How bad is your O.C.D?
Joe J.
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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I found only one other list that had anything to do with OCD (which we all have to some degeree), but his take on it was different than mine.
I realized last night that I am compelled to put away a game so neatly that it takes much longer than it should. Not only that, but pieces are packed back in their box either alphabetically or numerically, depending on the game.
Granted, I like being able to open the game and have everything waiting neatly inside for set up, but the level that I take it to borders on the ridiculous. I'm not a neat-freak (hell, I can hardly see my desk with all the junk piled on and around it), but when it comes to my gaming hobby, I go above and beyond the normal care of parts. The idea of losing even one little wooden bit makes my earlobes start throbbing.
Please, if you identify with this list, add on to it. Let me know I'm not alone!
(Again, as with all my lists, this is done in fun, and is not to be taken that seriously. I thought my quirk was funny. I hope you do too.)
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1.
Board Game: Tikal
[Average Rating:7.40 Overall Rank:107]
Joe J.
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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The game that inspired this list. Newly arrived from GameSurplus, my oldest son and I just had to dig into it. After the game (which we loved, even with only 2 players), I stacked the land tiles by letter from top to bottom, and the pyramid tiles in numeric order so that when you removed them, all you had to do was sift carefully from the top of each stack and separate them. My son watched me with his mouth agape, then said, "Dad, aren't you going a little overboard here?"
I grounded him for a year.
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Joe J.
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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But he's right. I thought about it, and then checked to see how I'd put our other new acquisition away. This game doesn't have that many pieces, but I noticed that I had carefully placed each building cube with the roof up, and again, they were placed in numeric order from left to right. Okay, maybe the kid was on to something.
He's still grounded, though.
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3.
Board Game: Attika
[Average Rating:7.08 Overall Rank:252]
Joe J.
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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Then I checked Attika. Heck, just fiddling with the boxes is fun for a lot of geeks, me included. Yep, I'd done it again. The small, round city tiles were all stacked neatly, with the black-labeled tiles on the top of each stack. The cards are even facing the same way.
I shortened his restriction.
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Joe J.
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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Next game I pulled off the shelf to check. Opening that box, it was almost appalling. The pieces were in numeric order again on their trays. Granted, our version has a numbered spot for each piece, but does anyone really use them? Apparently, I do, and I've been like this for years. I remember now doing the same thing to this game as a kid!
That didn't mean I'd admit it to Jake.
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5.
Board Game: Torres
[Average Rating:7.24 Overall Rank:184]
Joe J.
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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I was almost afraid to open Torres, but I did. Sure enough, my Rio Grande version was prefectly ordered. Two pieces to each stack, and I had placed a small paperback book in the tray to keep them from shifting around. Game board on top prevented them from toppling inside the box and creating disorder.
He caught me in the act. "What are you doing, Dad?"
"Nothing. Go clean your room!"
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6.
Board Game: Amun-Re
[Average Rating:7.45 Overall Rank:97]
Joe J.
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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The pic shows a game semi-properly put away, at least in my book. My farmers are all carefully placed in their spot, and my province markers are sorted by color. Single and double pyramids have their own little zip bags, as do the player bidding and scoring stones. Heck, I even bagged the cards!
Was this some sort of dementia?
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Joe J.
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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I'm sure everyone bags their camels. Probably even by color, so I'm not alone there, and this picture proves it. But to separately bag the other markers? Man, what was I thinking when I did that? Even the little waterhole markers are bagged according to numeric value.
Then the wife caught me and I had to explain myself. Her only reply was to roll her eyes and to return to the kitchen to hide all the knives.
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Joe J.
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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I didn't even have to check this one. I knew how mine are sorted. 3,000 dice is a lot to keep orderly, but notice the picture. In every box where my dice are stored, the ID is always face up. They're also sorted by race size,and value. Some people have complained about the lengthy set up time for this game (which really isn't), but I take three times as long putting mine away.
Now I'm starting to worry.
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Joe J.
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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This and Pirates should go in the same slot. I carefully disassemble my ships and place them back in their cards, which are then placed in sleeves and put away in marked boxes showing which alien (or pirate faction), it holds. Probably where the OCD hits hardest.
Are all parents as astounded when thier kids are right about something?
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Joe J.
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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Finally, I own Carcassonne and a few of the expansions. After each game they are sorted and carefully put away in their respective boxes. Not as bad as it could be, but the thought of the tiles staying mixed up after the game makes me shudder at the very thought.
I'm making an appointment with a therapist today. And yes, I let Jake off the hook. But I didn't admit he was right, that would be going too far.
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This is my OCD game. I always put the tiles back in alphabetical order, and the chits are always grouped with like chits and placed evenly among the provided storage spaces.
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Chris Kice
United States
Shorewood
Illinois
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While I, too, have an organization fetish, my real weakness is in collectible games. The OCD in me starts whispering in my ear: "must....get....entire......set....."
I'm getting better, but not before maxing out a credit card on eBay getting a complete set of Netrunner cards (every card from all three expansions, the Mastering Netrunner book, and complete set of 2.0 promo cards). Considering that it had been out of print for almost 4 years when I started this insane quest, I think I did pretty well! 
Of course, I'm still keeping an eye out for a set of Chessex Netrunner bits packs.....
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John Lopez
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Get off my lawn!
The explanation: Impossible Triangle + TW (my company initials) = my logo.
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I'm going to agree with Ryan's comment for the list itself: if the packing process is to accelerate future play, it is only a mild OCD-like behavior, if that. People hate to listen to rules. They also hate to wait for a lengthy game setup. Proper organization will eliminate a lot of that setup time.
However, I *know* some of mine crosses the line. When I'm stressed, there is nothing I love to do more than go and organize wargame counters. My Federation and Empire (and expansions) game is organized into race trays, with each tray organized by ship cost. Yes, that means I have eight trays of cost sorted counters for a game I play once a year, at best. The trays take up three times the space the actual game box does. Your examples are all very familiar to me, but I don't see anything to reaches my levels, and I'm still not considered a clinical case.
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Laura Appelbaum
United States
Maryland
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Okay, not only is this my copy of Keythedral (notice the multitude of individual baggies. Then notice the p-touched labels indicating what belongs in each one), but when I'm playing the game, I obsessively pour through my "worker markers" (the red ones; I always play red) trying to find an image that makes sense with the field that I'm sending them into. I mean, if the worker from cottage #2 is going into the quarry, I can't very well send in one who is baking bread, now can I?
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Laura Appelbaum
United States
Maryland
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And this is a photo of my copy of Puerto Rico. Since I always play with one or two other people, I have everything sorted out with two players as the base unit for each bit. There's the bag with enough colonists, victory points, roles and ships for two players, and then there's the bag with the two player supply of buildings, and another with the two player supply of plantations and goods. Then there's the bag of additional colonists, VP, buildings, trade goods and ships you add to the two player bags to play with three players. Then there's the bag of as-yet unused pieces you use for games of four or more. And of course you have to keep your doubloons in their own bag. And each bag has to be p-touched with a table-of-contents so that everything goes back into the correct bag at the end of the night. Phew. The worst part is how much I *enjoyed* making and filling all those baggies the first time!
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Ray Jankowski
United States
Overland Park
Kansas
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Here's how pathetic I am.....Every once in a while, I'll pull a game off the shelf, take the board out, and hold it at eye level so I'm looking down the long edge of the folded up board. If I see a warp (curve) I'll put the board back in the other way (so it sits convex in the box instead of concave), which will 'even it out' so to speak......................help me
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Mike James
United Kingdom
Lee On Solent
Hampshire
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I am particularly pathetic when it comes to putting away games involving cards. Any deck that would normally be shuffled before play is carefully shuffled before being placed back in the box, even though I know full well that when I next pull the game out, I will be certain to shuffle the cards again.
I also know how many games are in my cupboard, how many are on each of the three shelves (10 top, 8 middle, and 8 bottom, just for your information); I can name all 26 games either by alphebetical or thematic order, or by order of purchase (along with method of delivery and place ordered from, of course.) When I buy a new game my brain aches as I have to work out its place in all the lists.
However, this compulsion only affects me when dealing with games, not when trying to learn something useful.
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John G
United States
Salt Lake City
Utah
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I tend to be fairly OCD with my games, but in the case of A Game of Thrones I don't generally separate all of the power tiles, as this picture shows. I only put five of each color neatly in their spaces and then dump the rest together in the large tray area, since that's how you begin play.
After our first game together, a friend of mine interrupted me and organized MY game like shown here. He couldn't take it. I told him that the power tokens begin play all mixed up like that anyway. Whatever. Organize, organize, organize.
Admittedly I need a baggie at least if I'm going to be so chaotic as to dump pieces that have a perfectly good spot in the tray into the large tray area. Now they get mixed in with the round counter, Wildling progress counter and the three neutral city tokens. Now that I think more about it he would have been right to slap me.
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Tom Grant
United States
Foster City
California
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Advanced Squad Leader has to be the most fertile ground for OCD behavior. What sort of container do you use to sort and store your counters? (Religious battles wage between proponents of Plano tackle boxes and standard wargame counter trays.) Once you pick a container, in what order do you store the infantry, from the lowly conscripts to elite troops--left to right, or top to bottom? Do you keep the tanks in the same container as other vehicles? Do mortars, howitzers, and AT guns go in the same container as the infantry, another "soft" target, or do you store them with the vehicles, since the counters are the same size? In what order do you stack the boxes--Allies on the top, or Axis? Should the Soviets go above or below the British in the Allied stack? How do you organize the information counters? Do you clip your counters?
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!
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John Richard
United States
Indianapolis
US
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My OCD tendencies for Memoir '44 have less to do with putting away the box, and more to do with the orientation of the infantry troops (although mixing green and gray pieces in the box is definitely verboten!). For some reason, my gaming buddy and I are convinced that our attacks will fail if all of our guys aren't facing EXCATLY the same direction. Lack of precise terrain hex placement is also a big source of emotional discomfort for me. Am I alone on this one?
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JP LaChance
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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This box is almost OCD proof, or so I thought, It looks that way at first.... Last night my wifes OCD was brought into light when she was struggling with getting everything back into the box. We struggled together. I couldn't believe it she and I really do have the OCD thing, and to think of all the craaaap she had been giving me about my OCD putting things together. Well be careful with this game when putting it back into the box. Man it was really funny.
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stabled inside the bag that was *supposed* to belong to the green camels! 
. If for example, the law cards are in their bag then it's already obvious what the bag contains. If they are not in the bag then it's just one of many identical empty bags and eventually something will fill it.
