Between last year and this past summer, this whole issue led me to declare repeatedly that I was going to “quit gaming.” I tried to tell myself “it’s just a game,” but I didn’t want to hold the games, the hobby, the act of play itself at arm’s length. I would never get my friends to commit as much, though. And “just stop playing with those people” is impractical advice when the whole point has historically been that this is a thing I love doing with my friends.

I guess my solution has been too redefine for myself what counts as the game, and who I regard as friends and fellow players. Much like you appreciate cons for giving you the chance to interact with others who care as much, I realized I could still find others who care here on Google+. And I came to realize that the hobby isn’t just the act of play, for me, but the act of reading, designing, chatting with folks about ideas. Play might be too hard to arrange as often as I’d like, so I’ll have to find other ways to engage, because at the end of the day, it’s not “just a game” to me no matter how I try to downplay it for me own sanity. But it’s also not something I want to quit – I love this. The problem is that I just need to find more people I can share it with, and more ways to share it.

It’s a slow process, but thinking about it this way has helped a lot in the meantime.