Board Games

Betterintheory- you're so right. Apples to Apples can get hilarious! Here's a twist on it that I find amusing. Have everyone show their cards at the end and see how well the cards they have left describe each person. It's sometimes stupidly accurate.Because the game is based on abstract thinking, it's a fun game for unwinding. There's thought involved, but more right-brained thinking than left-brained. And getting to see how other people's mind works through the word association is pretty insightful. I'm glad you mentioned it because a different game made the top of my list, but this one's definitely a fun game.

I don't play board games anymore, but I did play a lot of board games as a child. I loved Sorry!, and Operation, and Monopoly, as well as all of its variations. I think one of my favorites was still Candy Land. As for the variations of Monopoly, we played Spaceopoly and well as Whovilleopoly. Those were always frustrating though, and no one ever won. Board games nowadays are changing so much. I miss playing all of the classics. When I have children I plan to bring the tradition back, and we'll all sit down and play some games together. Another that I played a few times was the Pokemon Board Game.

BeHereNow wrote: Scrabble is one of my favorite games. It's like working a crossword puzzle, only you don't need clues and you decide what the words are going to be. :) I've always wondered if a Scrabble game would be a good way to make a template for making your own crossword puzzles. It might not be the best strategy. Either way, it's a fun game. According to the box, a good player scores over 300. And using that rating system- I'm not great at it, I just like it. But I think the highest possible scores depend on the number of players anyway.  Scrabble!! This is the one most popular game that I have never quite gotten into.  Why do people like it so much?  It always amazed me how I would see people sitting down having fun playing scrabble.  Well, I guess monopoly is another one I couldn't get into as well.  My thing was always that I needed a game that could get me competitive. It just seemed like scrabble, etc., was too friendly for me lol. I did play it once with a group of people, and while I had a good time, I'm still not sure whether it was the game itself that was fun, or that everything seems more fun after a few beers...

I don't love board game so much. But sometimes, there comes some situation when s board game is the perfect choice. Such as, in a rainy day. I don't love this but I like to play it sometime. From all board games, I like chess most. It is challenging to me always. When I play this, my brain is going to be hanged! It's true. :) In fact, chess comes from India. But now it's a popular game all over the world. In our college, I play this much in the common room. My two classmates like to play this game at my home. Most of the time, I lost the game. But I play this, because it is a very good game to increase the power of our brain. I think the board game is like chess.  It is not boring every time. However, I don't love board games so much. Some people think that chess is a boring game, because it takes too much time. But we should recharge our brain sometimes, especially in this digital arena. We are becoming lazy and lazy, and our brain too!

Before, I never like board games. But there was this one time when I just downloaded a chess game in my cell phone. I immediately got hooked up. It is real fun and beneficial. First and foremost, chess involves logic, or reasonableness on your move. You can't just move a piece just because you want to. You must have a reason, and that reason must be the most reasonable among all possibilities. A single move changes everything at every angle. And this is actually what I need. You see, I am a computer engineering student, and as such, logic is a requirement. Indeed, from the most basic line of command in programming, up to the most complicated electrical circuit would require logic. I can't just put a line in a programming code just because I want to. I should have a reason, and that reason must demonstrate the most efficient and most effective way to solve a problem. Yet at the end of every game, what is it but a game. Yes, the satisfaction of winning a game is a confidence booster. Of course, if you lose, it is still an experience!

Board games are surprisingly popular among college students.  My friends and I always have a great time with an old classic: Monopoly.  Believe it or not, college students can turn Monopoly into one really intense game.  The sessions we have are always accompanied by loud, obnoxious, but good natured jeering and heckling.  Occasionally, things have been thrown in fits of frustration.  We may have collected more than one noise complaint from other dorm residents and we may also have had to have a resident assistance tell us to quiet down while in the grip of the game.  To be honest, most of the time we never actually finish the game.  Monopoly is notorious for being a long winded game and the fact that it is being played in a college setting does nothing to change that.  But, at least for us, that does not make the game any less fun.  Instead, we simply play until we are tired of doing so.  And then we come back and play it again the next night, and the next.  We all have really busy days and we like getting together to sit around a Monopoly board and spend some quality time with one another.

I am glad to know that most college students at my college pal plays (or loves) scrabble like me. I thought I was a little geeky because I love a game which is considered to be boring by others. Well it is actually boring, but it is mentally challenging. lol. Scrabble is really a great game for everyone, not only it exercises your brain, it also widens your vocabulary. There is an exchange of ideas involved in the game. When you don't know the word your opponent played, you'll ask him or her the meaning of that word. And you add it to your vocabulary. You just learned a new word. That is why I really love the game!

 

I hope to play scrabble with other people at mycollegepal even just playing online (because obviously playing real scrabble is impossible). It will be a great time to bond with other college students at my college pal. I hope someday mycollegepal will add games like scrabble which helps us learn something new and at the same time having fun. What do you think of my idea, scrabble lovers? Can't wait to play scrabble with all of you! So we can have fun and learn new words from each other.

 

 

 

Maybe it's because that new movie is coming out (and I'm going to see it tomorrow!) but I always loved Battle Ship. Even into my college years I had my old, beaten-up set and I would play with my friends. Battleship is a really fun strategic game that never fails to get me nostalgic and thinking about how fun it was to be a kid. I'm pretty sure they don't even make the board game any more, but maybe it will see a resurgence with the movie that is coming out. I guess it's kind of like that game Guess Who, and a bunch of other board games that were created when we were kids and have since seen a revamp. Either way, Battle Ship is great. If you haven't played it yet, or don't even know what it is, I would SERIOUSLY recommend trying to pick a box up at the thrift store, or maybe even online. I'm sure that given the recent uprising in popularity of all things "old-school" that there are tons of copies of this board game circulating for (probably) pretty cheap prices. If you like classic board games, you should definitely check out Battle Ship. 

I used to be a part of a weekly Risk game group called the "Dominators". We would have weekly tournaments and get about 5-6 games going at one time. We had developed our own house rules which allowed us to keep the game fresh and exciting. At one point we had adopted over 35 different rules, including the ability to occupy the lost city of Atlantis (the compass rose on the map), the development of naval warfare, and of course nukes.  There have been other games where house rules have made the experience a whole lot more fun. In Monopoly, my family used to have a rule that when somebody owned an entire street, they could charge a speeding ticket if a player rolled a 10 or greater and bypassed them entirely. In Apples to Apples, we would have a rotten apple round every rotation, where players would play the least matched card. We would even develop our own variations of party games like Werewolf, where we would add different elements of characters for people to play to stir things up.  Board games have always been a great family tradition that I look forward to passing on to the next generation. 

For anyone looking for a different but very very fun board game for 2-4 players, I would highly recommend The Settlers of Catan.  This is a strategic board game that might seem complex at first glance but really is no more difficult or simple than monopoly.  The game is based around gathering resources with what land you have settlements on, and trading with other players to meet your goal of becoming the first player with ten points.  Although there is a lot of strategy involved, especially in the first few turns, there is equally as much luck using the dice rolls and that sort of thing.  This game isn't easy to find, and you probably will not see it at a walmart or other sort of general store that sells board games.  You will probably have to go to a game shop that specializes in this kind of thing to find it, but I guarantee it is worth it.  A few friends and I have enjoyed many nights playing this game with each other.  I would recommend having a bit of time though, as it could go up to two hours with four players.  Although isn't that what board games are for anyway?  Killing time?  Have fun doing it with this game.

Steve Jackson Games is a company that produces many different board games all with a similar vein: a quirky sense of humor, and liberal application of slapstick. Munchkin is a multi-player card game designed to give the feel of adventuring through a "dungeon," gaining "levels," and getting "loot." Based on Dungeons and Dragons, with many card jokes referencing rules or common practice with the game, Munchkin is a solid choice for anyone with a slightly off-kilter sense of humor and a love of wordplay. You can play Munchkin with as little as three people, all the way up to eight or ten. You draw cards at the beginning of the game and fight monsters to gain levels, the winner being the first to level ten. Oh, and by the way, you are encouraged to stab other players in the back, or make their life miserable in general on the way to the top, in true munchkin fashion. The word munchkin derives from Dungeons and Dragons as well, and is a slanderous term meant to heap shame upon a player who doesn't "role-play" but does "roll-play", meaning he tries to take his character and turn any tiny insignificant rules loophole and exploit it to create a powerful character. They are often criticized for starting inter-party conflict and only playing the game to kill monsters and obtain treasure, much at the other players expense of fun or involvement. Munchkin takes that concept and dials it up to eleven, and get this, the rules even encourage cheating. With the caveat that you don't get caught of course, because no one likes a cheater. This game is an absolute blast to play with the right group of friends. You can celebrate all the traditional fantasy tropes, as well as breaking out into rules arguments right in the middle of a heated battle. You can find munchkin at many card shops, as well as places that sell board games and similar products. If this description piqued your interest, be sure to pick it up and try it out.

Castle risk is a variation on the popular strategy game Risk. In Risk you take turns placing your armies on a map of the world and the object of the game is to capture all forty-two territories by attacking them with your armies. You also draw cards to play during your turns like Reinforcements, Admiral and Marshall to aid in attack and defence. Risk has remained popular over the years due to its simplicity of design while at the same time allowing for strategic depth and planning. Castle risk is a variation in which up to six players pick a castle coin and then place that coin a territory on the corresponding nation the coin represents. Then play continues in the traditional Risk fashion of players alternating placing a single army on a territory until all armies have been placed. You also draw cards to play on your turn to aid in offence or defense like Reinforcements, General and Marshall. Castle Risk is unique in that if the territory your castle is on is taken, you are knocked out of the game, as well as the person who captured your territory gaining all the territories you owned. The castle also affords you some increased defense, with only two attacker allowed against your two defenders, instead of the usual three. I find this adds a very fun dynamic to the game of rushing to protect your castle, versus expanding and attacking anothers territory. You can also play with as few as two people and still enjoy a varied and intense game, with games involving four or more people getting very hectic. Castle Risk is one of many seriously fun variants on a strategy classic. You would do yourself a favor checking it out.

The roots of the game of Go can be traced back to China, two-thousand five-hundred years ago, back to the Tang dynasty. In Go, each player takes turns placing stones on the intersections of a 19x19 grid. The first player to place a stone plays white, and the other black. The object of the game is to use your stones to surround a larger area of the board than your opponent. You cannot move the stones once they are placed, but if they are surrounded completely, they are captured and removed from the board. At the end of the game, the captured stones and surrounded territory are counted up and compared to determine who has more points. Although many games reach this point, many still are ended before the endgame is completely played out through resignation. It is considered polite to accept defeat to an overwhelming victory by resigning. The basic principle of Go is that each stone has a number of "liberties" to remain on the board. A stone has as many liberties as the intersections adjacent to it, and connected stones share liberties. An enclosed liberty is called an "eye," and a group with two or more eyes is said to be "alive," that is, cannot be captured. Play commonly begins at the corners, as this is the easiest area to build a "living group", one that cannot be completely surrounded and captured. Play then spreads to the edges and finally the center where most of the "fighting" occurs. Typical Go strategy involves attacking your opponents groups while strengthening your own and at the same time gaining territory. Play contiues until both players pass in succession, the score is then counted and the winner declared. The basic rules are simple enough, but the interesting thing about Go is that from these simple roots a game of unimaginable complexity springs forth. It is said that there are more variations of moves within a game of Go than there are particles in the universe. If you want to pick up an interesting, mentally challenging hobby, Go is the game for you.

I have already mentioned before that I am really into board games. And when I say board games, I automatically mean those games which mentally challenge you especially your vocabulary. I love playing Scrabble with my father and sisters. It has become our bonding time since we all love to play it and we are really competitive everytime we play it! This really sharpened my vocabulary and mind. Now I am here to share to you another board game which I really like is the Boggle or the word factory. It is a not really played on a board, it's game set consists dice like squares where in letters are written on every side of it. These letters are inside a box and you shake them to randomize the letters.  After it has been shuffled, the game starts, player search for words which can be formed through the letters which are connected. The longer the words, the better and if you are the only one who wrote that word that's also better. The game ends when the timer is done. After it players will compare words which they have written down for scoring. Try playing it! I really find it very fun and learning.

I really love this game.  It is a game that requires at lest four people to play, but in my option, the more the merrier.  The game is played by dividing up into two teams.  Each team takes turns with one member trying to get the others on the team to say certain words with out using any of the "taboo" words listed on the card.  Of course, the "taboo" words are all the words you would usually use to describe the thing. It is a great exercise is creativity, and quick thinking.  Some people who are a little shy might have a hard time when it is their turn to give the clues.  Creative people seem to have the upper hand in this game. The best thing about this game is that it becomes a great way to feel closer to your friends because what happens is that people begin to use personal experiences with each other to try and describe the word. For example, "remember yesterday, the thing you had for lunch?"  While that was probably a weak example I think you get the idea.  It is a way to capitalize on how well you know your family and friends. In my house this is defiantly the game of choice.  It is a great gift for birthdays!