People-Food Dynamics

I was going to head over to a friend's for a game of Dungeons and Dragons. It was probably 3rd edition, I don't really remember. I don't think it matters though anyway for this story. Usually during a game, the host has a bunch of snacks ready for us to eat while we play, such as a bag of chips sitting out, or soda in the fridge. Well, I decided that it would be a good idea to bring over a food item this time. Cake is good; everybody likes cake, so that's what I made. I followed some recipe from a cooking book. This isn't about cooking food though, so I'll cut to the end of the story: the cake had a ton of butter in it, and for better or worse, the cake was the highlight of the day.

I don't know if this whole food thing whole food thing is actually a good idea or not. Depending on the type of food, it may serve as a great a distraction from the actual game. Of course, this all depends on how seriously the game you're running is being taken. If it's the type that's laid back, the game is just an excuse for meeting up with friends, it's completely fine since distractions are fairly common, such as conversations leading to tangents that have little to nothing to do with the game. For a serious game that's fun value comes from the mood it creates, a minimally distracting food would probably be best, and as players become engrossed it will become unnecessary.

When the game is being conducted over the internet, the food situation takes a different form. You can enforce a rule that all participants individually must have a specific food item prepared. This will result in a great success for a few reasons: food tastes good for those that have it. the promise of food will help with getting people to sign down to a specific time to play, you don't have to actually have food for other people, and people that are embarrassed that they don't have the food won't admit it; they'll just pretend they're eating food and no one else will have to know about it.