Setting board game goals for 2024
There's joy in a challenge. I'm setting my 2024 board game goals.
One of my favorite yearly exercises around board games is a simple one, I like to set a variety of (what I hope to be) interesting goals at the start of the year, both to provide myself some guidance for my gaming, and to keep myself tracking my plays regularly.
I know every year that I won’t meet all of my goals. I think that’s OK. I have one particularly lofty goal of playing cooperative games 2,020 times in the 2020s. I have no confidence I’ll even meet half of that, but I enjoy checking in on the goal somewhat regularly, thinking about what I’ve been playing, and generally just engaging in reflection about the hobby.
My goals for 2023 didn’t quite come to fruition. I made it through 23 of my 27 plays for the alphabet challenge (I missed O, X, Y and Z — how I missed O is beyond me, and I think I might have missed a play of On Tour. Such is life.). I made it through 67% of my 10x10 challenge, which ended up being quite a bit closer than I’d anticipated. I did complete (and then some) a 50 new-to-me game challenge, which pushed me to learn a few games for which I’d been putting off reading rulebooks.
But this isn’t about my 2023 goals, truly. This is about the overly ambitious, terribly unlikely goals I’m setting for myself in the coming year. While I’m a few years yet from my “playing games with my kid” era, I’m very much entrenched in the “playing games with younger cousins” era. It’s something that’s provided me more (and different) gaming opportunities. I’m also trying to play more games online in various forms with friends we’ve moved away from; I do track these games, too, and that’s the first goal we’ll talk about today.
100 online game plays
I suspect I’ll blow through this challenge if my current pace continues, which isn’t particularly a bad thing. I know there’s a contingent of folks out there who prefer not to track virtual plays, but I am not one of those people. I love tracking those games, and while I might exclude online plays from some challenges (that’s to be determined, though), I love the idea of playing more online games with friends. (You know who you are — let’s do this.) Even if it’s purely asynchronous, I think about the people with whom I’m gaming while I take my turn. I love a virtual game night as much as anyone, but taking a few turns throughout the course of the day is invigorating.
100 cooperative game plays
This 2,020 cooperative games in the 2020s challenge isn’t going to meet itself! And, really, neither am I, because this pace won’t even get me halfway there. Maybe I’ll surprise myself, but I really don’t think that’s likely.
I enjoy cooperative games, and there is, for me, a lot of value in cooperation. The usual expressions of worry about ‘quarterbacking’ fall short with me; if anything, as a more established gamer, it’s a reminder that I don’t need to — and shouldn’t — take control in these games. More quarterbacking-proof games (say, Spirit Island) are incredible and a great time, but even a classic game of Pandemic is a delight to me. If everyone’s on the same level, you can really have a great time discussing options. If not everyone is, there’s a fantastic opportunity for someone to learn and grow into the game. I love that.
100 trick-taker and climber/shedder plays
I love trick-taking games. That’s pretty obvious by this point. I’m far from alone in that, too. The familiar and traditional patterns can broaden the scope of those with whom you play, and the narrowness of the mechanical structures lead to innovative play. We could sit down today and play 100 different trick-taking games, and each of them would feel like a unique, interesting game.
5 new games 5 times each
I have a tendency — and I’m guessing a fair few of you reading do, too — to try to speedrun through my collection. I’m always trying to teach something new and play something new. There are plenty of people who are supportive and play new games with me, but I’d like to try to focus further in on some of those new designs rather than jump from game to game. What will those games be? Your guess is as good as mine! In terms of priority, this is probably my top goal. It’s not comprised of too many plays, but I want to find new games to bring into regular rotation.
Raise my H-index to 20
An H-index in gaming is the number of games (N) you’ve played at least N times. In my case, I’ve played 17 games at least 17 times, and it will be easy to reach 18, as I’m only two plays away. 19 and 20 will be a bit harder but not requiring too monumental an effort. I should be able to reach that by the end of the year, and I’d really like to. A common theme here is playing more of the games I’ve already put time into, and I hope that plays out well.
And several more
Without completely enumerating my challenges, I’d like to try the following:
Play 20 old favorites — games I haven’t played since at latest 2021
The infamous alphabet challenge — do I think I’ll make it? Probably not. But do I think I’ll come close again? Yes.
A good old fashioned 10x10 challenge. This was the first board game challenge I was introduced to back in the days of Reddit being one of the best places to chat (or, in my case, lurk on conversations) about the hobby. There’s a reason this is an old favorite, and that’s because playing 10 games 10 times each is a bit harder than you’d think when you’re constantly pushing new games to the table.
I’m sure I’ll set a few more later in the year. I think there’s a lot of value in being flexible with goals and setting new ones, and I love the idea of setting a stretch goal after reaching a goal. We’ll see where that takes me.
Thank you, as always, for reading Don’t Eat the Meeples. 2023 was not the best year for gaming in volume, but the quality of gaming was irrepressibly high. We strengthened connections with friends and family through gaming, and 2024 promises already more of the same. While some of those friends and family are further away now than they were, others are closer, and the magic of the internet provides more opportunities still.
I hope you’ll continue to join me throughout 2024 and beyond. I’m aiming to continue growing, trying new things, and talking to new people. None of that is feasible without you, so thank you for reading and sharing. If you fancy a game on Board Game Arena, my username is moonty. I’ll see you there.