Growing up with Games
James Petts from London, England / CC BY-SA
What are your memories of games with the family when you were growing up (fond or otherwise)?
Funnily enough, my earliest significant memory is of Dad teaching me how to play chess, and the slide-topped wooden box that all the pieces lived in. A "don't let the marbles drop" game called Ker-plunk! was another.
Fast forward a little bit, and most of my other memories are of cosy weekend afternoons spent inside playing board games with the occasional card game thrown in. Games with my family managed to be a mostly civilised affair, with minimal fighting over who did or didn't have what. Monopoly was definitely a staple, along with Squatter, Masterpiece, Boggle, Mhing, Pictionary, and Trivial Pursuit (which I was bad at).
I still like to play board and card games with friends sometimes, and it's as much about socialising with people as actually playing the games for me.
The resurgence of board/card games over the last few years has been incredible. I don't own many but I've tried a lot of them. My current favourites are:
Archaeology - a card game that almost everyone seems to enjoy
Fresco - a board game where you compete with others to restore, you guessed it; a fresco
Mysterium - an artistically rich, visual game that's a cross between Cluedo and I'm not sure what
Stone Age - a semi-strategic game set in pre-historic times
Timeline - a series of card games where you try to guess what events happened when in history
Over to you! What were your experiences growing up and what, if anything, do you like playing nowadays? What sort of feelings and images are conjured up for you when you think of those times? Were things fairly tame like in my family, or was it more like this?
Go ahead and share! I know I'm interested to hear about it.
Earliest game memories are simple games like memory and old maid , a little later came games such as guess who? and cluedo, monopoly, pictionary and trival pursuit. Also there was ludo, chinese checkers that I played with grandparents. As a teenager I played the board game of dungeons and dragons, scattergories and the game of life. Current games days/ nights consist of different groups of friends that we cycle through so everyone gets a turn - favourite current games: articulate, concept and the logo games
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I thought to myself "Memory, that's right; I forgot I used to play that" before I even realised it was a pun. ;)
DeleteSounds like you've played a wide variety, and I do remember the Pictionary games we used to play way back when.
I had to Google all three of your current favourites. Articulate sounds like a lot of fun, and Concept doesn't sound bad either. Did you mean Logo Board Game when you said logo games?
Given the games you've mentioned, you might like Mysterium! It's a bit like Cluedo, and you're also trying to work out the person/place/thing that someone is trying to convey to you using only picture cards.
Yes, I did mean the logo board games - one's literally about jingles and logos of brands and we also own another which is about TV and movies (like theme songs and actors). I have played mysterium, we played it last Halloween. It was fun. I'm definitely more of a word game person than strategy.
DeleteI don't think I'd do very well at the TV and movies game! Can never remember things like that, which is why I'm bad at trivia. I think I'm a bit of an all rounder when it comes to what I enjoy, although I definitely find word games easier.
DeleteI like mild to medium strategy games, but sometimes I can get paralysed by all of the possible decisions. I've gotten better at just going with something these days though; I just pick something and see how it plays out, then I know for next time.