How many board games do you own? If you are a board game family you know that the number is probably in the double digits. If you are not a board game family, you have a lot more shelf space in your basement than I. I grew up in a board game family. Lady Di also grew up playing games and cards at the dining room table with her family. To this day I can only win 1 out of every 10 games of 500 against Lady Di.
Which brings me to my original question, 'How many board games do you own?'
I was staring at our wall of games in the basement last week and I wondered, "How did we accumulate so many long flat boxes of fun?
Most of the blame can go to our parents. They are the ones who planted the game playing bug in our brains. Somehow, we also got the bright idea that a new board game every Christmas was sane. That way we could play a new game every Christmas morning as a family. After the new video games got boring, of course. Which is the beauty of board games. They always play differently each time you play. And I'm not talking about the strange way the rules tend to change to fit the needs of the current rule keeper. And why does every game have a rule to gang up on Dad and send him back to Sorry land or make him Draw Four or force him to pay for multiple stays in a fancy Boardwalk hotel every time?
Anyway, our grand total as of last week was 53 games! Games with and without boards. Games with dice, cards, pop-o-matic die, money, tiles, spinners, letters, numbers, colors,blocks, clay, pencils, paper, sand timers, and buzzers. Games with lead pipes, revolvers, top hats, thimbles, pegs, pawns and pigs. Games that give us Trouble, Cooties, Ants in Our Pants, Mystery Dates and Free Parking.
That total doesn't count the multiple packs of playing cards, memory cards, flash cards, match cards,Uno cards, Star Wars cards, Old Maid, Go Fish, Crazy Eight, Bandits, etc.
I also didn't count the 14 games that are currently on our summer garage sale pile.
We currently have 9 games whose name ends with the letter 'O'.
We have 3 different Monopoly games. Original, Star Wars, and Wizard of Oz.
We have 13 Parker Brothers games and 20 games from Milton Bradley.
We have 4 games that require shouting something. Yahtzee, Jenga, Uno and Sorry. I don't think Jenga actually requires that you shout Jenga when the blocks topple but that's how I play it.
We have only 1 game with a large mat with large colored dots.
We have games for small children like Don't Break the Ice and Candyland. And games for big children like Taboo and Catchphrase. We have smart (N1S & SP) people games like chess and cribbage. And for the other people (Dad) we have Taboo and Catchphrase.
Do we really need this many games?
I don't think we will make it through this winter without them. Our weather has been so hostile that it's daring us to just try and survive it. So with no where to go and nothing on TV, we turn to our cheap family entertainment. A little bit of cardboard, ink and plastic to arm us against cabin fever.
So I'm back to asking, "How many games do you own?" "Is it enough to last the winter?" And which are your favorites?
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Stuff About Me
- Dad Stuff
- I'm a 40 year old dad of two. My wonderful wife, Lady Di, and I try to keep the kids from blowing things up here in central Minnesota.
3 comments:
I have not taken count lately on our game status. I had no idea we had 50+ games. Wow... we better get busy and start playing some of those ones on the bottom shelf. Fun post hubby! xxoo
I am a big fan of the board games!
We have them spread out through the house (girls closets, boys closets, my closet, the hall closet, and the laundry room) - so an actual number would be difficult to come up with.
We have "absent minded" boys, and games are often "incomplete" around here - with a piece or two missing. We have had to purchase some games several times.... (sigh)
That's why I have a few games in MY closet - some of my favorite games!
There is (of course) the staples - Monopoly, Sorry, Parcheesi, Hi Ho Cherry Oh, Apples to Apples, Operation, Clue, etc...
Then there are the slightly deeper games (mostly the boy's) such as Risk, Axis and Allies, and HeroScape.
Then, you get into MY collection... I am a former player of (version 1) of Dungeons and Dragons (RPG more than a Board game), and I have many old Avalon Hill games (Tactics II, Flight Leader, B-17, The Collector, to name a few) - Avalon Hill created many "bookshelf" games (sort of a hybred between board games and roll playing games) - many were Combat related and have very complex gameplay - I never get to play them very often, and the kids were too young to play them until recently (I should break them out one of these days).
But I have found a couple of newer games that are fun to play as an adult and with the kids (and keep them in MY collection) - The Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne - both are a lot of fun and have a lot of replayablity!
Great Post DadStuff! Thanks!
We own loads but not as many as you! Last week I stunned N3S when I told him that we didn't have TV's or electronic games (or electricity for me anyway - hub lived in a city and had electricity) when we were his age.
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