by Archon313
My wife doesn't like games. She's made many statements to that point. Though early on in our marriage she played a decent amount of games with me, as time has passed so, it seems, has her desire to participate in the hobby I hold dear.In fact, most of the time she confesses that when she plays a game with me, she gets zero enjoyment out of it, and only does it because she wants to make me happy.
To give you an idea of how often she plays board games with me, other than the instance I am about to mention, I can not remember the last time she played a game with me, or even what it might have been.
Another thing to bear in mind, my wife is pregnant, and wants... no needs lots of sleep. If I "keep her up" too late (past 9pm), I usually hear about it.
Well this past Sunday, all of that changed.
I had been coaxing her towards giving a game a try with me (she is usually most agreeable towards Dominion as it tends to be on the shorter side). But I had just received Castles of Burgundy in the mail and was itching to try it out. She had just finished tucking our two-year old in bed and when she came out of his room and discovered that I had set the game up, and that it appeared to be a long game (not quite sure how a game LOOKS long, but anyway). She groaned.
I assured her that I only wanted to "try" the new game, and that we could quit after only a few minutes. She reluctantly sat down across the table from me. I took this as consent and began to finalize the setup.
(Now it should be noted that I had done my homework and read the rulebook through and had sat down for a few solo rounds ahead of time.)
As we began the game, she began to multitask in the form of working on some crafts. (This is a bad sign)
I allowed her that, and thus we bagan. In the first few rounds she was very wary, and hinted that all of the different tiles might be a bit too much for her "pregnant brain" (her words, not mine). But as we neared the end of the first phase, I offered to call it a game (though admittedly, I was really getting into the game and really liking it). She said, "we can keep going for a little longer."
As the clock ticked an hour past her bedtime, I said, in the hope that my understanding would win me the chance at another game "We should just call it a night". Her reply? "No! I want to see what happens!"
The game took waaaaaaay too long, but that was indeed her fault, as her "crafting" slowed us down, but at the end of the game, and two hours later than she had originally wanted to go to bed, we finished it.
It was a hit we me, and has made its way to the top of my game list. I could tell that she had enjoyed herself too, at least through the first game, but was unsure, long term, how she would feel abut it. But today, out of the blue she made the comment! "That Castles of Burgundy is a cool game".
Thank you, Stefan Feld! Thank you!