I have always been a board game enthusiast. In grade school, my dad and I got up early every morning to play chess before I went to class. In high school, I got even more into strategy games like Risk and Axis and Allies.
The game that hooked me, however, was Diplomacy. It’s a game about controlling territories (like the others), but Diplomacy isn’t about brute force; it’s about prediction, negotiation, and subtlety. It’s a tough game to master, because you’re not just playing the game -- you have to play the players themselves.