wooster board game society

  • By Tami Lange
  • July 8, 2013
  • 419
                        
HED: Let the games begin SUMMARY: Wooster board game group welcomes new members for fun – and maybe a win or two By Tami Lange In a world of games played on the PlayStation, Wii and Nintendo – these guys are throwbacks to a simpler time. And they like it that way, thank you very much. On Sunday evenings in Lowry Center on The College of Wooster campus, more than a dozen people turn out for “game night.” They greet each other, pull boxes from their bags and totes and gather round a table to play. They are competitive, but congenial. And they’d like to see more people who are so inclined. The Wooster Board Game Society has been meeting Sunday evenings since April, and even in that short time period, its members say they’ve had a great time and have made lifelong friends. It all started with a Settlers of Catan tournament at the college, where Florence O. Wilson Bookstore director Mike Hicks, a veteran gamer, met Amy Besancon and Beth Ciha, both avid gamers. Besancon said she was hoping to start a Wooster=centered group, after playing in Millersburg, Medina and Cuyahoga Falls. “We had all the stuff,” she said, “but nowhere to have it.” Enter Hicks, who has been with the college for nine months, but who has amassed 1,500 board games in the past three decades. He moved from Wisconsin via South Bend, IN and was hoping to find new friends here. And so a new group was born, playing in conference rooms and common areas of Lowry – and occasionally inside the bookstore, where some board games are sold. It’s not Monopoly, Hicks said, though that game would be played should someone suggest it. More popular are what he termed “Euro-Style games,” with names like “Ticket to Ride,” and “Battle of the Bulge” and “Dix-It.” They are, Hicks said, “social strategy games. … Every game has a winner and a loser.” More important, Hicks and Besancon agreed, is the camaraderie. “We all have one thing in common,” Hicks said, “and that’s board games.” The evening attracts all types of players. Besancon works in the lab at the Cleveland Clinic/ Wooster. She’s been known to bring her 15-year-old nephew. College students also find their way to the tables. And, Hicks said, there’s one astrophysicist. Many of the games are based on battles – the Civil War and World War II are popular. It can be education, Besancon said. “You see the United States as it was in 1910 or the world as it was in 1912.” You don’t have to have any particular skills to join in, though Hicks has been ranked in two international gaming organizations and has played in games via mail where the play continues for more than two years. Besancon plays online with game enthusiasts across the planet. “It’s a really interesting opportunity to play with people all over the world,” Hicks said. His meeting with Besancon “was gaming Kismet.” Regardless of their gaming resumes, both Hicks and Besancon say they are nowhere near obsessive about winning. “I lose a lot and I don’t care,” Besancon said. “I’m a good loser.” “We’ll teach you how to win,” Hicks said, “how to win and lose.” All you have to do is show up at Lowry at 5 p.m. Sunday. There’s no charge. “Newcomers are welcome,” Hicks said, “and we teach.”


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