The battle was on. I engaged in a war for world dominance with three other similarly minded Alexander's. The battle ebbed and flowed by roll of the dice. Strategy sometimes didn't make up for bad rolls and good rolls could overcome any strategy. Frustrations sometimes grew with deal making and trading that seemed fair to the party's involved but unfair to the others. The only thing that reigned in the aggressiveness was the rules of the game. Settlers is the game, a game of world dominance where the board (world) changes with every time played. Most of my house is hooked on it since my brother introduced us to this addiction almost a year ago and now we shoot up with it as often as we can get together.
When I played organized sports I realized that you can tell a lot about a person through a game. I've seen mild-mannered accountants turn into flagrant-fouling demons on the basketball court. I've seen petite moms turn into spike-flying maniacs sliding into home. Now that sports are behind me I see the same thing playing board games or card games. Settlers is one of those games where you will see a lot about a person when playing. You can tell how aggressive they are, how strategic, how close to the surface anger is, how they deal with the good and the bad, and much, much more.
One thing I noticed as we played recently was how the game mirrored our world politic as well. When it is "decided" or found out that one player is way ahead of the others, the players who are down begin to gang up on the one ahead. They will pool their resources and trade with each other, even sacrificing themselves, to make sure the leader gets pulled down. Once everything is close to equal again, all go back to normal deals and strategies. I see that with the United States right now. There really isn't a world power close to the USA and what we find is that any "deals" or trading that happens is now suspect and even rejected just because it's the USA doing it. Enemies are cheered and allies are jeered and it won't stop until there is a greater sense of equity in nations. That seems to be trend of the game. Unfortunately, and unlike Settlers, there are really no rules to keep the aggressiveness in check so we have schools bombed, civilians murdered and brainwashed teens strapping bombs to themselves. And we all know that when there are no rules to the game, the strongest wins. And that scares me.