Why I Love Games

I love games.  Group or party games in particular.  Here are a few reasons why.

First, it’s social grease via structure.  I’m an introvert and I hate small talk.  I want to interact with people, but the bigger the group, the more uncomfortable I feel jumping into the conversation.  But throw in a game and presto!    Now we all get to interact!  And afterwards,  hopefully there’s some new common ground on which to converse.

Second, I love figuring things out, like puzzles.  And a good game is like a puzzle, even if it doesn’t seem that way at first.  Even something as un-puzzly as charades still has that aspect – as the clue-giver, you have to figure out how to get your team to guess the correct answer while staying within the limits of the given rules.  That’s fun for me.  And, as a side note, I hate playing with people who bend or break the rules.  The fun, for me, is in figuring out how to do it within the given limitations.

Third, I’ve always felt that games can be a microcosm of life.  People (hopefully) get caught up in the fun of the game and forget about ‘acting’ or behaving how they think they ought , and just have fun.  I think playing games on a date is a great idea, as the date personas can drop away.  I think people who cheat while playing games are less likely to be trustworthy in real life.  And I think it’s wrong to bend the rules for just some people – I think that in the game and in life that diminishes the person for whom you bend the rules and makes the entire enterprise pointless.

A few more reasons.  Competitive games teach you about being a good winner/loser.  Cooperative games build your teamwork skills.  Some games let you lie through your teeth (as provided by the rules), and I think it’s both fun and healthy to have that outlet for my dark side.  Monopoly teaches you commerce.  Chess teaches you logic.  Trivial Pursuit reminds you that you’re not as smart as you think you are.  

Strategy.  Intuition.  Reading facial cues.  Learning new things.  And all of this alongside honest-to-goodness human interaction.

So, I love games.  And  all of us should play them more.  With me … come play games with me.  Just not Apples To Apples – that’s a terrible game.