History
Here's the whole not so sordid and longer than you'll want to read story...
Set the Way Back Machine for the fall of 1978. Location: Mr. Lowery's English class at La Salle Academy. That's where I met Dan B. and 3 other guys who remain my closest friends to this day plus a few other strays. It was our freshman year of high school and a few of us hit it off immediately. Dan and I discovered our mutual love of games when I did a speech on Panzer Leader for one of our class assignments. Fast forward a bit, to the point where we're mobile (don't need our parents to drive us around) and we're playing racquetball and Monopoly (that's right Monopoly dammit!) on a bi(tri?)weekly basis. Mix in midmight movies, all nighters playing games (our first Monopoly marathon is still fresh in my mind, "Put the dog down Dave"), wallyball, marathon tennis sessions, adventures in film making ("The Cabbage Patch Chainsaw Massacre" never did get out of the editing room) and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. And we played competitively, not just a little competitively either. We kept records on our wins and losses (I'm not sure who has the notebook on Monopoly but I'm sure that Dan was the clear leader). We had a point system for our summer of playing King Maker, solo wins 2 pts, alliance wins 1 pt. We competed in racquetball tournaments, singles and doubles, the trophies are still stored somewhere in each of our houses. The bragging rights for wins went a long way.
Skip to the end of our college days. We're out in the world now. We're still getting together occasionally but life is taking us in different directions. Wives and lives effectively put an end to our gaming glory days. There just isn't time, or inclination (women! woohoo!) and inevitably kids (a byproduct of the women, who knew?!).
Magic the Gathering (we got in just as Unlimited was being released) and Fantasy Football revive the weekly gaming sessions. We play once a week or so and again, competitively, and we have a blast with both. At this point we've lost the strays from our La Salle days but we recruit a couple of other guys and this is really where "Guy Stuff" is born. We called it "Guy Stuff" (I think my buddy Jon first coined the phrase) because it was our weekly night out doing, well guy type things that none of our wives were remotely interested in. Our first Lan session of Quake was frikkin awesome! Anyhoot, we eventually burn out on MtG and yet again our regular gaming sessions die off.
I'm the board game ring leader of that old high school gang, the "Rules Guy", the guy with the overwhelming board game obsession, so I start to look for a new group to join to fill the void (in my very gaming soul!). The internet proves to be a valuable tool. I travel to a few groups in MA, some just don't fit my idea of fun, others are too far, etc. So I again set out to revive the guys for a weekly gaming session. At first it's only Dan and I, plus a couple of our fantasy football buddies. But then, something very important happens, I discover local gamer Brian S. via the r. g. b usenet group (?) and invite him to our weekly session. The conversation with Dan where I informed him that I was inviting some random guy off the internet to his house was priceless. Luckily for all involved Brian turns out to be one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. I start finding more and more people via the internet. Dave B and I meet via an online voice chat feature on The Game Report(?) site run by Peter Sarrett (you could say that this meeting is the genesis of Unity Games). I find Rich Z via an Ebay transaction. I touch base with Bill R. via an ASL email list, join him for some games at his house and meet Bob S.
In the summer of 2000 Unity Games is born as Dave B., Walter H. and I discuss how to keep Dave B's Saturday night SSG session from busting at the seams and soon after my little group is given the offical "Guy Stuff Gamers" moniker (just to distinguish it from the various other groups newly populating the UG list). Board Game Geek has arisen right around this same time and that's yet another recruiting tool. I find Phil that way and James and Eric find us. Phil and I recruit Gary. I meet young Bob at Rich Z's house, etc, etc., etc.
That's about all my now fuzzy memory can recall at this point. All I really know is the names and faces have changed quite a bit over the years and somewhere along the line it became a lot less about the competition and a lot more about the socializing. I'm no longer even the focal point as others have picked up the torch and have kept the group going strong. I've become very fond of the GSG crew and consider some of you my closest friends. Thanks for gaming with me guys.
Long live GSG!
Mark E aka DangerMouse Feb 2009
