Scott Tepper: New Year’s Eve 2008 or Where’s The Party?
So December 31 was a few days ago, and with that came my annual New Year’s Eve game party. People start arriving at 1:00pm and we play games and eat food until usually about 2:00am. I provide a basket of small wrapped prizes, so that anyone who wins a game during the event can pick a prize. We also have a gingerbread decorating contest, and a quiz about the ornaments on my Christmas tree. I wanted to also have a Loopin’ Louie tournament, but I just didn’t push myself enough to make it happen.
Though I was hosting the event, since I always make it a potluck, because I wouldn’t want anyone to actually eat anything that I had cooked(as witnessed this year by the exploding glass cake plate into the cooked ham), I did have the opportunity to play several games, old and new this year. In the new camp, I was able to play Space Alert, which was sort of like a cooperative RoboRally. The training missions we played were enough to whet my appetite for the real missions which I’m sure I’ll be able to rope my regular game group into playing.
My New Year’s party has a range of people from gamer spouses to regular gamers attending, even my grandmother stopped by for a while, so all sorts of games make it to the tables. In an attempt to engage more of the non-regular gamers, I found myself bringing out some of my party games, like Wise and Otherwise, Time’s Up, and Werewolf(we had an 18 player game going right after midnight).
Now that I’m sitting back thinking about the event, I’m realizing how glad I am that I have those and other party games in my collection. The strange thing is that usually, I have very little desire to play party games. What is it about the gamer collective consciousness that tends to avoid party games? In general, the idea behind playing games is to have fun, right? So when we think of enjoyable games, why aren’t party games among even the top 100 games on BGG?
To reach the first party game on BGG, you have to get to spot 110 where you’ll find Time’s Up (which I agree is the best party game). The next party game that you’ll find on the list is Werewolves at number 179. Why is this? Is it that we don’t think that party games are good games? That there aren’t very many good party games?
I think a big part of it is that we don’t play party games very often, and we forget how much fun they are. In terms of pure, concentrated enjoyment, not many games can match Time’s Up. I can remember some games of Time’s Up that I played with my family years ago (a clue for Long John Silver particularly comes to mind…).
Is reluctance to recognize the importance of party games the equivalent of a prolific reader being embarrassed to admit they enjoy the Harry Potter books, or a movie critic being afraid of losing “cred” because they laughed out loud at Blazing Saddles? What is it that prevents you from playing more party games?
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And though they really don’t have anything to do with games, I was so impressed with some of the entries in my gingerbread decorating contest that I just had to share some of them with you:
© 2009 Scott Tepper
Posted by Scott Tepper on Jan 5, 2009 at 01:00 AM in Columnists, Scott Tepper / 821
Comments:
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Scott, I’ll play Time’s Up any time of the day or night. It’s one of my all-time favorite games. Taboo is also very good and we’ve had fun over the years with Win, Lose, or Draw (an improved version of Pictionary). There may be others, but nothing comes to mind right now. I like having fun, of course, but I also like an intellectual challenge. Time’s Up gives that to me, but most other party games don’t. So I don’t think it’s snobbery, but simple preferences. Some party games can certainly tickle the left side of my brain, but it’s the games that can engage both sides that I give the highest ratings to. Posted by Larry Levy on Jan 5, 2009 at 02:14 AM | #
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I’ll take a stab at this and suggest that Larry had the same idea I had. Those of us who enjoy strategy games over party games want an intellectual challenge more often, and is mostly why I will want to play Puerto Rico or Power Grid when given a chance. Party games can be lots of fun, but aren’t the first choice, especially with our overabundance of strategy choices and new games these days, so the chances of someone actually suggesting them without being a traditional gamer or at a convention where the party game is scheduled would be small. Also, a lot of party games rely on knowledge (Trivia or pop culture) that many of us either don’t have or care about because of the intrinsic unfairness where a trivia game is only as good as people’s knowledge of random things. Adults playing Trivial Pursuit or Celebrities have a huge advantage over younger players who are unlikely to know a specific trivia answer. A game that rewards knowledge of the last three seasons of American Idol will fall flat and/or seem unfun to anyone who would rather watch Battlestar Galactica or Lost. Time’s Up seems to help because the first round may have some people feeling lost, but with the limited answers in the other rounds, there is now that missing knowledge to work from. Werewolf has an appeal for metagaming and has a different kind of light roleplaying appeal (though I admit I find the game incredibly unfun and random to play, the tabletalk makes the game). Add in a game like Balderdash where you aren’t actually expected to know the answer, so everyone is generally on an even ground, and it seems that that sense of fairness has a big effect on what is popular with the Geeks. Posted by Matt Lee on Jan 5, 2009 at 03:22 PM | #
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