Today I visited the Spielwiese game shop/cafe in Berlin. The model is unique: for a small fee you can spend all day in the cafe playing games. Or you can pay to check out a game and take it home. Or you can buy games.
I went in and stood in the doorway for a moment, trying to decide if I actually felt like playing or if I was content just to observe for a bit and go home. Before I could make up my mind I was invited over to a table where several people were just starting a card game. We spent an hour-and-a-half trying to figure out the rules and playing a few rounds before agreeing we didn’t like it. During that time the others at the table would periodically ask me questions about myself. I decided to be vague about what I was doing in Germany, and simply told them I was in-country for an academic project. Sometimes I just want people to want to have conversations with me because I’m me, and not because they’ve just learned about an exotic fellowship I happen to have.
After abandoning the card the game we played a very basic board game that was roughly 99% luck. After the second round I casually commented that it was an extremely simple game. “But sometimes that’s ok, I think,” answered one of the men at the table. “Unless you told us your research here was about games! Then maybe we would play something more complicated and interesting.”
“That’s exactly what my research is about,” I answered matter-of-factly.
Thinking that I was making an awkward attempt at deadpan, they politely laughed at my joke.