Games can’t last forever

I’ve never liked winning at board games, and I don’t like to beat video games.

Ironic, isn’t it?

Truthfully, I’ve never enjoyed playing board games. They –– no pun intended –– bore me. There are only a select few I genuinely like to play for extended amounts of time.

Still, at family gatherings I often find myself in front of a Monopoly board with some wide-eyed child. I usually try to let the little ones win at least once. It’s not fun to lose all the time … at least, so I’ve been told.

See, the thing is, I’m unfavorably lucky.

And I win. A lot.

It’s not fun to win all the time, either. Nor is it fun when you really don’t want to be playing in the first place because people get a little peeved at your effortlessness.

So … I like it when others win.

Games are a staple on my mom’s side of the family. Grandpa Moorman actually concocted his own board game, referred to as just “The Game” –– it’s like a mixture of Sorry! and dice –– which has become a regular activity whenever visiting for dinner.

I took home a literal trophy for winning “The Game” competition at a family gathering several years back. (It’s engraved and everything.) To say I come from a line of game players is an understatement.

Growing up, my brother loved to pull out the classics like Sorry! or Candy Land and bug me to play a match. I never wanted to play, but sometimes Myles would convince me.

He’d get upset when he lost, too. It took him a while to learn how to lose graciously, and with how our games usually went, I don’t blame him. He would have appreciated being lucky a heck of a lot more than I do.

Maybe that’s one reason he became fascinated with video games. Many rely more on skill than luck. Skill, Myles likely realized, was something he could improve.

And somehow, Myles roped me into playing video games with him, too. The key difference: I actually like video games.

Despite my affinity for the industry, I have a load of games still sitting on my shelf that I’ve barely touched. Some I’ve started and fell off after a while, some haven’t even been loaded onto my consoles yet.

For being an avid gamer, I’m kind of lazy.

“Have you beat Persona 5 Royal yet?” Myles texted me recently.

“Not yet,” I responded, feeling a little embarrassed I’ve owned the game for a year and haven’t made much progress into it. He’s been trying to get me to beat the game since it came out –– he’s beat it four times now –– because he wants to discuss the storyline. Apparently it gets pretty intense after a certain point.

I genuinely do want to play it, and I’ve been making some progress on the weekends. After a while, though, I just find myself wanting to do other things.

Honestly, a small part of me doesn’t want good games to end.

Whenever I’ve had a long week, I find myself pulling out games from my childhood. Sometimes it’s from The Legend of Zelda franchise, sometimes it’s from the Harvest Moon franchise. It could be a Pokemon or Kirby release. Other times it’s just a random D.S. or Wii game. (Recently my “comfort” game has been Undertale. It’s an Indie game –– games made by little-known creators, often one person or a small team –– I highly recommend.)

Nostalgia does wonders for the weary soul.

When playing a new video game I enjoy, I find it hard to accept it has to end at some point. Some part of me wants to hold on to that little bit of thrill for however long I can. But, like all things in life, games don’t continue on without end.

The little girl in me recalling fights with her brother about playing Sorry! is thankful games don’t last forever.