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Gaming Solo
To an only child, there's no such thing as a bad game
by Fertessa Allyse
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The author and her father play Giggle Wriggle
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I grew up as an only child in a two-parent household. My dad was putting himself through college while working a full-time job, so my gaming often happened with my mom or grandad.
The mass market games we played—Yahtzee, Checkers, Monopoly— helped me fight the isolation and insecurity that comes with being an only child. As someone who learned to love games through these age-old standbys, it saddens me to find so many hobbyists who are dismissive of them.
These games were the foundation of my core and an important part of how I've grown to interact with others. And though I know now that there are much stronger gaming options out there than the ones I grew up with, the memories I made while playing them were what brought me into this hobby as an adult.
Yahtzee
I loved Yahtzee because it was a game where I could compete with my parents on an even ground. To a seven year old, that’s huge! With every roll of the dice, I would hold my breath, just waiting for that magical all-time high of getting every single face the same.
I remember my parents hyping up my hot streak one night. I was so proud of how I was playing that I took the term literally: I began sneaking off to the bathroom between turns to run hot water over my hands and keep my “hot” streak going.
Checkers
My grandad taught me Checkers, and it quickly became one of my favorite games to bring out each week. I was never able to beat him, but the rules seemed so simple that I never gave up on trying.
At one point I started being mischievous and moving pieces when I didn't think he was looking. He would play it up and act like he hadn't seen. I tried the same trick with my mom too but I got an entirely different reaction: disappointment. She immediately removed herself from the game and told me she wouldn't play with a cheater. I never cheated again.
Checkers with my grandad taught me tenacity; checkers with my mom taught me humility and sportsmanship.
Card Games
Every summer I had to stay in the Georgia countryside with my grandparents. I wasn't allowed to play with the kids in the neighborhood, but my grandad would teach me games. Mostly card games like Pit-a-pat, Tonk, and Old Maid, but also the old copy of Kerplunk that used to belong to my mom.
When we played, my grandad never held back…if I won, it was fair and square. He taught me that, even as a kid, I had power. If I used my head, if I concentrated, and if I kept trying, I would become strong enough to win.
Untitled Treasure Hunting Game
On one of these summer trips, I designed my very first board game. It never had a name, and I don’t remember much about it except that it was square and you moved spaces to try and get treasure. There wasn't even dice…you just moved your pieces wherever you wanted. A roll ‘n’ move without the roll.
I’m guessing it wasn’t too great, but when I showed it to my granddad he told me without hesitation to keep working on it and it would become a real thing one day. Of course, I was a kid and I didn’t truly understand what “working on it” meant, so after a month I forgot it existed. But what I never forgot was the lesson my grandad taught me by supporting my first foray into game design: I could create something and adults around me would believe in its potential to be good.
Monopoly
As I grew older, my parents and grandad had much less time for gaming. Sure, my friends would play some games, but they would get bored and abandon them halfway through. So, a couple decades before solo gaming swept the board game community, I began learning how to play games by myself.
Monopoly was my favorite. You could easily auto-pilot the player roles, and luck of the dice meant every play was fair. It was also a game I could find almost everywhere: at church camp, at sleepovers, at forced family reunions, at birthday parties, and more. If there was one game that saved me from the bottomless anxiety of forced socialization, it was Monopoly.
In college, I flew to California with a girl I only half knew to see a once-in-a-lifetime rock concert. We stayed with her aunt and uncle, and for the entire day leading up to the concert she didn't want anything to do with me. All she wanted to focus on was her makeup for the concert, leaving her aunt and uncle as the only people to talk to. (I should mention, her uncle felt it was appropriate to tell me I cut pancakes like a serial killer, so of course I felt very welcome in their home!) Luckily, their house had a copy of Monopoly, which I entertained myself with for the majority of the trip.
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The author and her grandad.
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When we discuss games, it's easy to forget context. It's easy to say there are so many better games than X, or that if you want to teach kids Y then Z is the game that does it best. But all games will teach, regardless of what they are or how good they are, because it's the social interaction that's providing the lesson.
If we as a community balk at the games that teach folks to love the hobby, then we stunt the growth of our own industry and isolate the very people we're trying to welcome to our tables.
If we want more variety in our gateway games, tearing down existing games isn’t the answer. The answer is putting effort into making the hobby games we love more widely available to everyone: donate games to libraries, summer camps, the YMCA, and afterschool clubs. Give games as gifts and teach the recipient how to play them.
But remember that, in the end, it's not important what game someone plays. What's important are the memories built with friends and family. It’s not the game, it’s the playing. ⚛
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Fertessa Allyse is a game designer from Atlanta, GA. She has designed two games: Book of Villainy and Wicked & Wise. She has also co-designed Mansplaining. She writes for Girls Game Shelf, and often can be found active in various game design groups on Facebook or the game design forum of BGG. She's relatively new to the hobby, though she has loved games all her life. She excited for the growth of the gaming industry and her future in it.
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