Work weeks are long. especially when your work does not involve inventing board games and playtesting them all the time. Even if you like your job, it gets tiring and by the end of the week, you just need something to look forward to.
Enter the institution of FriDayGameDay. FDGD for ease of typing, this is the official iSlaytheDragon sanctioned boardgame-to-end-the-work-week event. Every friday, I head down to the lunch room for one in a long rotation of delightful board games.
FDGD really gives you something to look forward on that last, tough-to-pull-through day of the work week. When you really just want to head home and rest up for the weekend, a good game can get you through the afternoon.
Board games are a great way to improve camaraderie with coworkers (as long as you play the right games… and avoid the ones with lots of spite… unless you know the people you’re playing with well) and sometimes meet new people. If your company has a lunch room, people will likely see your activities and ask about it. You may even recruit more players.
FDGD was instituted just a few months ago when my Nemesis brought Ticket to Ride to play over lunch. It happened to be a friday, and it was quite enjoyable. I suggested that we return again the next week with a new game. Ever since, it’s been FriDayGameDay.
FDGD is not completely required to be on a friday. True, the goal is to play at the end of the work week, but if you or another regular can’t do it on friday, no harm in moving it to thursday or even tuesday once in a while. No big deal. Some haters will hate, pointing out that “friday” is in the title, but those people… just don’t understand.
We’ve gotten to the point where we track our stats – wins, losses, and points scored each game (though some games are a little tougher to record points – and games like Cosmic Encounter where you get 5 “points” to win versus games like Ticket to Ride where you can get hundreds of points… it gets a little skewed. But oh well, it’s just for fun) to see how well things are going for each player.
I think it’d be super to start up a trend of gamers all around the world playing a board game during friday’s lunch break… or if you have a weird work schedule, at any convenient breaking time. Many people already play games at work during lunchbreaks, somtimes even more than 1 day. That’s cool. Throw “FriDayGameDay” onto your friday game and you’re already ahead.
Think about it. Hundreds of gamers all over the world celebrating FriDayGameDay every week. It’d be like our own personal, regular holiday. And it’d be awesome because it would happen every week, not every year like most holidays.
Join me, friends. Start up the FriDayGameDay trend in your work place. Use the hashtag #FDGD on twitter to report your game, how it went, who won, and cool stuff that happened along the way. Lets rock the world!
This friday we’re playing Carcassonne. #FDGD
-wolfie