Tell me what you think about board game tables!

1a. Where do I play? A table is almost always involved (indeed is required in most cases). Venues have included player's homes, restaurants, pubs and cafeterias, buses and airliners. I used to play only at home (or someone's home); now, I only play out of the home (seldom at another's home). Why do I like playing in these places? I suppose the location is chosen for the convenience of the players, myself included.

2. The number of players involved depends most upon the game selected. Some folks may have a preference for games designed for a particular number; I am not such a person.

3. I don't have any favourite games; I like to try lots of different games. I've tried games involving miniatures before and these are definitely not my favourite. I'm not keen to spend a lot of money buying (and protecting) game pieces which are so vulnerable to damage and other perils.

4. I don't have a space at home dedicated to games. There's a large table available, and it's seldom used for anything else, but it's still not a dedicated space.

5. Not applicable; see #4, above.

6. The table I have is too big for the space it's in. It's too difficult for people to walk around the outside of the area while anyone is sitting at the table. For a game night, I would prefer to move the table into the living room instead, but this cannot happen as the living room is already overfurnished.

7. My games are stowed away; my preference.

8. Problems associated with using boards on tables include (1) the board(s) not laying flat, (2) insufficient table space around the board (for cards, tokens), (3) reflected glare from overhead lighting, (4) board(s) shifting position on the table, (5) incompatible use (e.g. snacks, drinks, cutlery, napkins, toothpicks, coasters, phones).

9. Most of the problems (see #8, above) can be ameliorated with simple adjustments or repairs. However, item #5 requires enforcement of a play group behavioral standard: non-game materials are not allowed in the game play zone.

10. The analogy I would use for myself is that of a big meal, with several courses. Its elements are more or less appealing, but work together in aggregate, and are both stimulating and satisfying.

11. My ideal game playing atmosphere is free of distractions. Mood music is not distracting; muggles in the peanut gallery are distracting.

12. In my role-playing groups, players usually have their own theme song; some even bring extensive playlists to game sessions. In all game formats, players will sometimes take another's expression and play the "Band Name, Album Name, Boat Name" game (or a variant thereof), or the "Cover Band Name" popularized by Wil Wheaton's Tabletop on Geek and Sundry. Food is not allowed in our game play zone; players may not even sit at the table if they are eating (or drinking) anything. Offenders (it happens) must put $20 in the kitty for each infraction (we've never had a repeat offender).

13. My ideal table would be expandable (e.g. from square to oblong), with a broad rail upon which to lean for support while stretching to reach across it. Maybe there could be some recessed lighting in the rail around the perimeter to augment or replace overhead lighting (reducing glare?). I don't want food or drink near the game surface, but it might be nice to have cup-holders (or a pull-out tray?) somewhere. Speaking of storage, I'd like to have a little drawer where I can keep my cards, tokens and such between turns (if they needn't be on the play surface). I'd like to be able to plug in my USB stick or memory card somewhere to have background music played on speakers mounted in the table somewhere.

Home with friends. We also had a space to use weekly to gather people to play (mostly wargaming related).

Usually 4 to 8, sometimes divided to groups to handle games with more limited player count. Best situation would be to have games that'd support all the players.

I have my wargaming and boardgaming crews somewhat separated from each other. The wargaming crowd usually is down with board games, but I'd never bring wargames to the boardgaming crew, because of the density of the rules and player limits.
Otherwise it's all good. Sometimes bigger games will be the main course when planned, like Arkham Horror, and sometimes we're good with handful of quicker games.

No, but a friend has this dedicated workshop area which is easily converted into a gaming area.

Drag one long dining table there. 3 meters (10 feet) or so, if memory serves me right. It'll usually accommodate all of us.

Only wargaming stuff is usually put to display. I'd consider framing a board if it is especially cool looking. (Like I have my Dread Fleet cloth hanging).

Some games (like Arkham Horror) take up so much space that it's horrible to get everything in order.

Gaming aids. Some games just need them more than others.

Good. Like anything you enjoy doing with friends.

I like to arrange the gaming meeting so that no one has no plans for the next day, so everyone can enjoy the evening as long to the morning as they want.

We usually have beer, soft drinks or coffee on the table all the time, and some snacks stashed under the chair or something.

I guess it would be this crazy transforming thing with minimum length of 4 feet to maximum of 8 (as is dictated by many wargames). Depth would be from minimum of something like 2,5 feet (for normal board games) up to 4 feet (again for wargaming). Some small shelves would be good for stashing away all the clutter that is sometimes happening on the table.