Sunday Brunch: Are You Game?

"Computer games don't affect kids, I mean if Pac Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music." -Marcus Brigstock

1) What is your favorite board game?

Wow. I'm not even sure I remember the last time I actually played a board game. Actually, that's not completely true. I think it was last summer sometime. We were over at Mark and Jackie's house and we played a game called Balderdash. (Actually, Beyond Balderdash.) If you don't know, it's a game of making up definitions and trying to make other people believe that your made up definition is the correct one.

Beyond Balderdash takes it a step further and incorporates more categories in beside just obscure words. Initials, dates, people and film titles, too.

And since Balderdash/Beyond Balderdash is a fun game I will list that as my favorite. Though that might change to Candy Land in a few years...


2) What type of games are your favorite? (ie, board, card, participatory, dice, word games)

Computer games, actually, but that doesn't seem to be a choice so I'll go with card games. I like watching poker on television. Every once in a while we play Texas Hold 'Em over at Mark and Jackie's.

I also thoroughly enjoy Euchre. Unfortunately, it seems that no one in the world not from Michigan or Indiana (and maybe Ohio) have ever heard of the game and have no idea what it is. And no one I know is interested in learning it. (And, yes, I am aware that there are online communities where it can be played.)


3) How many games do you own, and if possible, list them.

Well, if you count computer games and console/video games I have too many to count let alone list.

Of board games I know we own Pictionary, Beyond Balderdash, The Simpsons Trivia Game, Star Wars Monopoly, and a handcrafted, wooden Parcheesi board that was a gift from my Grandmother Monette. There are a few other games, I'm sure, but I'm too lazy to go look in the closet to find out what they are.


4) Do you enjoy computer or video games? Which one is your favorite?

There are a couple different ways to interpret these questions. Yes, I enjoy computer games. Yes I enjoy video games. I'm assuming they are meant here as separate things since I think of them as separate things.

Computer games are played on a computer. (PC or Mac.) Video games I consider console games. Console games are played on a machine hooked up to your television. Alternately video games could be large, standing boxes you shove quarters into and play in and arcade. But those are really arcade games, IMO, so I'm not using that definition here.

Which one is my favorite? Since I don't have a current generation console game (X-Box, Gamecube or Playstation 2) and don't have immediate plans to buy a next generation one when they come out next year I will have to go with computer games. I still buy them occasionally, play them when I get time, and replay my old ones when the mood strikes.

If that "favorite" was referring to a single game, I have no idea. I have a lot of favorites ranging from The Legend of Zelda and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on console to the Baldur's Gate series and Neverwinter Nights on my computer.


5) Describe a great childhood memory of an outside game.

I don't know that some would think this is "great," but it's humorous. At least I think it is.

In my late teens I was outside with my neighbor David and friends Charles and Charlie. Though dark it was evening and not really night. Maybe just before 8:00. We were playing a made-up version of hide-and-seek between David's yard and mine and the alley that separated them.

David had a toy cap gun. Whoever was "it" had the cap gun and was a cop. The other three were robbers. The cop had to get within a couple feet of a robber and pull the trigger (no caps) to tag a robber out before they reached the safe point.

Important note: this was back in the days before toy guns were painted bright colors to differentiate them from real guns. This cap gun was brown and black and for all intents and purposes, looked like a real gun.

As we were standing around at one point a car drove by and some kids in it yelled something at us. David, holding the cap gun, yelled back at them, gesturing with both arms. Apparently a neighbor saw this, but only saw someone standing by the road waving a gun around. The neighbor also apparently thought this person waving the gun was trying to kill himself.

We're standing around talking still when suddenly two police cars pull up with lights flashing. One is in the alley and the other is on my front yard. The four of us are standing at the edge of my yard next to the alley, about halfway between the main street and my house.

The cops jump out of their cars. "Drop the gun," one of them orders.

"It's only a toy g-" David starts.

"Drop the gun," the officer repeats as both of them draw their sidearm (but keep them at their sides).

David drops the cap gun.

"Move away from the gun," the officer orders. We all comply immediately and move as a solid mass several feet away from the gun.

Around this point my parents come out. David's family is nowhere to be seen. The officers inspect the gun and realize it is a toy gun. My parents and the police officers straighten out the situation. We are told about the neighbor calling and saying that someone was waving a gun around and threatening suicide.

At the time it certainly wasn't funny, but it quickly became so after the fact. And I can't necessarily say it's a "fond" memory but I do consider it a "great" memory, depending on how you want to look at it.