Gateway Games - Remembering your first love
Written by RabbitFishBoy - Apr 15 2022
I’ve got a fair-sized collection of games – more than some, way less than others I’ve seen in those ubiquitous Swedish-shelfies people post on some social media platforms.
There’s a wee bit of everything in my collection: board; card; dice – team; solo; multiplayer – complex; simple – competitive; cooperative - big box; small box. And everything in-between.
More have come and gone from the collection than remain: because they were played out; because they were too complex (or not complex enough!); because they failed to deliver on their promise (although more likely my expectation was too high for them to ever fulfil).
One, however, has survived every reshuffle, every cull, every impulsive sale – the first game I ever bought - my Gateway Game.
This game ensured I would never escape the hobby. This game showed me how different the landscape of gaming had become since I was a child, playing Campaign or Cluedo. The one that gripped me - and still does - with its elegance, and amazed me with mechanisms of such simplicity and brilliance that I still marvel at it every time I play.
Whenever I see the box-art it evokes a feeling, in the same way a scent or a song can, that immediately takes me back to those first few games, and the wonder of a whole new unexplored world.
It is so good that even my partner, who is a self-professed Game-ophobe, is willing to play it when I suggest it (although the moon still has to be in the right aspect as well!).
It has expansions, variants, offshoots, and legacy versions, and I love all of them.
Except for one!
There’s a black sheep in every family though, eh?
Every time I play the original, vanilla version of my Gateway Game, from the turn of the very first card, the placement of starting characters and resources, and making the first move, everything feels like it matters, has a consequence, makes a difference.
The luck feels fair. The bad luck feels fair. Losing feels fair.
And those things make every win feel all the more triumphant when they come. Not something every game can claim.
The point of these ramblings isn’t the game itself - It’s designed to inspire a reminiscence in you:
What was your Gateway Game? Is it still in your collection? Does it still get the love it used to get, or is it gathering dust on a shelf, hidden behind the new Hotness or overblown, multi-box, crowd-funded behemoth?
If you still have it, maybe it’s time to bring it back into the light. Dust it off, relearn the rules in bed, set it up… and revel in the gifts it’s given you.
If you don’t still have it, is it time to buy it again? You should never forget your first love. They still have so much love to give.
…and my Gateway Game, I hear you ask? The sublime ‘Pandemic’. And the version I don’t like? I couldn’t possibly comment!
