Games Anyone?

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Tonyblack

Super Moderator
City Watch
Jul 25, 2008
30,841
3,650
Cardiff, Wales
#1
With Christmas almost upon us (and having just reread Thud!) I was curious to know what you all think of games. I guess I'm thinking more of board games and card games rather than sports or computer games.

What are you favourite games? Do you play them as a family or in a group? Do you even like games?

I fall in with Vimes here and really do not like games of any sort and I have never understood what people get from them. So enlighten me :)
 

The Mad Collector

Sergeant-at-Arms
Sep 1, 2010
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Ironbridge UK
www.bearsonthesquare.com
#3
I like board games being brought up playing chess, go and backgammon and because of that I especially like Thud which is a really clever idea being two rounds of unbalanced opponents. What I lack is a regular opponent so a lot of my games are just gathering dust waiting for a chance to get them out.
 

=Tamar

Lieutenant
May 20, 2012
11,961
2,900
#5
I think my family played games as a way of socializing, since we all were somewhat prickly. My mother was not in favor of too much competition; card games like Rummy were okay, but she didn't like keeping score. Educational games that let everyone have a chance were the ideal, so Scrabble became and continues to be our basic game. We still play by Mum's rules - no score-keeping, you get applause by using interesting words and by inserting words in places everyone thought were unusable. At the end, we all join together and share our last tiles in order to use all of them up in real words, to beat the game itself. Cooperation during the game is also encouraged; if one person uses a space someone else was waiting for, a mild complaint is allowed and sometimes a takeback will happen if there is another option. We also still use the family rule that was invented when Mum was playing with a grandchild - you don't have to be limited by the edge of the board. At times, words have marched over the edge of the table and continued along the floor.
A newer game that we also like is Bananagrams, which is practically the opposite of Scrabble. There is no board, just tiles, and you gain the most by making many short words as fast as possible. It's fast and takes less pondering.
For a while we played Labyrinth, which I think was educational because it requires moving the pathways for each move, so everyone's plans are thrown off every time someone moves. It rewards quick thinking and pattern-seeing abilities.
 

RathDarkblade

Moderator
City Watch
Mar 24, 2015
15,992
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Melbourne, Victoria
#6
Hmm, so I guess games like Monopoly, Chess, draughts, and backgammon are out of the question, Tamar? :) Those games can get pretty competitive, there's no doubt about it.

I've played chess and Monopoly since I was very young. For me as a young person, chess had an irresistible fascination - the whole idea of a battle across a two-dimensional plane was always very interesting. :) As I matured and learned more about the game - openings, tactics, strategy, endgames - my play improved, and eventually I started to win at tournaments, as well as participating in team tournaments at university.

Obviously, having a ticking clock at your side while playing adds to the challenge and excitement of the game; can you make your moves before your time runs out? (In tournaments, the standard time controls are 40 moves in 90 minutes per player. If the game's not over by then, add another 20 moves in 20 minutes per player, then 20 in 10 etc.)

Competitive chess is great fun - nerve-wracking, but fun. But in addition to the sporting element, there's an element of art to the game as well: brilliant tactics and/or sacrifices to force checkmate (or even just a better position) are almost always beautiful. :)

Lastly, there's an element of science involved - the calculation element! For instance: "Let's see - my position's pretty desperate. If I do nothing, I'll just get crushed. What if I move to A? Well, that threatens checkmate - can he stop it? Well, he can if he moves to B, but my position's improved anyway. But wait! What if he moves to C instead? Then I'm forced to move to D, and he moves to E, and I may as well resign. Can I do A anyway? Should I risk it? Maybe not. What else do I have? Nothing much ... hmm. Shall we try it? Let's try it. What's the worst that can happen? Let's threaten him, and see what he does."

The above is a pretty simple demonstration of calculation in chess, just to show what it's like. In reality, it can get pretty complicated (sometimes 5 or even 10 moves ahead - although that's rare). Most of the time, I don't have to think more than one or two moves in advance. :)

For beginners, chess can teach many positive things: patience, problem solving, abstract reasoning, sportsmanship, creative thinking, pattern recognition, calmness under pressure, and strategic thinking. It improves your memory and verbal skills. It teaches you to believe in yourself and not to give up: for instance, if your plan goes wrong and you end up in a bad position on the board, you can either give up - or calm down, start afresh, analyse your position and your opponent's threats, and find a way out, if it exists. All these skills are transferable to everyday life.

Anyway, I've been going on and on for a while - so I'll give someone else a go. :)
 
Mar 5, 2013
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Leeds, W Yorks
hnorwood.co.uk
#7
Given the choice (and the requisite number of willing players) Mah Jongg. From the building of the walls, throwing dice to find where the break is to start, etc it's great fun as well as challenging. Then there is the passing of the Wind (!) You don't have to tot up the scores, but if you do, it adds a further dimension (including negative scores)

Then there's Rummikub, which is also good fun.
 

RathDarkblade

Moderator
City Watch
Mar 24, 2015
15,992
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#8
The Passing of the Wind is a game now? *blink, blink* It sounds like something Pterry would make up for The Counterweight Continent. *L*

"Sounds a bit dirty," said Truckle the Uncivil. "Hur, hur, hur."

"Truckle," said Cohen patiently, "remember how you asked me to tell you when you were being too uncivil?"

"Yeah?"

"That was one of those times."
(I might have thrown that up as a "guess which book that's from", but I'm sure everyone knows it by now...) ;)
 

Quatermass

Sergeant-at-Arms
Dec 7, 2010
7,736
2,950
#9
TBH, I generally don't play board games. I'm not sociable enough to. That being said, I will play quite readily a game of Scrabble or Monopoly.
 
#10
I'm quite a big fan of modern board games - started playing them in earnest (beyond Ankh-Morpork and Thud) in 2012, and we've now got a collection of about 150 games. Some of our favourites are also considered popular classics in the genre: Pandemic, Ticket to Ride, Carcassone, Dominion. Newer ones that are also quite popular (as they're easy to teach and learn but still have quite a bit of strategic depth): Kingdomino, Azul, Sagrada. My personal favourites are Istanbul, Viticulture and Raiders of the North Sea.

We may not get any games played with the family this Christmas (my partner's family aren't really the gaming sort) but friends are hosting a games day on the 27th and we're hosting a New Year's Eve party that's mostly board game focussed :)
 

Toothy

Moderator
City Watch
Jul 26, 2008
908
2,475
England
#11
I’ve always been a fan of word games, so Scrabble is a favourite. My mother was an expert and not someone you’d want to play if you like to win! She taught me how to do cryptic crosswords, so anything that uses that type of brain power works for me.

I’ll play Monopoly, and enjoy quiz type games in teams. I’m very competitive, so find games quite stressful sometimes when people are taking it really seriously. It was fun when the girls were younger and, as a parent, you don’t mind losing as well as winning, to help them appreciate the balance.

Generally, I prefer online brain training, puzzles, etc, like Peak and Elevate - keeps my mind active.
 

=Tamar

Lieutenant
May 20, 2012
11,961
2,900
#12
RathDarkblade said:
Hmm, so I guess games like Monopoly, Chess, draughts, and backgammon are out of the question, Tamar? :)
Oh, we played chess, draughts, and Monopoly, but Mum didn't like them. Chess wasn't played scientifically, just played for fun, with only a little advance thought per move. Backgammon involved too much scorekeeping. Until my niece came along... she's a natural game player and very competitive. I taught her basic chess moves when she was five and she picked it up very quickly, but she really shines at Monopoly. Parchesi was all right but she prefers strategy games.
I don't play games much any more, except when visiting siblings, because I don't think the way modern gamers do. I tried playing Munchkin with a bored kid a few years ago, and frankly it was beyond me.
 
Mar 5, 2013
1,486
2,850
Leeds, W Yorks
hnorwood.co.uk
#13
RathDarkblade said:
The Passing of the Wind is a game now? *blink, blink* It sounds like something Pterry would make up for The Counterweight Continent. *L*
Close - but in Mah Jongg, the 4 players are assigned to one of the 4 winds - North, West, South, East. If the Player who is East Wind does not go Mah Jongg, the Winds pass round. And so on until all 4 have been East Wind (..and then if you are in it for the long haul, the round changes wind, too!) All good fun!
 

Quatermass

Sergeant-at-Arms
Dec 7, 2010
7,736
2,950
#14
hnorwood said:
RathDarkblade said:
The Passing of the Wind is a game now? *blink, blink* It sounds like something Pterry would make up for The Counterweight Continent. *L*
Close - but in Mah Jongg, the 4 players are assigned to one of the 4 winds - North, West, South, East. If the Player who is East Wind does not go Mah Jongg, the Winds pass round. And so on until all 4 have been East Wind (..and then if you are in it for the long haul, the round changes wind, too!) All good fun!
So...Mah Jongg is a lot of passing wind?
 

Dotsie

Sergeant-at-Arms
Jul 28, 2008
9,068
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#16
We used to enjoy board games like Triv, Monopoly, Game of Life. Now we have the kids its Hungry Hungry Hippos and Bugs in the Kitchen, but they are starting to enjoy card games like Exploding Kittens and Top Trumps.
 

Catch-up

Sergeant-at-Arms
Jul 26, 2008
7,734
2,850
Michigan, U.S.A.
#17
Tamar, love your mum's rules!

We'll have the occasional family game night. We have a large selection of newer games. Derek and the girls are much more into them than I am. I don't enjoy playing anything so complicated that it takes half a life time to master the rules. Or anything that goes on so long that the game only ends when someone dies of old age.

I really enjoy the quicker card games like Exploding Kittens. A lot of the card descriptions and illustrations are really clever and get us all laughing. However, we're all a wee bit competitive so things have been known to get a bit intense, but mostly in a good-natured way. We played a game I bought for xmas last night, Unstable Unicorns, and really enjoyed it. However, there's one game I bought a couple of years ago, Super Fight, that I kid you not almost ended in a divorce.

Derek and the girls do regular D&D sessions with friends and they love it.
 

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