Trade. Build. Settle.

by Cooper Anderson
September 8, 2023

Family game night: a time for relaxed inconsequential competition. These nights are filled with complete selflessness, the desire to help your family rather than yourself, a tool to teach each other how to treat one another with respect and dignity for all. Nobody ever yells and nobody ever cries. Everybody walks away with a smile on their face and love in their heart. Now, if this really was the case, would Monopoly have such an addicting grip on family entertainment? Would our Arcadian family have such an addiction to the popular boardgame Catan?

Here in Arcadia, we have a vast access to entertainment, you just wouldn’t see it right away. We lack a television to fill our nights. We lack our phones to fill silence at the dinner table. We can’t text our friends who live afar. Our access to a phone is nearly an hour round trip. Instead, we care for our environment; we cut wood for fires, cook breakfast and dinner for each other, we dispose of our compost and pack out our trash. We take care of each other; we take time to reflect, we swim in the lake, we play music through the afternoons. We have opportunities throughout our day to fill our time, which passes quickly.

When the sun comes down and the village gets dark, we crowd in our community yurt and settle in. On cold nights we start a fire, some pick up the guitar, others the banjo, and conversations flow freely through the music. Some few, tonight just four of us, sit down at a table, pull up their sleeves, and engage in a board game: Settlers of Catan.

***

When this family first met at Canaras, we embarked on our first M.O.R.E class (Modern Outdoor Recreation Ethics). Led by our assistant directors and teachers, Eva Wetzel and Nate Trachte, our class discussed the flow of group dynamics. We followed a popular structure outlining the shift of group dynamics over time: forming, norming, storming, performing. As a class, we discussed the different meanings of these words and what they meant for our group in particular. Forming is the stage in which a group meets. People aren’t quite their true selves. Each individual is starting to get their sense of the group. Norming is where one may see surface-level groups form. Individuals are starting to see where they believe they belong in the group. But progression is not a linear process. Storming is when group members push each other and learn where boundaries may lie. Conflict arises, subgroups break down, often bringing the group closer together. Performing is when the group has been able to assess and implement each other’s strengths and weaknesses in order to complete tasks efficiently. Eva and Nate continued to explain, these steps or levels are not one directional. A group can shift, jump even from stage to stage. We got to see these shifts occur over the course of our canoe trip and first few weeks at Arcadia.

***

Eva and Nate have a unique position here at Arcadia. Not only are they our professors, they both have an extensive background in outdoor education. Eva, after taking an outdoor leadership course at her college, proceeded to work for Outward Bound, a respected outdoor education school. And Nate, after getting his master’s in environmental education, continued to work for North Cascade Institute teaching middle and high schoolers. These two experienced instructors are in the position to push and guide our group, growing and continuing on our path. I got to sit down with both these experts, discussing how they lead. “I love games,” Eva said in excitement. She continued to explain how they are a direct way to model certain lessons. She explained that games let her as an environmental educator have direction in lessons involving nature and surrounding environments. Nate eagerly chimed in, “[Games] make education fun and interactive.” He loves games as a starting point to encourage conversation. Eva and Nate both agreed that games are a direct and easy way to reinforce themes and have fun. But Eva brought up a good point: “Sometimes it hits, sometimes it doesn’t.” Games let a class run with an idea, but whether they hit or not is not certain and doesn’t always happen. Nate added on, “debrief is where you need to be nimble.”

Sometimes a game, intending to make a point, sets off an entirely new lightbulb in their students’ heads. Games require the teacher to see that and run with it. This conversation got me reflecting. Did Nate and Eva’s love for educational games change their viewpoint on boardgames? Could they see a related theme or lesson? We all had to sit and ponder. Eva broke the silence: “[Boardgames] highlight certain aspects of people’s character.” She continued, “[A] person feels free to act different than normal life because it’s a game.” And Eva is right, it is a game, why am I even writing a piece on it? Well, the other day, Amelia cut my road off twice now, we keep rolling 7s, and I’m pissed about it.

I sat down with fellow Arcadians and equally competitive Catan players Sam, Ruby, and Amelia to collect their thoughts thus far. It’s no secret Catan brings our arguably worst qualities out. Sam described himself as competitive, intent to screw people over, and having a sense of revenge. Ruby explained how they take on an alter ego, become manipulative, and do anything for the win. Amelia humbly noted her competitive side comes out. Yet despite these remarkably truthful self-reflections, they all agreed that our competitive nature does not affect our opinions and judgments of one another outside the game. In fact, they all agreed it’s beneficial to the group dynamic. They all use the game as an outlet rather than a practice. If we can all be self-centered, stubborn, rude, downright mean during a game, it assists in us being loving, caring, and supporting in the surrounding hours. While Catan may bring out our worst, it inevitably brings out our best.

Games take on an interesting role here at Arcadia. From our first introduction to each other, they get us thinking, they break down barriers, and they make us talk to one another. We see them on our trips, we see them in class, and we see them at night. They show us new perspective, an idea to hold onto and ignite thoughts that will slowly grow. They let us be competitive, release revenge and anger, and exercise our will to win. They give us an outlet as well as a practice. Games are generative. So hats off to Monopoly and the makers at Hasbro, because regardless of the night before, we will continue to sit around our table, continue to trade resources, and Amelia will continue to cut me off.