Welcome to FAST Gaming

Our story begins in the early 1980’s when a rail skinny nerd with a few friends got his first “red box” set of Dungeons and Dragons. I had a handful of close friends and we played whenever we got the chance. I know it sounds a little like the show Stranger Things on Netflix, but that really is how it went. Thus began my love affair with gaming. We played other things too. I frequently got beat by my friend Lee at chess and loved it anyway. We moved on to games like Axis and Allies (I still have an original copy). High school came and we had less and less time to game, but we still found ways to fit it in.

I got married and started playing games like Yahtzee (I can’t win that game) and UNO. We had three kids and board games like Candy Land became staples for us. The only real hiccup in the legacy occurred when we realized my son was a sore loser and game playing became a struggle. He would cheat, change rules, quit, and cry. I know this is normal at first, but it quickly became a problem that we didn’t know how to solve. He always wanted to play though, and I loved games. Like most boys, I guess he wanted to do whatever I did.

A few years ago, when he was about 14 years old, I decided to take him to a gaming convention. It changed our lives. We went to Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio and stumbled upon a cooperative game called Jupiter Rescue. We had no idea what cooperative gaming was but he wanted to try it, so we did. We found out cooperative gaming just means that everyone at the table either wins or loses...and boy, did we lose. I could feel my son looking at me with a questioning stare. Why aren’t you mad? Why don’t we just change the rules or quit? Maybe for the first time I was able to show him what losing was supposed to look like. When the game was over, we talked about our obviously poor strategy and how we could do better if we played again. I couldn’t really afford the game that day but I knew I couldn’t go home without it, so I bought it anyway.

Cooperative gaming opened doors of communication in my family that I couldn’t even have dreamed of before we bought that game. Now our collection of games, both cooperative and competitive, has grown to a number I hesitate to count. My son Clayton is now 18 years old and the two of us never miss a convention or an opportunity to play games with each other.

This story has fueled in both of us a passion not only to keep playing, but to share with other families what something as simple and affordable as family game night can provide. For us, the concept of family, however you define it, is a beautiful thing worth preserving. So do us a favor, when you are trying to decide on something to do some evening, put your devices in a drawer, get out a board game, shake hands, communicate, engage, have fun, and always remember, Families Are Stronger Together.