I am a gamer, have always enjoyed playing games since I was a small child. Trying to get my family to join in was harder.
There are several very good games coming out of Europe these days that are easy to learn, fun to play, and have huge amounts of strategy and tactics involved. Carcasonne and Settlers of Catan are the most widely played right now. Puerto Rico is also considered excellent, but is not quite as accessible as the other two.
There are also a couple more games from here in the US that are fun party games. Flux is a card game that has very simple rules, and is a lot of fun. Apples to Apples is another card game, that not only does not stifle conversation, it induces it, and helps the players get to know one another. My family loves playing it at holidays, if only I could get them to play some other games.
There are also the Empire Builder games, using crayons you build railroads across various countries and continents to deliver loads and get paid. A lot of strategy involved, we have been playing these games for years, still like them.
That’s suprising to me. Most of our game collection (12 shelf meters at a conservative estimate, not counting the roleplaying games and the kids’ games) is in English, and all or almost all of them are imported from other parts of Europe or USA. In ancient times, when I started playing, there seemed to be only two kinds of games: The trivially simple “family game” kind, and the hardcore ones which easily took 5-6 hours or more to play. But now there are so many games available which fall comfortably in the middle: Short enough that you don’t have to spend a whole evening playing, rules that are easy to grasp, and still enough room for desicions and choices to be interesting.
What friendship is complete if you haven’t tried to assasinate each other in the bank, cornered the silk market at a crucial time, petitioned the king of France for a marriage (and then done your best to ensure that you don’t have to wait unduly long for the “till death do us part” bit), or sent the US president, Nyarlathothep, and a few cultists to grab Denver?
My family were big board gamers. I really enjoyed playing a lot of board games with them, it was a fun, positive bonding experience. However, I have been in the shoes of the anti-gamer, when my husband and I were invited to a party of people he knew and I didn’t, shortly after we got married. We weren’t told it was a bunco party. I was prepared for an evening of conversation, but instead we were sort of hustled around like school-children. I made the best of it, put on a game face, and generally acted as though rolling dice with a bunch of over-competitive strangers was my idea of a fun evening, but I flat out drew the line when the hostess pulled out a plastic device called Bop-it! which killed any possibility whatever of conversation.
So even a happy gamer can become stern and unmoved by the prospect of a delightful evening of fun, if it’s sprung upon her without warning among a bunch of people she doesn’t know.
This is almost my exact attitude towards games, Ashes, Ashes. Games with dreadful people are still dreadful, but games with people I like are tons of fun. Left Hand of Dorkness is into computer games, but, like you, they really do not appeal to me.
Lok, we also play a lot of Flux and Apples to Apples at parties. I’ll have to look into Carcasonne. Sounds fun.
Preach it! Come to think of it, this may be why I like playing games with my in-laws so much. We don’t have extremely different political views, but I can’t buy into their theory that Bush is as bad as, say, Pol Pot. Likewise, if I’m playing cards with my own dad, he won’t bring up Rush Limbaugh’s latest screed.
So it seems that people who don’t like games tend to fall into one or more of the following categories:
People who didn’t grow up playing games.
People who dislike the competition or atmosphere of game-playing, e.g. CrazyCatLady with her in-laws.
People who are somewhat shy or anxious about messing up in front of other people.
Interesting and very helpful to me in my goal of understanding non-gamers.
I don’t like board games or card games either, why?
Two words, only child
The time I spent playing as a child, I was either outside in the woods or playing in the sand, or if I was inside, I had GI JOE’s or I built models or put puzzles together. I had some board games, but the only people I could play against were my parents.
Now that I’m an adult, I still build models, but I also play computer games like flight sims and whatnot, but I haven’t played a board game in probably a year, and that was a pickup game of Scrabble at a friends parents house, before that, I can’t remember.
Since I didn’t play many games as a child, I don’t have an interest in them as an adult.
Occasionally, I like playing poker in a serious game with poker players.
Occasionally, I like playing chess in a serious game with chess players.
Sometimes my brother, father, and another and I will play a somewhat serious game of hearts (or cribbage), where concentration and strategy are the order of the day, not socializing. Usually for small stakes.
I can’t stand sitting around playing other games with people. Especially in a social setting. When I get together with friends, we cook and eat and drink and converse.
I see games as childish, pointless, and as a way of avoiding actual human interaction. For most gamers I know, this is a good thing.
If anybody’s interested in getting Fluxx it might be helpful to know that it has two x’s.
hildea, you can get lots of great games in English. Companies like Mayfair and Rio Grande print translations of European games, and there are some American companies like designing great games like Looney Labs, Fantasy Flight Games, etc.
However, it’s hard to find those games. All you can get in a typical department store, discount store, or chain toy store are the usual crappy Parker Bros & Milton Bradley games. To get good games you have to go to a specailty gaming store or an independent toy store, or order off the internet.
Wow, that’s really harsh! The folks we play games with are the same folks we invite to dinner parties, go out to coffee with, go see movies with, go on hikes with, and so forth. Games are just one thing we do for fun, and when we game, we talk with them plenty.
But on the other hand, there’s the folks who’ll be playing a game and braying at me all night, “What do you mean you don’t like games?! How can you not like games?! You gotta like playing games!!!”
All the while, I’m trying to watch Seinfeld and stay out of their way.
I also find games boring, but oddly enough I don’t mind watching other people play games when I’m at someones house. This often makes them feel weird because they keep asking me, “Are you SURE you don’t want to play?” I just enjoy watching.
burundi, it is from Rio Grande and there are 4 different versions out right now. Plus expansions to the original. I would recommend the original, if you like it then pick up the expansions. The wife of a friend from college doesn’t like gaming, but she enjoys Carcassone and plays it with us.
In the first statement you say you don’t play games socially, in the second you say they are a way of avoiding actual human interaction, i.e. anti-social. I don’t think they can actually be both social and anti-social.
In fact, I find that when gaming with someone, I learn more about them and the way they think. Not just how competitive they are, but how they react to the unexpected, both good and bad, how far ahead do they plan, even how do they react to winning or losing.
Just a quick warning jsgoddess, the book TP is hard. My friend got it and we were going through asking each other questions. There were entire cards that none of us could answer any questions. And we are all college educated readers.
Darn. If it’s too hard I won’t be able to find anyone to play with me.
I like the really hard TPs. I tend to be able to memorize the cards pretty quickly and the harder ones make it, well, harder. (I wish my memory were as good about other things. But trivia it is.)
Living and surviving in this culture is enough of a childish game as it is- politics, religion, socializing, economics- that when I’m on my own time, I want to do something completely different.
Which is why I don’t play Candyland. Well, okay, once in a while when my friend’s kids are really persistant. But they are starting to join us in some of our games, which is a good thing.
