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Written by Greg Bird
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Friday, 13 February 2009 |
I saw in a recent Associated Press article lately that board game makers are producing altered versions of some classic board games that can be played in as little as 20 minutes to better fit into more people’s busy lives.
These variations of games such as Monopoly, Life and Scrabble are designed to give players an abridged game-playing experience by altering some basic functions or changing rules to accommodate faster play.
I don’t like that idea one bit. I have always been a big fan of board games and don’t mind devoting a few hours to play a game. In fact, I have wasted probably hundreds of hours over the years hoping for a good dice roll, but they were good wasted hours.
My love of gaming goes back to my college years when we had a small group of regulars that would get together for hours to play board games.
Our game choices would vary depending on our moods, but the most popular choice was often Monopoly. We would play that game to death. It got to the point where we could play a traditional game in less than half an hour, so we devised our own set of variant rules to prolong the experience.
We took three Monopoly boards, connected them at the corners and played Tri-nopoly. Games would stretch on for hours as we tried to collect nine properties for a monopoly.
The other kids that shared the dorms with us would often get upset that we would take over the common room with our massive campaigns, but they eventually got used to it and would often stop by to check on the progress.
We also loved to play strategy games like Risk and Axis and Allies where you not only needed a good deal of luck, but also a keen and cunning mind to play. There have been many times where I was wiped off the board because I failed to see a sneak attack from a supposed ally, but that is the nature of the game.
My love of board games has stayed with me long into my adulthood. Over the years I have amassed a nice collection of board games. In addition to the standard party classics like Pictionary and Scattergories, I have a stock of games I used to love as a kid, and still do today.
I have even sampled some computer versions of classic board games that are very close to their real-life counterparts. I enjoy the fact that you can play solo against the computer and not worry about having anybody to play against, but I still miss the camaraderie you get when you are face-to-face with your opponent across the table.
In today’s world where the Internet and Nintendo are geared for instant and fast-paced action, most kids don’t have the patience to sit at a table for more than 10 minutes and concentrate on a game.
If you have kids, why not take some time this weekend to break out an old board game and spend a few quality hours together? I bet you’ll have as much fun as your kids will.
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