From Co-Op to Tabletop: Exploring My Shyness Through Games

Most people who know me would call me shy. I’m also a writer who loves a good story, so when I first stumbled on the video game Dragon Age: Origins several years ago, I fell in love with how immersive the storytelling was. I was used to reading stories or watching them unfold on movie screens, but in a video game, you’re in the story. You create a character and make decisions that affect what happens next. It’s an interactive experience.

As a shy person, role-playing video games became a passion after that. I could become anyone I wanted in the game. That this was a solitary hobby was a good thing, because it filled up my free time when I wasn’t at work or with my family and close friends. I need alone time like that.

My love of video games soon led me to a job writing video game manuals and working on marketing material for games. One of the most fun parts of the job, early on, was that I was working with a bunch of other geeky people for the first time, and it wasn’t long before they invited me to a board game night. Though I didn’t know my coworkers well yet, it proved to be the perfect place to get to know people in a low-pressure setting.

For me, there’s hanging out with people I already know, and then there’s Socializing—capital “S”—smalltalk kind of Socializing. I’m the type of introvert who tends to feign extraversion in new settings, but it wears me out fast. However, with a board game on the table, there’s an instant conversation topic. The game steals all the attention. Going over rules, laughing about people’s moves, and discussing what to do next makes it easy to be social without having to think up things to chat about nonstop.