Boardgames To Go 236 - End of One Year, Beginning of Another

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I've been doing this podcast for twenty years! I never would've guessed this in the beginning. The actual "birthday" for the podcast is March 3rd, so focus on the anniversary then. But for now, this is the start of Season 21. Blackjack!

Despite my teasing of Davebo during the Davecember episodes about putting too much stock in games-played data...I actually keep track of it myself. I'm not 100% accurate about it, but I'm probably 95% in recent years. (Earlier years weren't as detailed or accurate.) These days I'm using te BG Stats app, sync'd online to BGG. I don't record scores or game durations, but I DO record gaming locations, and that's permitted me to conclusively look at my data with & without online plays. For my own purposes, I've always included online plays in my totals, but I get why others may not.

MJ's Games Played in 2024 with . . . and without online plays

In this episode I look back at 2024, mostly the games I played the most, but also events like conventions and games days. I was surprised to learn how many more games I played last year: more titles, more locations, more people, more new games, more everything. Now that I think about...more podcast episodes, too (thank to Mark Madness and Davecember :-) ). Along the way, the stats make me consider the nature of my boardgaming, how I play lots of favorites over & over online, while I try more new games in-person. Will it always be that way? Is that ideal?

Last of all, I stumbled across a "shelfie" of my boardgame collection from 21 years ago, just about the same time I started this podcast. (And yes, those are my then-young kids' bikes in the bottom of the photo, and a toy rocking horse on the top shelf). Looking through it, I saw that my collection then was around 100 titles. It's double or triple that now. More significantly, I can see that I later sold three-quarters of this collection! Even accounting for the handful I re-acquired eventually, I can safely say that I turn over two-thirds of my collection. Put another way, that large fraction are not eternal keepers. I was disappointed to realize that, but perhaps it's ok? Perhaps many of our games are meant to be enjoyed just a handful of times, then passed on?

-Mark