# So, what IS the worst game? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 21, 2020, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946 "2020-03-21T07:58:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/41 "2020-03-21T20:29:38Z")
According to [boardgamegeek.com](http://boardgamegeek.com) which has a ranking of 18,694 games, the 18,694th best game is tic tac toe. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/42 "2020-03-21T21:05:38Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > According to [boardgamegeek.com](http://boardgamegeek.com) which has a ranking of 18,694 games, the 18,694th best game is tic tac toe. The only winning move is not to play. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/43 "2020-03-22T01:11:23Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > According to [boardgamegeek.com](http://boardgamegeek.com) which has a ranking of 18,694 games, the 18,694th best game is tic tac toe. I didn’t even consider tic tac toe, Candyland, or Snakes and Ladders because those games are to teach children how to play games. It’s unfair to judge them by the standards of real games. Risk isn’t a very good game, either. Back in the 80s there was a board game called Poleconomy. It was invented in New Zealand, but I played the Canadian version. It was like Monopoly in that you tried to buy properties - actually they were all corporations, not real estate,. and they were real companies who’d apparently paid a little money to be in the game - but it also had a parallel game where you tried to be elected Prime Minister. My best friend was a huge political nerd and desperately wanted this game to work, but it just didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/44 "2020-03-22T03:00:11Z")
Space Base is much better than Machi Koro IMHO. With MC you can have turns where you get nothing (or go backwards). In SB you will always get something. Still plenty of luck but it feels better to mak SOME progress. Any long game with player elimination is bad IMHO. Unless you lose on purpose to get into a better game 🙂 Brian ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/45 "2020-03-22T03:02:13Z")
(Duplicate Post) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/46 "2020-03-22T03:47:28Z")
How about that game where you take turns kicking each other in the balls, and the winner is whoever lasts longest? Risk isn’t actually a bad game. It’s a pretty good computer game. Its problem is just that it was invented before the computers to run it. Take out all the tedium by automating the die-rolling and counting of armies, and a game lasts maybe a half-hour total. For a couple of serious answers, Martian Chess, invented by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and that weird checkers game with the multi-level plastic board invented for _Star Trek: The Next Generation_. The Star Trek one, either side can trivially easily force a draw, and nobody can ever win, unless their opponent does something colossally stupid. The Martian one, though, actually manages to be even worse: Not only can both sides easily force a draw, but if your opponent isn’t willing to draw but you are, you can trivially easily force a win. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/47 "2020-03-22T05:58:14Z")
I work in an elementary school and have to play a lot of Candyland. It improved immensely when I accidentally “lost” all the candy cards into the trash can. No more getting almost to the end and then someone draws the Cupcake card and ends up back at the beginning and has a tantrum. Also, Guess Who is awful for kids with any kind of language or cognitive disorders. Such a deceptively simple-looking game with nice pictures and a fun board, until you try it with children who don’t have a solid understanding of various vocabulary (e.g. blonde=yellow, ‘red’ hair=orange, beard vs. mustache), yes/no questions, negation, etc. and it falls apart. These same kids can grasp games like the aforementioned Candyland, or Zingo, or Chutes and Ladders, or Hi Ho Cherry O, or Trouble, or even Memory, but Guess Who is a real bugaboo. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/48 "2020-03-22T06:12:19Z")
Tic Tac Toe is the stupidest, most pointless game of all. American football is the most evil game. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/49 "2020-03-22T06:55:01Z")
Not that I would know personally, but _buz kashi_ has nothing to recommend it. Repulsive. Bullfighting, cockfighting, dog fighting, and bear baiting are not games, not sports. They’re nothing but organized crime. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/50 "2020-03-22T12:00:12Z")
For anyone else not familiar with buzkashi, it apparently consists of men on horseback dragging a dead calf or goat around a field, while fending off opposing men and horses with whips and sharp boots. It sounds like the sort of thing that Scott Adams would have invented for Elbonia, but so far as I can tell from a quick Google, it appears to be real. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/51 "2020-03-22T13:31:56Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > (ETA: Actually, the numbers simply appear to be, in a 4 player game, 35% win chance for the first person to grab a hold of a continent, and 40% if that continent is Australia. So the game theory here with me is, most folks know about Australia and there’s usually some bloodbath going on there, so I try to get South America if it looks like there’s just going to be a free-for-all there.) With the Australia strategy the goal is to merely last a long time. The likelihood of the game being called without a winner is quite high. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/52 "2020-03-22T14:14:52Z")
For modern games that I’ve played more than once I’d have to agree with Machi Koro. Even with the expansion (maybe there are others but I’m talking about the one where it can potentially increase the roll to 2D6), it is possible to get into a situation where it is highly unlikely that you will be able to move ahead, only halfway through the game, if your opponent has all the numbers you have and additional ones as well. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/53 "2020-03-22T14:39:48Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The original version of Machi Koro is pretty bad. But the first expansion introduced new set-up rules which greatly improved the game. I keep hearing this. I wish it had been a free update. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/54 "2020-03-22T15:22:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For a couple of serious answers, Martian Chess, invented by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and that weird checkers game with the multi-level plastic board invented for _Star Trek: The Next Generation_. The Star Trek one, either side can trivially easily force a draw, and nobody can ever win, unless their opponent does something colossally stupid. The Martian one, though, actually manages to be even worse: Not only can both sides easily force a draw, but if your opponent isn’t willing to draw but you are, you can trivially easily force a win. Well, if we’re talking about games invented for fiction, Quidditch is an incredibly dumb sport. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/55 "2020-03-22T17:38:53Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > With the Australia strategy the goal is to merely last a long time. The likelihood of the game being called without a winner is quite high. Oh, we always played to the bitter end, no matter if it needed to be continued the next morning. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/56 "2020-03-22T18:17:56Z")
Strip Texas Hold’Em. Strip Poker should be played with the barest rules of Poker, basically high card wins no betting losers take off an article of clothing, simple as that (if you want to lengthen the game then use the rule where only the person with the worst hand takes off an article of clothing), the moment you start to introduce betting into the whole thing you kind of defeat the whole point of it, especially when you make it so that you only take off an article of clothing once you go bust and use an article of clothing to “buy back in”. The only time I was able to play in a public game of strip poker if was Strip Texas Hold’Em and it took absolutely forever to get through so that by the end you were more exhausted than anything. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/57 "2020-03-22T18:58:47Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Candyland and Chutes & Ladders were the first games I thought of as well, as I have children almost 6 & 4. Forgot how horrible a game both are, but, well, they do introduce basic gaming concepts, so you’ve got to start somewhere. I work in a preschool, and the kids absolutely LOVE Candyland. Love, love love it. They are lukewarm on chutes and ladders. > [@](#): > > I was never fond of The Game of Life as a kid. I mean, it was fun maybe the first two or three times, then it just kind of sucked. And I didn’t like how you can basically lose even at the very end because an opponent bet all their money on a number from one and ten and their number hit and they became a tycoon. I forgot about Life! Man, that game sucks! Everything from the spinner that never worked right, to rules that were ambiguous (at least to a bunch of kids), to “What the heck is an almshouse?” > [@pulykamell](#): > > It really isn’t. It may be so at the top tier of the game, but most people don’t play Monopoly well enough to know enough. When playing games of four where folks are casual players, I would wager I win over 75% of the time. Yeah. Few people realize that Free Parking is the most landed on space, so that “lottery” gets won a lot. Or that frequency of getting landed on radiates out from Free Parking. So the orange monopoly is a GREAT starter. If you get that one, and it’s the first or second monopoly, you have basically won, as long as you aren’t careless. The Boardwalk/Park Place monopolies get landed on not so much. Yeah, they can bankrupt people pretty quick, but someone has to land on them first. > [@pulykamell](#): > > Oh, good Lord. Thank goodness my kid finally learned Crazy 8s (which is basically a regular card deck version of Uno.) I know Uno was mentioned upthread, but I actually do find it a fun family game. I played Uno in college as a drinking game. I recall it being a pretty good game. When i recall it at all. > [@Chronos](#): > > For anyone else not familiar with buzkashi, it apparently consists of men on horseback dragging a dead calf or goat around a field, while fending off opposing men and horses with whips and sharp boots. It sounds like the sort of thing that Scott Adams would have invented for Elbonia, but so far as I can tell from a quick Google, it appears to be real. Best laugh I have had today. > [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > Well, if we’re talking about games invented for fiction, Quidditch is an incredibly dumb sport. Seriously. All the other players exhaust themselves, but it makes no difference, because it’s really just the Seeker vs. the Snitch. It’s like two different games are going on at the same time, and only one counts. I wonder, though, as an American, if I’m missing something. Is there some ridiculous UK sport that was being parodied? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/58 "2020-03-22T19:03:08Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Yahtzee hack: Go in order. > > Everyone must go for 1’s first, then 2’s…straight down the line. > > It’s a nice variation. > mmm We do top first (any order) then once that’s filled in, do the bottom (any order) ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/59 "2020-03-22T19:14:09Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Seriously. All the other players exhaust themselves, but it makes no difference, because it’s really just the Seeker vs. the Snitch. It’s like two different games are going on at the same time, and only one counts. > > I wonder, though, as an American, if I’m missing something. Is there some ridiculous UK sport that was being parodied? It has shades of Cricket where you can play a 4 day long game and still have it end in a tie, the ultimate futility of it all. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946/60 "2020-03-22T19:21:51Z")
It’s in a different class of games, but Musical Chairs is one miserable game of making every child into a loser with one non-loser at the end. Russian roulette for kids. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-the-worst-game/849946.md?page=4)