Garibaldi's Game Geek
You won’t be “board” at Gamesquall
Puzzle solving is just a part of Jake Boone’s nature.
During the workweek, Boone solves problems as the city manager of Garibaldi. Hired in July, he’s the latest hire for a position that’s seen significant turnover in recent years.
“I liked the idea of being a city manager in a small town, especially one that been through some chaos of late,” Boone said. “I like coming into a broken situation and try to fit pieces back together. It was a good opportunity at the right time and it’s somewhere [I’ve] always wanted to live. Rain is my favorite weather, which makes me a little strange, but it works out really nice because, boy howdy, have we been getting some of that.”
Outside of work, Boone takes his puzzle-solving nature and applies it to board games. As a self-proclaimed game geek, his personal collection includes 750 games.
Back when he was living in Cottage Grove, Boone began “Gamesquall” which he describes as a poor man’s Gamestorm.
“There was (and still is) an annual game convention that happens in March in Portland called Gamestorm,” he said. “It’s a big, huge convention and people come from all over the place to play lot and lots of different games. During the recession, a lot of folks that I knew just couldn’t afford to go.”
Knowing quite a few people in his circle who had lost their jobs, Boone and his wife opened up their house, set up tables, and invited a bunch of people over for hours of board game play.
“It was really fun,” Boone said. “People brought snacks and it was a good time. By the second year it outgrew our house.”
They dubbed the event “Gamesquall.” Their biggest event was one New Year’s Eve when 104 gamers showed up.
Now with his move to the Oregon Coast, Boone has relocated his event and large collection of games. The inaugural kickoff for Gamesquall Garibaldi was New Year’s Eve. Boone set up tables in the Garibaldi Community Center, brought a game library that spanned the length of the room, and invited the community for an entire day and evening of board games.
“If it follows the same pattern as Cottage Grove, it'll be a relatively small group to begin with,” Boone said. “But then, over time, as word-of-mouth spreads and people hear about it, we’ll get more and more people until eventually we have a self-sustaining board gaming community.”
To keep momentum rolling, Boone plans to host smaller Gamesquall events the first Sunday of every month. The next game day will be hosted February 2, noon – 5 p.m. at the Garibaldi Community Center (107 Sixth St). The events are free to attend.
“I provide the games, the gamers provide themselves; it’s a pretty basic ecosystem of how this works,” Boone said. “Very often I act as the game concierge or sommelier.”
Boone credits the board game renaissance in Germany for expanding the genre.
“I’ll just say, if you’re somebody who has a closet that contains games like parcheesi, Life, and Sorry: you’re in for a treat,” he said. “If you’re someone who thinks board games are alright or just something for when it’s cruddy weather and there’s nothing else to do, I used to be that way. But now, there are game designers all over the world and they're making amazing, fantastic games that make you crave playing.”
Boone gives the example of Clue. Almost everybody’s played Clue. But, he says one of the issues with Clue is that the interesting part is figuring out who done it. The not interesting part is rolling a die and then moving that many spaces through the halls and then doing nothing else on your turn.
“There are modern games that take the good part of Clue and make it a full game without the boring parts,” Boone said. “The designers have put a lot of effort into making sure that they are so fun that when the game ends you say: ‘Let’s play it again.’”
Gamesquall’s game library has a wide selection that gamers can select from: family games, word games, social deduction games, or games with good mechanics.
“We have games where your decisions are interesting, important, and matter. And we have games where you’re doing a lot more social interaction with other people at the table.”
Each monthly Gamesquall game day is a non-pressure event: come with friends or solo. No experience is necessary.
“Gamers tend to be pretty welcoming. You don’t have to have a bunch of secret knowledge before you’re taken seriously,” Boone said. “People are generally happy to see you because it’s always good to have another person to play.”
Gamer seeking gamer? Boone hosts a forum on his website for people looking for gaming friends.
“I hope to sustain a board gaming community where, even if it’s not a Gamesquall day, you can get in touch with people you’ve met here and get together and play games."
And what are some favorites for the guy who has just about every game: Star Wars Rebellion and Streetcar.
For all Gamesquall information, visit gamesquall.com.
