Game On!

You've been tasked with creating a new game, that's fun for the whole family. Tell us about it. Is it a board game? Describe it to us. What are the rules?! How does the winner win?! Share the details.

I love board games. I'm not terribly competitive, but I enjoy playing games and spending time with people. I like card games too. I grew up playing lots of different card games with my brother and other family members. We had a little white plastic table with holes in the top (it was made to look like it was woven) that we played Hearts on. Since there were usually just three of us playing, someone always "dropped" something on the floor to peek at what the extra card was before deciding to take the first trick.

Dominoes always bring back special memories of my grandparents: eating ice cream after dinner to "fill in the holes in your stomach around the food." We played pretty frequently when we went to visit and I can still hear the sound of "shaking and baking" in my head.

My dad is a whiz at Trivial Pursuit! He's a reference librarian (retired), so he knows lots of stuff about lots of things. I remember playing with him once and the question asked about the capital of a certain country. He said it would depend on the copyright date of the game. If it was before such-and-such date then the capital was this, if it was after that date, then the capital was that. *He was correct; we looked it up!

Soccer was my sport as a kid. I played Rec League and then for a girls' travel team and my co-ed high school team when I got older. I don't think I was terribly good at soccer, but I enjoyed it. It was good exercise and exciting to play. I've since enjoyed coaching the boys on their teams.

Sometimes games are too complicated for me. I prefer them as a diversion and having to think too hard kind of negates that for me. I've never been very good at long-term strategy games. Benjamin enjoys playing chess, but I'm no good at it and can never remember all the rules to know whether he's playing it correctly or not!

I also enjoy the process much more than the outcome. Don't get me wrong, winning is more fun that losing, but overall if I've had a good time with fun people, then I don't usually mind a loss too much. I know a lot of people that don't think that way. If you don't win, what's the fun of playing? I think that attitude just sucks all the fun out of everything!

We have two board games at home that are cooperative games: Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Island (those are affiliate links). In these games the whole group plays together. You have to work out strategy and advise each other. Everyone wins or everyone loses. It's not a guaranteed win either. We've played a number of times and it's so much fun to win together! It's also fun to lose and immediately try again. They are great games for learning teamwork and perseverance.

If I could create a game it would include all the best pieces of my favorite games. It would take cooperation and teamwork to play. It would require some skill, but not so much as to leave out the younger kiddos. There would be some strategy involved, but not too much. Laughing would be required. Memories would be built. And in the end, we'd all win together.


This has been a Secret Subject Swap. This week 10 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Baking In A Tornado
The Lieber Family Blog
The Bergham Chronicles
Southern Belle Charm 
The Blogging 911 
Never Ever Give Up Hope 
Cognitive Script
Part-Time Working Hockey Mom 
My Brand of Crazy
Climaxed