of genuine, some-kind-of-metal!  

Then there are the minifigures, and the expansions, and the neoprene playmats, and the deluxe materials (even thicker cardboard!), and dozens of other things that activate our board game greed. 

And as a cognitive psychologist with colleagues who work in marketing, I can promise you; developers and publishers know exactly what you want. And they know precisely how to market those things to you. Crowdfunding sites, and to a lesser extent online auction sites,  are masters of this. So we need to ask ourselves, to what extent are we addicted to this aspect of our hobby. 

Feeling the pull of a new game or any other thing that we like is normal. But few of us have the resources to indulge every wish and desire. Board games are amazing, but it’s also nice to eat and enjoy the shelter of a roof over our heads. But crowdfunding punches us right in the impulse control center. And it can feel almost painful even as adults when we see something we want, but either can’t - or maybe shouldn’t - spend our limited treasure upon. Choices. 

Addiction, as defined by the American Psychological Association, is defined as “a state of psychological and/or physical dependence on the use of drugs or other substances, such as alcohol, or on activities or behaviors, such as sex, exercise, and gambling,” and this can include hobbies like board gaming. 

So here are some things to ask yourself about your board game purchasing:

• Am I maxing out my credit to purchase games?

• Have I ever been unable to purchase necessities or pay my regular bills (rent, food, utilities, clothing, tuition, etc.)?

• Am I embarrassed about how much I spend on my hobby, and do I ever lie or hide what I am spending from others, especially significant others?

• Do I have any more physically safe space to store my games?

• Has anyone ever criticized how much I spend on my hobby?

• Am I stuck in a cycle of emotional highs when I acquire a new game, alternating with  emotional lows when I cannot acquire a new game or back another campaign?

• Am I secretly feeling like my interest in board games isn’t what it used to be, and my new purchases are only providing momentary joy?

Board game “addiction” which is not really a clinical thing, would necessarily have a negative impact on your activities of daily life. Remember, I am not a clinician. I am a researcher. 

As I have written many times, board gaming can be very good for you. That’s essentially the primary recurring theme of this blog. But any good thing can be taken too far. I get it. RIght now, there are two projects active on Kickstarter that I am powerfully drawn too, And when I look at them honestly, I would be disappointed with anything less than the “all-in” bundles which will cost around $400-500 each with taxes and shipping. Is $1000 really worth it?

I am a teacher in my day to day life. That is and always has been a lot of money. So, I research games a lot before I buy them. The more it costs, the more I force myself to delay and think about it. I look at my game shelves, and consider those boxes that haven’t been opened in a long time. What happens if I pay another $1000 for games that gather dust? 

Hard questions when they involve things we love to do. But responsible adults have to ask and answer such questions all the time. And when it comes to financial health, I definitely do not recommend rolling a d20 to determine your path.  

In my case, I deliberate which decision makes the most sense.I ask myself things like:  Is either game really worth the price? Will I actually play everything in the boxes that arrive? Is this similar to other games I like in regard to theme and mechanics? Do I like the designer? Does the developer have a good track record of delivering on promises? Has the project been funded already? How many times will I need to play this game to make it worthwhile? 

I love calculating how much each play costs for a game. A popular app lets you track these statistics when you log a play session. Getting a games cost to be under $2 a play is a reasonable goal. But for a $500 pledge, I would need to play it 250 times. That means playing almost nothing else. And this fact helped me make my decision. I am not purchasing either. 

Is it going to sting when people post about how much they love it? Probably. But, as I said before, it’s good to eat and live in a house. 

I have also become more likely to accept standard components. As I browsed a few game stores last weekend, I couldn’t help but notice how dusty the hundreds of  Warhammer minifigures were. And I was keenly aware of what 8 year old me felt when The Empire Strikes Back hit theaters, and when the toys hit the stores. They literally printed pamphlets that you could take for free from the Kenner toy display. They were glossy, perfectly-sized for a child’s hands and gorgeous. “Collect them all!,” it said. And, boy, oh, boy did I want to. But alas, my parents were educators. The $40 AT-AT was never to be mine. 

All of us have these stories. I am convinced that this is why the vintage toy market is so insane these days. So many of us want to make up for past disappointments. But we don’t need everything. The contemporary political landscape should remind everyone about what happens when no one ever says no to us, and we never say no to ourselves. We just tend to get away with excess when it is “harmless.” Board games are not illicit substances that we inject into our veins or anything. But too much of anything is never good. 

I love board games for their art, design, mechanics, themes, immersion, puzzles, challenges, and even the way the pieces feel and sound. And if I am honest, I actually tend to be a little overwhelmed by some of the bigger boxes. Wood and cardboard just seem to make me happier somehow. You may be different, but it is very important in life to define what you like, what you want, and what you don’t. And if we look honestly at a lot of the things we buy, there are some that just do not provide the experiences we crave. 

It’s okay to make mistakes in game purchasing. But if you find you are buying dozens of games a year that you never play, then maybe it’s time to be a little more discriminating. 

No, your board game hobby and your crowd-funding habits are probably not symptoms of addiction. But they can still be problematic. I always like to feel that I can enthusiastically share about my games with my wife, friends, and family. I am sure I bore them with my energetic descriptions of games like Wingspan and Harmonies. Fortunately, I am an absolute delight to everyone who knows me. But if I were to be ashamed of a purchase, I would want to be able to talk to my wife about this as well. We have a dollar amount over which we will always discuss before making a purchase of any kind. That dollar amount happens to be right around the average cost of a board game. 

Maybe this is a good idea for you. But even if you live alone, it’s a good idea to set a budget for your hobbies. It can be a lot of fun to know on payday how much you can spend down at the game store. It also has the positive side-effect of helping you to really hunt for the games that will have longevity on your table. 

Games are a good thing, but we can love them too much. Sites like Kickstarter are a powerful driving force in the development of outstanding new content. But there have been many notable failures. So use crowdfunding wisely. Enjoy those days when the UPS driver has to use a forklift to drop off the haul on your front porch. But please be mindful of what you are spending. You will be happier in the long run. 

Play on responsibly, friends!

See you next time. 

• Dr. Matt

Wargames and the Veteran

 Wargames and the Veteran

             Conspiring to destroy the Roman Empire on my lunch break (Game: Rome Must Fall - a solitaire, roll & write PnP by Martin Melbardis)

To begin with, I am not a "combat veteran." This often leads to awkward conversations when people see, old on-legged me, stumping around in a US Navy Ball cap or t-shirt. No. I wasn't blown up or shot. And the only shots I "fired in anger" were from hundreds of miles away from any enemy. But I was injured in military service, and because I am an alum of the nation's oldest military college, I have lost friends in every single branch of the military. Additionally, my father, an uncle and both grandfathers are veterans of some of the fiercest combat of the 20th century.

So I am sensitive to some things. I tend to be very choosy about wargames. I don't think I will ever be able to play games based upon the battles in Fallujah, or Operation Gothic Serpent (Black Hawk Down), or anything that takes place in Afghanistan circa 2011. There are too many faces and names that would be brought to mind by association with those events. I enjoy board gaming as an escape and as a form of therapy. Reenergizing those painful memories would accomplish neither goal, and could even result in my having to contact a therapist again. 

Wargaming can be a LOT of fun. But historic wargames that are based upon real events can be triggering for those of us who experienced those events. In my case, I was often sitting in some far away CIC or TOC. But make no mistake, it was the late 20th century. I saw friends die on video feeds from Predator Drones. I listened to the radio reports when someone was injured or killed. And while I can see how some people find that playing games related to their own combat expeirence can be healing, for me and most of the vets I know, it can be triggering. Sure - it might be great to play a scenario and imagine saving my friends' lives this time. But what if they die again. I don't care to relive those moments that way. And in my experience, neither do most combat veterans. 

This is where historic context comes in. The anonymity of the counters in most historic wargames keeps me comfortably distanced from relatives who fought and were wounded or killed in historic battles. Sure. there is the Captain of Pennsylvania Cavalry, Patrick Fleming, buried at Arlington mere steps from General Lee's mansion. And my Dad's uncle died on Bataan. But those are far enough back in family history and lore that it doesn't feel the same as if I were moving cardboard members of the 75th Ranger Battalion down a dusty, Mogadishu street in 1993. 

I love Mike Lambo's solitaire games for this reason. He balances the planning and tactics of combat, whether on a large scale (Battles of Medieval Britain, Battles of Napoleonic Europe), or the smaller unit or individual scale (Lone Sherman, Long Range Recon Patrol). As it happens, I did have ancestors and older relatives involved in all of the wars represented by this game. But, I had to endure reading about my ancestor being behaded by Richard III in high school class reading Shakespeare, so these games don't touch any nerves. 

What wargaming does for me is to scratch a certain itch, and allow me to exercise the mental muscles I developed as a junior naval officer who then, as now, probably liked to think of himself as a better strategist and tactician than he really was, or is. Playing a game like Compass' Golden Age of Piracy: 1718 (Joe Carter, 2025) is an outlet for my role playing enjoyment and a challenge for the part of me that enjoys puzzling out international intrigue and conflict as well as military strategy, tactics, and the most important aspect; logistics. Dan Verssen Game's Leader Series (my Favorite is Phantom Leader - Dan Verssen, 2010) let's me revel in the play of intelligence gathering, planning, loading out, and executing strikes just like the old days. but in a "safer" way. The same goes for many other wargames set in the past or future. Something about charts, tables, and detailed lists of each turns actions and choices clear my head and let me focus on the things I once sought to master in real lifem but now - no lives are on the line, I can enjoy combat for a couple hours, and still be calm and ready for bed after.

As I have written before. Board gaming is a health hobby (as long as we don't become addicted to chasing and purchasing every new title, or crowdfunding every cool looking "big box").  Board gaming, including wargaming, has been found to benefit brain health, and emotional well-being. As a solo pursuit, it can strengthen neural networs and synaptic function, and may delay or prevent age-related cognitive challenges. As a multi-player experience, it can be enormously life-affirming, provide a strong envrionment for laughter and joy and provide all of the benefits of solo gaming as well. Even the visual and tactile elements of playing board games can be grounding and aid with emotional regulation. And all of these points have helped me justify my own purchases and crowdfunding support. Make of that what you will - but don't tell your SO that I said you had to pledge that $800 "all-in" bundle you've been lusting after. That's the subject for another post. 

Enjoy your week! PLAY ON!

--- Dr. Matt

Winging It!

This post is about the now classic Stonemaier Game, Wingspan. Others have long ago provided excellent reviews and "how-to-play" resources, so I will not be "Wingsplaining" those to you. This blog is primarily concered with the mental health benefits of board gaming. But before I explain that, I need to provide some background.

When I entered the world, my parents were recently re-married. All of my half-siblings were still negotiating their new reality as a blended family. But they were all teenagers or entering their twenties. For most of them, I suppose I was a novel distraction at times. One sister had me riding on horseback long before I could walk. Another used to take me absolutely everywhere with her like a trophy. But soon, everyone was building their lives and moving on, as it should be. That is, as they say, "life."

The good thing, the aspect of my life that kept me from feeling lonely and isolated was that my parents managed an outdoor education facility near the central California coast. Dad was the director of outdoor education for a central valley school district and simultaneously ran the facility year round for schools and YMCA summer programs. Mom was the head cook and kitchen manager. I was still pre-school aged, but my life was rounded out by learning to swim and being in nature. 

Once it was time for me to start school, we had to move to the city of Lodi, CA. My father became a science teacher again, and my mother, predictably, became a school cook. But although this meant that my time in the California Redwood rainforests was now limited to the summer, Lodi was about half the size it is now. And my family rented a home on my godparents' ranch. Now my childhood playground was hundreds of acres of cherry and almond orchards, and vineyards (which explains my stong interest in another Stonemaier design, Viticulture, which I hope to get my hands on soon). Some of my best memories include sneaking up on the men harvesting grapes by crawling through irrigation ditches, or climbing a cherry tree to read and just...be, the blossoms falling on the pages like fragrant snow. And there were birds! So many birds!

Lodi's location in a large watershed made it a crossroads for so many species. I knew them all as a child and would call out their names whenever I saw them. I can recall waking up to the sound of Canadian Geese returning, and the gangly Snowy Egrets lifting off from flooded fields. Until my voice dropped in adolescence, I could mimic many bird calls. I specialized in Corvids. For a time, I seem to have believe I could actually talk to Crows. Even now, I toss them little goodies while walkig my dog.  As a schoolteacher, I have noticed that Brewer's Blackbirds love school campuses. I never realized how many people are afraid of birds. And Brewer's can be pretty aggressive. But not with me for some reason. 

 

I recall as a child that I played alone and with friends, wandered miles everyday, and experienced the bliss that only an elementary school aged child can; absolute freedom from responsibility. As I said, my parents continued to work in summer camps almost every year, and I still spent a lot of time in the woods. Usually alone, and always absolutely engrossed by the life around me. To this day, a half century later, I am in love with nature. And when I have to reset my hear, mind, and soul, I go to the trees. 

The thing about trees is that they are so full of life. Not just the tree itself, but all the things the tree supports. If you have never been up high in a tree, I cannot recommend it enough. Yes - it is a bit scary ascending a Redwood, but the canopy is something that must be experienced. 

But this post is about Wingspan. The reason I began by talking about nature is that one constant in all the woodsy  biomes I've experienced has been the birds. It saddens me that for many, birds are reduced to pleasant background noise that is never consciously attended to. Birds are among the most diverse and amazing vertebrates on the planet. There may be 20,000 different species and subspecies! (Wingspan isn't going anywhere with that much room for expansion) It was Aves that perhaps more than any other taxonomic class that famously inspired Darwin's development of "natural selection." Beaks, plumage, and diet. Birds are critical in every web of life we can find no matter the biome. 

And perhaps that is why I loved Wingspan before I ever played it. Just looking through the cards is a treat. The artwork is marvelous and exceptionally detailed. The game is partly an interactive field guide thanks to the efforts of  Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo, Natalia Rojas, Elizabeth Hargrave, Greg May, and Beth Sobel. But it is more than that. Embedded in the mechanics of gameplay are several realities of the interaction between the ecosystem and each bird represented on the cards. Ecology is the foundation of the strategy. This understanding of each species' niche must have been a focus when Hargrave was designing this "niche" game. And it is obvious that everyone involved in this project loves birds as much or more than I do. This is a game I savor every time I play. And I am not agonizing over strategy, I am admiring the birds. 

As I prepared this piece, I had Wingspan on the table for over a week with nature sounds and gentle instrumental music playing. Certain cards brought to mind the birdsong of places that I have not seen in decades and may never see again. Sentimental? Perhaps. I recall seeing the card of a curlew that has recently been declared extinct. Games like Wingspan remind us of our responsibilities and our own dependence upon the natural worlds. Science learns a lot about the state of the environment from observing and studying birds. The "canary in the coal mine" gets a lot of mileage. 

Let me pause here:

I have heard people complain that WIngspan is too complicated to enjoy. In my opinion, it earns the mid-weight classification that reviewers have given it. But the more you play these types of games, the easier it becomes to learn and master new ones. This is not a tough game to learn or teach. I recently unboxed and played a game that I will not be writing about. It was created by a scientist, and had some outstanding mechanics to represent astrophysics combined with a solid, "heavy" Sci-Fi theme. But it was a huge tablehog, had at least five times more pieces than it needed, was extremely fiddly, and had about 25 actions per turn. It was NOT relaxing or entertaining. Wingspan is the polar opposite of this.

The experience of playing Wingspan can be extremely relaxing and centering. I tend to play using the brilliant Automa that Hargrave invented. Aside from offering a serious challenge, the Automa creates so much variation that replayability is very high for me. I do not get bored with this game despite playing it more than 20 times. When I discussed setting up a game night for some colleagues, Wingspan was by far the most requested game. 

Despite the intricacy of the game's mechanics, it is relatively easy to learn and teach. I still make little errors here and there, but nothing monstrous. For a game with a serious reputation it still manages to feel "cozy" somehow. 

And that is important. 

One of the consequences of my life choices (the military, playing high school and college sports even though I am a lousy athlete) led to some serious injuries that later led to infection and loss of my left leg below the knee. Thanks to sepsis, I nearly died. And no matter what Nietzsche says, that which doesn't kill you is not guaranteed to make you stronger. In my case, I was left with chronic pain and frequent insomnia. My bedtime routine requires 90-120 minutes of careful avoidance of the things which irritate the wrong parts of my nervous system. 

Last night I was able to get home early. I teach college courses after work at a nearby prison, and evidently someone was misbehaving. The lockdown cancelled my lecture. This let me hit the table for almost two hours with Wingspan. 

This put me in the best headspace and the most relaxed physical posture I had experienced in days. Now, middle-aged men, and the women who sleep with them will understand this. I did not wake up once. Not one single time. I had no phantom pain, no mind racing, no worry - and no biological imperative. 

The game was the perfect antidote to the horrifying news cycle, lousy weather and traffic, challenging students (and adults at work), and even my old, busted body somehow. 

A lot of us wonder if we are contributing. I wonder about it all the time. Meaning and purpose has always been more important to me than title and salary. And I don't know the designers and artists for Wingspan, or the people at Stonemaier Games apart from their work. So, I cannot know if they share this specific anxiety. But if they do, I can assure them; their work matters. It really does make a difference. And judging from the number of expansions, accessories, and sales volume of Wingspan and their other games, I am not the only one who feels this way. 

A good game melds a good interpretation of its genre as well as things like strong and reliable mechanics, mental challenge, escapism, and art. In those areas, Wingspan checks every box at the highest level. It's a game that lets you immerse in the marvelous beauty and complexity of birds and their place in nature. And this, I have found, can be both calming and healing. 

So this doctor can enthusiastically recommend Wingspan for its challenge and therapeutic nature. And when I checked today, it was still on sale at Stonemaier Games. Go take a look if you haven't gotten your hands on a copy yet. 

And hopefully, I will soon be able to offer my thoughts and experiences with Finspan and Viticulture. Many of the same clearly brilliant people are involved in those two games as well. 

Until next time:

- Get away from the screens as often as you can.

- Set boundaries for your consumption of news and other media.

- Get outside; walk in the woods, listen and look at the birds.

- Be present.

- Rest.

- And PLAY!

Dr. Matt

The game table in my study, ready to take flight...