Ka is a wheel.
This is about the Ka and the 108.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the notion of Ka, it plays a central role in some of Stephen King's greatest works. While tough to describe, Ka can be loosely compared to The Force, or any other real world equivalent of something that permeates the universe. For our purposes, though, we need only be concerned about Ka-tet. This term can best be summed up as a group of people that Ka has brought together, bound at least for a time by the unseen forces around us. "Friends" is infinitely insufficient a term. "Family" comes a bit closer. But allow me to back up a little.
Welcome to the official gaming blog of the Brothers Bonnett. When discussing gaming, I'm often asked when I first got into it. I received a copy of the Second Edition of Warhammer 40K in late 1997. Jason (Jay to most of you) and I have been involved ever since. But it recently occurred to me that this telling of events is not strictly true. Many years before that, one of us was gifted a copy of the board game Heroquest, which was a collaboration between Games Workshop and Milton Bradley. It was recognition of the GW logo that eventually saw us walk in to the store in the Walden Galleria. I believe our first intro game was with Scott Herzog. But let me back up a little further.
Flash back to the latter half of the 1980's. We're in a living room, playing on our new Nintendo Entertainment System. Inside, there's a gold cartridge of The Legend of Zelda. We're going back to the age where memories are a bit fleeting, but to this day, that game has left an indelible mark on me, and my love of escapism. Not too long after, I have a memory of my brother and I beating the crap out of each other in the back yard with wooden shields and plastic swords. In true medieval fashion, long after our swords were worthless, the shield bashing continued. Jay's was vaguely a kite shield with a cross on it. Fast forward, circa the year 2000.
Jay and I were outsiders, having moved from Pittsburgh to Buffalo in 1998, we didn't know anyone here. The first friends that we made were through Games Workshop. Enter John and Dan. The four of us became the fastest of friends. An inseparable group that has endured a lot over the years. I am fully cognizant of the fact that had it not been for Games Workshop, the community there, and the connections that we made, our lives would probably not be anything close to what they are today.
The store number of that particular Games Workshop was #108. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), our grandmother's street address, where the aforementioned shield bashing took place. Our ka-tet has evolved over the years. It wouldn't be right to not mention key members such as Todd and Josh. Regardless of its many iterations, the ka-tet of 108 has, through everything that has come out of it, shaped the lives of my brother and I, and everyone that has passed through it.
Games Workshop Buffalo is long gone. The tiny spot it occupied in the universe isn't even a storefront anymore. The community wandered, like Ronin, until very recently. When Jay bought out a local business and transformed it into Two Kings Gaming, he gave wandering gamers a home again. Not just a place to play. For the first time in years, it felt like a missing piece had been restored. The ka-tet of 108 has allowed for a new tet to come into existence, which I'll call the ka-tet of the Kings until someone comes up with something better. If you're reading this, you're probably part of it to some degree. And while I'd never downplay the importance of my own friendships, I did feel it is necessary to point out that a lot of history has gone into enabling the Western New York gaming community to come to where it is today. Ka has brought us all together, and for that, we say thankee.
I could drone on about the importance of escapism. The need for community. Why we love science fiction and fantasy as much as we do. But volumes have been written on it, and I have nothing new or groundbreaking to contribute. What I can say, however, is that somewhere out there a kid is watching an older sibling play Skyrim. That kid may one day wander into a game store, with a solid hobby community, and meet some new best friends. For my brother and I our whole lives led to us walking into a Games Workshop and meeting our best friends. That led to him opening a store, where another person may have the same experience. And I find a great deal of comfort in that.
Ka is a wheel.
Over time, you'll probably be able to pick Jay's brain here on everything from winning in deployment phase to the finer points of painting. I'll likely wax philosophically on why armies that are played in character will always win. But before all that, I just wanted to take a moment talk about how we came to be where we are today, and tell you why this all means so much to so many people.
Long days and pleasant night,
- Ryan
