Playing Games

Granddaughter #1 ooohs over the Cracker Jacks in her Christmas stockingWe spent the Christmas break in California with the family--three kids, attached spouses, and three grandkids. And much of that visit was taken up with playing games. I noticed for the first time, quite acutely, that different families, and even different parts of families, have preferences for different kinds of games. That got me to thinking about the whole culture of games.

The first game we played, on Christmas eve, was a game in which we sat around the edge of an open space on the carpet and objects were laid out on the floor. We each were to match clues from a paper list with the objects. Following that, we were each handed a paper with rebuses on them, and we were to write down the name of the Christmas song that went with each rebus. I was okay with the games, and became even more comfortable when people started to talk to each other and help each other to figure out the riddles. But two of those games were enough for me. And as fate would have it, we only played two games, going on to the unloading of our Christmas stockings.

There were other games, though. The man of the house where we were celebrating Christmas eve set up a Wii bowling game on the TV monitor, and immediately several people, including our 4- and 5-year old grandkids, were glued to the game, practically to the exclusion of everything else. I found it fascinating since I'd never seen a Wii in action before. I found myself analyzing the game, how it worked, and whether it was really "exercise" to bowl Wii-style, considering that you don't have a heavy ball at the end of your arm that requires muscle tone. I have a vague sense that I am not philosophically in favor of the Wii world at this point, but I can't verbalize exactly why. I'll work on it.

At the end of the evening I heard the woman of the house wish aloud that we'd been able to play more games together, rather than becoming participants and observers of the Wii games. That fascinated me as well, and I poked around in my perceptions and intuition, trying to figure out what values she held that made the group games more desirable than the virtual bowling. Was it the sense of "togetherness" inherent in a group game as opposed to having the majority of the group watching and commenting on the few who were involved in playing the virtual game? Either way we were all in the same room, and either way we were all talking to one another. But I'd agree with her that the feel of the activity was different and less desirable.

The next evening we were at another home, celebrating Christmas with a different family. (You get to do this when you're spending time with the in-laws of your kids. It really is lovely.) This family, too, enjoyed playing group games together, mainly table games. We finished the evening by playing a long game of Balderdash. Someone reads a word or name, such as "Francesco Lentini" from the"Peculiar People" category, and everyone has to write a description and then guesses as to which of the descriptions--when they're all read out loud including the true one--is the correct description.

Francesco Lentini, by the way, was a three-legged man.

I noticed, playing Balderdash, that when you play a game that requires high interaction and critical thinking (guessing), it creates its own bond among the people playing together, especially for those with high verbal skills. Some of the definitions and descriptions had us all laughing hysterically, and simply mentioning the word later to each other got us laughing again. There's something to be said for creating a shared history, even if it's through a board game with memorable elements to it.

Another kind of game we played with the kids during the vacation was the simple strategy game. I liked these the best. They work your brain, but everyone--both the verbally gifted ones and the less articulate ones--is on an even playing field and can play together lightheartedly, finish the game and move on to the next activity with little mental baggage. Blokus is one of these games, one I found quite fascinating. I played it two or three times and got the general hang of the strategy, but not so well that I wouldn't be challenged to learn more. That's the kind of game that keeps you coming back to play again.

In my own family of origin games have also been an important part of holidays and vacations ... and weekends. The all-time favorite has been Scrabble. While we don't play with the crusading fervor of some people I know, most of my family has been pretty serious about Scrabble. We kept a huge Oxford dictionary beside us as we played, plus a two-letter dictionary, and we allowed players to look up words in the dictionary prior to playing their turn. How else would you learn new vocabulary and definitions?

Playing good words is plenty fun, but the real trick is to line them up so as to get maximum points. That's where the more conniving ones of us would excel, and the others would regularly admonish them to "Don't be so greeeeeeedy!"Another game we and our friends played a lot when I was on college vacations--okay, that was lots of years ago--was Rummikub. It's still around. This, too, didn't require any special verbal skills, and somehow the time flew by as we matched up sequences and patterns. My friend Rosie always comes to mind when I think of Rummikub; I learned the game at her house in central Washington when my parents were still missionaries halfway around the world and my Christmas and spring vacations stretched long with a need to be filled. Games were just the thing.

Games, I find, always leave me with pictures in my mind. One picture that remains from the Christmas break just past is the house we visited in which an entire closet had been devoted to table games. They were all organized, box after box, row after row in the closet, creating an amazing array. I had never seen anything like it. I'm the sort to look at something new like that and think, "Huh! Another culture I've not met up with before." And I did think that and move on. But it was still remarkable.

I haven't reflected very much here on outdoor games, perhaps because I'm writing this in the winter and there's a higher likelihood of being indoors during these vacations. But I do know that some families are much more oriented to getting out and doing physical activity, either through games or sports, than to playing table games indoors. They fit their outdoor activities and games to the weather, and thus are not limited to being indoors regardless of what is going on outside. I suspect they are, as a rule, more healthy.

So have you noticed a difference between the kinds of games your family chooses to play, and what others play? Do you think the preference of games goes with a personality type? What makes the difference between a person who likes to play a lot of games (not just during a school break) and a person who chooses other activities to fill their time? I'd be interested in any and all comments, or even memories.