Over the last few months, I have developed a satisfied feeling. I feel like I have explored the breadth of hobby boardgaming. I don’t remember how many years ago I first looked at BoardGameGeek’s list of top-rated games, but I remember feeling overwhelmed. There were just so many of them, and Settlers of Catan, the game which had been so far above any board game before, rated only twenty-somethingth!

Now, I have played many dozens of board games including many of these widespread favorites, and I understand why people love them. I know many of the important ideas that cross across games and their history. I know some of the important designers and publishers and a little bit about the publishing industry.

To be sure, I have not explored the depth of the hobby, and this is also a good feeling, because I like learning, and I like playing new (or new-to-me) games. Being done would suck! Certainly there are a couple dozen great games and a hundred or so I’ll enjoy still out there. But I know where to look to find them, what to look for, and what I know to avoid because I won’t like it. And new stuff is still being published, which is great, of course! But I feel “caught up” in a way that I never could with, say, books or music–I feel like I have a grasp of the gaming zeitgeist, despite the fact that I wasn’t paying any attention between 1995 and 2004.