This. This Is Why It Matters

I have been hosting game nights for over 20 years. Right now, about once a month, our house fills up with a big group of friends and neighbors. There was a moment at a recent game night when the room got loud.

Not a bad loud. The best kind of loud.

Everyone at the neighboring table erupted in laughter. Really laughing. The kind of laughing where the game had to stop because nobody can pull themselves back together enough to take a turn. The kind of laughter when you can't see through your tears to read the cards.

When the room erupted in this joyful ruckus, I looked across the room and caught my wife's eye. We didn't say anything, but we both knew what the other was thinking.

"This." Moments like this.

"This is why I want to build the Treasured Realm."

Long before I ever had the crazy idea of wanting to open up a board game lounge, I've enjoyed getting together with friends, and with friends of friends, and with recent strangers who would become friends to sit around a table and play games.

In my 20 years of hosting game nights, some of the games have changed and some of the people around the table have changed, but the reason I keep doing it hasn't.

I love the opportunity that a game night gives you to gather and reconnect with people you haven't seen in a while. Sometimes, it's just a small group of friends making time for each other when life has gotten busy. Other times, it's a way to build a new friendship.

We've experienced that firsthand in our neighborhood. We always seem to find our way to connect and discover local people who play board games or kind of play board games or who barely know anything about modern board games, but they enjoy a fun night.

So we invite them over for game night.

Some of those people now regularly sit around our table, whether there's a game on it or not. Some of those strangers have now become our closest friends.

The games give us a reason to connect around a table. The friendships give us a reason to keep coming back.

When I talk about The Treasured Realm, it's easy to talk about the exciting stuff: the huge game library, the immersive fantasy-adventure atmosphere, the fun programs and events, and all the other little details we're dreaming up to make the experience special.

And I love all of that. I really do.

But none of that is the point. The point is that laughter moment at that game night.

I want someone to come to The Treasured Realm to meet up with an old friend they haven't seen enough lately.

I want someone to come to The Treasured Realm who's new to the area and have them leave knowing a few more people than when they arrived.

I want someone to come to The Treasured Realm who "isn't really a board gamer" and discover that there's a seat for them, too.

I want someone to come to the The Treasured Realm with their partner to share a night of connection and rediscovery.

And I hope that every now and then the table gets so loud with laughter that everyone around them feels that joy as well.

That's what I'm building.

The games will bring us all to the table. The treasure is what we happen to discover when we're there.