At Exodus Books, everyone loves games. Not everyone loves them the same way, however. Take Joseph, for instance: a regular game maniac, spending hours and hours hunched over a board, devising strategies, calling for beverages to slake his indomitable thirst, a thirst only truly quenched by tactical maneuvers and the roll of dice.
Or Jon: not so much a game-lover as a collector of wins. He'll go to any lengths to beat any and all opponents (short of cheating), and this makes him a truly formidable adversary. He's aggressive, he's crafty, and he wants nothing so much as the notch on his belt that proves he's a better player than you are, that proves he has cunning and skills you've only dreamed of.
Or Zach: don't let the calm and deferent exterior fool you, or lull you into a premature sense of victory. He doesn't play a lot of games, but the ones he does play he masters. Whether it's disc golf, chess, or Scrabble, his skills surpass his age. It's not sneakiness or mere tricks he'll muster against you, either, but true knowledge of the game, both its theory and its practice.
Or Eli: of course he likes to win. And of course he's pretty good. But it's not so much the goal of winning that drives him, as the sheer joy of spending time with loved ones in an amusement both wholesome and bonding. In all honesty, he's probably the true purist of the lot, the one who realizes it's not simply winning, or simply strategizing, that makes a game great, but its ability to bring people together.
Or Caleb: he likes three kinds of games—the ones that require a strong vocabulary, the ones that involve a board with alternating black and white squares, and the ones that let you talk like a pirate. Oh, and Dutch Blitz. Sure, he likes spending time with people, and he likes winning, but he's a pretty interior sort, and likes problems that must be solved (especially when he can solve them).
Games are an important part of our lives. We say that partly tongue-in-cheek and partly with a straight face; sometimes we need a break from the cruel world, and playing with those we love (or those we simply like, it doesn't matter as long as they know the rules) is one of the best ways to recharge. Not that we require batteries, but you get the expression. Have fun, and don't let the kiddos eat the small pieces.