Tabletop/card games seem inexplicably complex like bruh.

Something about the teaching method of some guy explaining something to you haphazardly, while sitting physically across from you making facial expressions and body language gestures and whatnot, something about the societal pressure to understand the rules in a given time limit as to not hold up a game, yet also make sure you actually do understand it and not come off as an idiot in a group which often features people you don't know that well, meaning you're now vulnerable in front of strangers, the way it's explained purely in the abstract without any relation to the real world which just makes the rules seem extremely arbitrary... It just makes for a rotten stew of incomprehensibility.

On the one hand I actually like it because how much of a challenge it is to my brain and the sheer novelty and shock to the system that the experience brings.

Most of the time games you play either have a commonality with others (genre i.e. FPS) or simulate a real world activity (i.e. shooting people) that have a certain logic to them that's just self-evident (point at target and pull trigger) and speak a sort of shared language that's designed to be as ergonomic as possible and on top of that, teaches you as you go with contextual instructions.

Even very complex games like HOI4 (or any Paradox or Paradox-type game) with enormous amounts of intertwined highly complex systems still simulate a real world activity to some degree, I don't actually have to have any game-specific knowledge to understand that if my government budget is in the red my immediate solutions are to cut costs or increase income (tax) and borrow to invest in infrastructure to increase income long-term and if the menu is intuitive enough, (e.g. Victoria 3), you can just find it.

And games with just absurd amounts of knowledge required like Warframe don't necessarily expect the player to actually know all, most or really any of it to play at the most basic level, and it's kinda understood that learning the ins and outs of later content takes hours and hours of periodic wiki perusing and game progress.

So board games that force completely abstract thinking among arbitrary rules going on half understood words of someone with an ever-thickening accent instead of the safe warmth of wiki text on a screen are actually a fun challenge, if you're the kind of person that likes to blast yourself with ice cold showers to wake up (me).

On the other hand - unfortunately I feel apprehensive about it due to past experience where sincere engagement probably gave my gf's friend circle the impression that I'm a stunted or something, it kinda sucks to feel like my game performance is judged, when obviously such things are intended more as a mutual activity to stimulate conversation and alcohol consumption rather than some cutthroat assessment of skill. I don't even know if it's the case, but I felt that way, so now I've just learned to say no completely out of hand to any and all interactive things at any social gathering for the most part.