You’re going to need a bigger… table!

Jane and I have been working on reducing our screen time for about two years now. As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time staring at a screen (am obviously doing so again as I write this) and Jane spends an equal amount of time staring at her screen. And I’m sure we’re not alone.

When we lived in Greenland – pre-Smartphone, and early iPad – we had a TV and a computer, but there was only one channel on the TV and the Internet was prohibitively expensive. When we weren’t kayaking, working, walking, or sledging with the dogs, hiking on the mountain, fishing through the sea ice (gosh, just listing that makes us sound incredibly active!) we played board games.

Rather, we played Settlers, and we played a lot – just the two of us, but also with friends and neighbours.

Our social life in Greenland was outrageously good. There was always a kaffemik, or something to do. It could be tiring at times, of course. But in the winter dark especially, it was good to be active.

But back to the games – they were important.

Jane and I shared a love of games back when we shared a flat in Glasgow. Games were a common interest – computer games and RPGs (on the computer) even more so. The early years of our relationship, when we stopped being friends living together, and started living together, we played a lot.

I should add that my idea of a board game is not snakes and ladders, or even Monopoly. Most board games back then also focused on 3-4 players. Very rarely was there a game designed for just 2. So we made our own rules as I guess a lot of couples did.

Covid, for better or worse, seems to have changed that, with a lot of games coming out for 1-5 players. But, after we dipped out of the board game scene for a while, I think it may have begun pre-pandemic, as gamers wanted more… games.

We played a lot of different card games, such as Settlers variations, in the tent when canoe-camping in the wilds. And when we moved back to Denmark, playing games in the tents in the wilds was the only time we really played.

Then, enter the “screens” – Anno 2013 – and it was a trial to even think about playing a board game. We might force ourselves to dust off Settlers or something like it, agreeing to play at least two games in a row, but always, always leaving it at just the one. We might leave the game out on the table as inspiration, only to pack it away again a few days later when it was getting in the way.

But we wanted too turn things around, and I decided to chart the games we played – both on the computer (RPG etc.) and at the table. Each game we played was recorded with a photo or a screenshot. And even though a screen was involved with the computer games, Jane and I played together, either on a team or against each other.

We’re good as a team in an RPG, but, honestly, the competitive element is a lot of fun, maybe even more so.

Game Night charts how far we’ve come, and how we’ve successfully – we both feel – turned things around. We’ve got an anniversary coming up. August 27, 2022 is the first in a series of games that we started to get away from screens. Or, rather, to get away from solo screens and to spend more time doing what we used to do so much of.

So, we’re back, and this rather muddled post is intended to celebrate that.

The photo at the top is from earlier this week when we joined friends at a board game café to play our current favourite game Terraforming Mars*.

• Terraforming Mars on Amazon US
• Terraforming Mars on Amazon UK

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

As you can see in the photo, it’s a little more demanding than Monopoly. 🙂 I’ll probably write more about the actual game later, but suffice it to say, we are hooked, borderline worryingly so!

But, honestly, I don’t care. It’s like the chess I’ve been playing for almost two years now – often late at night, and even very early into the morning. Terraforming Mars has often taken us into the wee hours, and we crawl into bed some mornings around 4 or 5 a.m.

I did say ‘borderline’.

I might need to reevaluate that.

But hey, it aligns my day with readers in America. So win-win!

Obviously, we don’t live in the Arctic anymore, and we don’t have 16 sledge dogs to keep us busy. Two might be nice, I must admit. 🙂 But, importantly, we’ve turned the problem of screens around, limiting the solo screen time, and spending more time engaged with each each other, doing our best to beat each other either on Mars, or battling trolls and dragons in a fabulous place called Icewind Dale.

Is it escapism?

You bet it is.

But we’re escaping together.

I still consume way too much news from Al Jazeera and now Dropsite News, my news outlets of choice. So it’s not like we’ve dropped out of what’s going on in the world. But it’s the social media junk and endless scrolling that we have been working hard to limit and even remove.

Big Tech uses gazillions of dollars to get us addicted to their product, to keep us scrolling or anticipating the next pling, because maybe, just maybe the next item of ‘content’ will be worth it.

But no.

It never is.

So this mishmash of a post, including shameless links to “other people’s stuff” on Amazon – you might have noticed – is really just my way of documenting the massive finger I just flicked at Big Tech, and to celebrate my old love of games, and to revitalise the love Jane and I have of playing these games… together!

Yes!

More!

But, maybe bed before 3 a.m. tonight?

Chris

P.S.

Jane won the game in the photo above. 😉