Daily discussion post: Games people play

[liv]

I'm thinking about play at the moment. For me games are an important part of how I socialize, and I'm working out how much of that translates to the social isolation world. Or, as some community leaders have been framing it, the world of social connection with physical distancing.

So let's talk about what we do for play, and what we're playing during the pandemic. Here are some prompt questions, but feel free to talk about anything game-related!

Are games part of the way you interact with children? Have you rediscovered games as an adult? Or are you playful in some other way that doesn't involve formal, structured games?

Do you play board and card games? Are they a special occasion thing, perhaps once a year when the family get together for Christmas, or a regular hobby? What's the best classic game in your opinion? Are you taking part in the contemporary board game revival? Do you have a favourite, or can you suggest a game that deserves more attention?

What about video games? Do you play phone games (and if so, are there any where you would like to connect with other players and add new friends)? PC games? Who's finally getting to that long queue of stuff you downloaded when it was on special offer? Console games? Multi player or single, classic, retro or modern, big tough tens of hours games or casual? Do you have kids who play video games, and do you approve or need to restrict how much and what they play?

Do you take part sports for fun and play? Or do you follow any sports? Which teams are you into?

I know there are lots of kinds of games I haven't listed, all the various forms of role-playing and improv games, gamified self-improvement stuff like Duolingo and HabitRPG, party games, you name it!

And if you feel like talking about it, do tell us how you've adapted your gaming and play to new circumstances. What works virtually, what needs adapting? What are you reminiscing about or watching in the archives when there are no live matches? What have you come back to after a break if you're one of the people spending more time indoors these days? What are you looking forward to playing when the world goes back to normal?

Comments

[aome]

My teenage son enjoys games, and will sometimes ask for me to play something with him. We play Payday, Life, Sorry, Clue (if his sister is free to join us), Storming the Castle (Princess Bride game - if we get at least 1 more person, makes it more fun), the dice game Farkle and the card-based games Skip-Bo, Uno and Phase 10.

I especially love word-based games like "25 words or less" Taboo, Boggle, Pictionary and things like that, but since my son has a reading/writing learning disability that makes it harder, and some of those games require teams and thus more players than I am likely to have interested at any one time. My best friends used to host game nights and those were special favorites of mine when we played, but I haven't played any of those in ages.

As a teen I loved Pac Man/Ms Pac Man, Frogger and some of those other classics. My BIL just got a Nintendo Switch with some of the classic games but I haven't tried playing any of them.

Not hugely into sports - I run and do martial arts (and I am SO looking forward to going back to my martial arts classes when things calm down; training by myself sucks), but I did enjoy shooting basketballs with my son in the driveway, until our hoop was damaged in a storm last year. We also have a Wii but I haven't played that in awhile either; my favorite game there, hands down, was bowling.

For the past year or two, I've enjoyed playing "Word Cookies" on my phone - rearranging letters into new words - Yahtzee and a word category game called "Red Herring." Those are my main forms of daily play these days.

[magnetic_pole]

Word Cookies sounds fun! (I'm a bit fan of Spelling Bee right now on the New York Times site.) I should look that up. Thanks!

Ah, the teams issue. I have one younger brother, and I remember that growing up we did everything possible to adapt games for just two players, but it's hard. M.

[aome]

I hope you enjoy Word Cookies! :)

[brumeier]

You have a Princess Bride board game? Jealous! I have a deck of Princess Bride cards that I don't think I've ever used for anything.

I miss those old Atari days sometimes. My brother and I would have epic Decathlon competitions that would give us blisters. LOL! And there'd be family Frogger competitions.

[aome]

Oooh, the decathalon! We had a knockoff version for our Mac (in those days, almost all the brand-name computer-based games were for HPs) and I was definitely better at running events than anything involving throwing, lol.

Edit: Princess Bride game.

[brumeier]

Almost forgot about the early computer games! Lots of Oregon Trial in school. At home, we had this weird all-in-one computer my uncle gave us, with a tiny green screen on it, and the big floppy discs. There was a ghost game we played a lot on that, and plus two RPG kind of games (no graphics) called Moraff's Revenge and Wishbringer. So many hours playing those games!

The Princess Bride game looks cool! Thanks for sharing the link! For some reason, it reminded me of Mystery Mansion, which it isn't anything like so I don't know why that happened. LOL!