Board game shelves around the world #14

Analog Games aren’t just fun. They also often come in interesting boxes featuring beautiful artwork. It’s no surprise that a lot of us love to proudly showcase our board game collection on a shelf. In this series, every week one of our fellow board game enthusiasts will exhibit their board game shelf and tell us something about their favorite board and card games. Today we are going to look at the board game shelf of Corinna and William from the Netherlands!

Corinna with the games for our game weekend in 2015.

Hi Corinna and William, please introduce yourselves.
“We are a couple living in Leiden, in the Netherlands. Originally both of us hail from different parts of the country but we met while studying archaeology over here. Since then, we have both gone into slightly different directions. Corinna now works at the Van Gogh Museum, while also training full-time to be a ceramics conservator-restorer. Meanwhile, William is as a lecturer at two different Dutch universities, while working at the most awesome board game store in the country as well.”

William practicing for his job interview at the board game store.

How did you get into this world of non-digital games?
“That happened in different ways for both of us. Corinna got her gaming genes from her father, who introduced the whole family to games like Catan pretty early on. William, on the other hand, was contaminated with AGA (Analog Gaming Addiction) in a local bookstore when he discovered boosters of Magic the Gathering hidden between the fantasy books. Later, in college, these magic cards were exchanged for polyhedral dice when he discovered tabletop RPGs.”

“Interestingly, we discovered the wonderful world of board games much later, when we had been together for a couple of years already. A board game themed birthday party triggered an avalanche of monthly board game nights, visits to board game conventions, and us completely neglecting our former interests in TV series and movies. Spending the evening together over a game is just so much more interactive than staring at a screen together.”

Our shelves and our brand new table.

How often do you play?
“Sadly, playing-time has been greatly reduced lately. Managing so many obligations, and spending a lot of time traveling, can be quite a hassle. Initially we switched to playing shorter games so we could still play as many games as possible. Recently, though, we have started to just play a couple of rounds of a game and then leave it on the table for the next day. This way we get to play our bigger boxes as well! Luckily, all of our traveling is by public transport, so we do have a lot of time to read about games online (or in William’s case: to read rule books). Funny enough, working in a board game store does not involve playing games as much as William had expected. Then again, he does get to be around games the whole day and attract new people to the hobby, so that is really awesome.”

Our current shelves.

Can you tell us something about your shelves?
“Of course! We love our shelves! We do have to warn you, though, we are Ikea-heretics. We own several Expedit/Kallax units, but we don’t consider them all that good for storing games. They are perfect for the standard sized boxes, but so many games are not standard sized. As a result, the bigger boxes end up stacked on top and the smaller ones need to be stacked or hidden in drawers, which neither of us likes. So, instead we use a different type of Ikea storage system: the Bestå! The shelves are nice and deep, they are adjustable and just look great! Currently, the games are sorted on the basis of an eclectic combination of theme, type and size that makes perfect sense to us, but probably not to others, hahaha…”

Voyage of the Beagle gaming marathon.

What is your favorite game at the moment?
“That’s such a difficult question. Different groups of players and different occasions ask for different games. William is completely in love with Robinson Crusoe, and Corinna can never get enough of Kemet. Lately, we have also really been into the second edition of Stronghold. We like a lot of different types of games but we are most interested in hybrid games that manage to merge a strong theme with interesting mechanics, while not bothering with outdated labels like Euro or Ameritrash. This means we can’t resist games by publishers like Matagot or Portal Games! Even more so because both of us also care a lot about the art and components of a game. We have no issues with judging a box by its cover or a game by its components, hahaha!!! Our gaming sessions get interrupted regularly to take some pictures for our Instagram feeds.”

Checking pots during game night.

What is your most special or obscure game?
“This is Corinna’s department. She got Mysterium directly from Portal Games at a Dutch convention before it had gotten any buzz at all, with William shaking his head in the background. Similarly, in Essen last year, William was shaking his head while Corinna just had to buy a Japanese game called Arabian Pots, as well as a post-apocalyptic game called Waste Knights (which was made in Poland, but somehow takes place in Australia). Time and time again, though, William is proven wrong and the game turns out to be awesome (he then proceeds to secretly take all of the credit while selling things at the game store). William himself also loves to get certain obscure things, but those are not directly visible on the shelf: promos! When he enters Spiel, you best not be standing between him and that year’s bonus tile for Carcassonne, or the new Totem Chamber for Escape: The Curse of the Temple.”

Playing Waste Knights at Spiel.

Thank you so much for sharing your story! Something you would like to add?
“For us, board games are all about sharing stories and experiences with others, bringing together people of different ages, backgrounds and nationalities. So, if you are going to Essen this year, be sure to drop us a line on Instagram (@will.i.game & @corins.cabinet.of.curiosities), or just wave and awkwardly shout: Don’t I know you from the internet?”

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