Talking a Good Game

Today’s games are about communication first, convenience second. Winning? That’s just icing on the cake

By Paul Rogers
CTW Features

Would you rather suck fresh milk directly from a cow’s udder or drink store-bought milk two days after it’s gone bad? The question, from Zobmondo!! Entertainment’s latest board game, “Would You Rather…? Sick, Twisted and Wrong,” is a far cry from the typical “Trivial Pursuit” query.

The game, a more adult version of the company’s original “Would You Rather…?” poses hypothetical questions – some ethical, some funny, some ludicrous – designed to provoke debate and encourage participants to defend their choices. The winner is first to complete three challenges that revolve around predicting people’s answers, creating your own question and other tests. But winning is almost beside the point. The game’s real reward is the interplay between the participants and the amusement in passionately defending, for example, the virtues of either leaving a slime trail wherever you walk or emitting exhaust fumes.

Although social interaction has always been an element of playing board games, today it is more up-front than ever. Indeed, games like “Would You Rather…?” and Mattel’s “Apples to Apples” are based almost solely on the opinions of the other players – no trivia knowledge required, no intricate rules, no marathon strategy sessions. Both typify the latest generation of board games: easy to learn, easy to play, egalitarian and, above all, about as social as you can get.

That’s not a surprise to game developers.

Most of today’s entertainment options – TV, video games, iPods – “tend to isolate us a little bit,” says Matt Molen, co-founder and vice president of marketing of game company SimplyFun, Bellevue, Wash. “Think about going to the movies. You can go on a date, but all the interaction is between you and the screen.” By contrast, social interaction is the organizing principle of his company’s newest board game, “Cahoots!” which Molen describes as “charades on steroids.”

“There is still something to be said for the face-to-face connection of sitting down and playing a game together and having lively conversation,” says Molen.

Historically, that is what gaming is all about.

“Until the video game entered the picture, games were specifically designed to create quality time among intergenerational family members. That was actually their entire purpose,” says Celia Pearce, director of the Experimental Game Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Video games “have created a bigger generation gap in that adults seldom play [them] with their children.”

The introduction of the Nintendo Wii, the interactive video-game console, is starting to change that, but board games still have a huge edge in serving such needs. “Monopoly” has outsold “The Sims,” the best-selling video game in history, by tenfold,” says Pearce.

“It’s about fostering human connection,” says Molen.

But not every board game can do that, particularly with today’s hectic pace of life. And bridging the age gap – finding something that will hold both an adult’s attention and a child’s simultaneously – has never been easy.

Today’s game developers follow a general set of rules to encourage consumers to choose games over other forms of entertainment. One of those rules is to speed up play.

“Today’s families are so busy that taking time to sit down and play can be tough,” says Molen, whose SimplyFun games are designed to be played in 30 minutes or less.

Time crunch is one reason Hasbro Games, East Longmeadow, Mass., developed its new “Express” line: new versions of classics like “Monopoly,” “Sorry!” and “Scrabble” that can be played to completion in 20 minutes.

“We recognized that a family has less time but is probably going to have 20 minutes before dinner or after dinner and before bed,” says Rob Daviau, a senior game designer at Hasbro.

In keeping with speed-play guidelines, rules need to be fair and easy to understand, and everyone needs an equal chance to win.

“No one wants to play a 45-minute game and know in minute 2 that they won’t be able to win,” says Daviau.

That’s one of the appeals of subjectively ruled party games.

“All you have to do is talk. It’s not about how much you know but about what you think,” says Randy Horn, president of Los Angeles-based Zobmondo!!

That’s the focus behind the line of party games from Buffalo Games, Buffalo, N.Y. Its new release for this season is “The T-Shirt Game,” billed as “the fashionable party game ‘wear’ funny matters.” Players match comical slogans to funny images to create their own outrageous T-shirts. A judge picks the “best” shirt, and the winning designer draws a card that awards or retracts points.

These games with offbeat questions also hit a nerve with a demographic that’s particularly hard to hit with board games: tweens and teens.

Kids really get into them, says Horn. “It allows [families] interact on a level that kids think is really cool and hip.”

Bridging that age gap can be difficult, but manufacturers continue to roll out easy-to-learn, quick, social games that aim to cross generations. Among the newest multi-generation contenders are Seattle-based Cranium’s “Zooreka” and Hasbro’s “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” and “Pictureka!” (see sidebar.)

But to suggest word games, trivia challenges, “Risk”-like epics and brainteasers are passé would be wrong. Game developers simply say that adults have different game-selection criteria, depending on the occasion. Sometimes they prefer to exercise their mind, sometimes they want nostalgia, which is at the heart of decade-focused and pop-culture games.

Says Hasbro’s Daviau, “At its core, a game has to be fun – whether it’s something loud, silly or cerebral. Board games are great facilitators … they are a great excuse for people to take time out from their day, sit around a table and do something entertaining.”

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