WaveLength

The topic is BUBBLE GUM. We've got a minute. List the first five kinds of bubble gum that you can think of. You make yours. I'll make mine. And when you're finished, rank them from 1-5. No, I don't know how you should rank them, by your favorites, by what you think is the most popular. Wait. Let me correct that. List the five kinds of bubble gum that you think I'll be able to think of. And then rank them the way you think I'll rank them. OK? Here goes. I got: 1. Dubble Bubble, 5. Skittles, 2. Bubblicious, 3. Bazooka and 4. Bubble Yum. We get one point for each gum. And an extra point for each gum we ranked the same. OK. OK. So maybe Skittles really isn't bubble gum. All that's really important is that we both think it is.

You know, for a trivia-style game, this was kind of different. It's about Pop culture, for one. For another, it's fun. A lot more fun. One might almost say, to coin a phrase, Major FUN. It's called WaveLength. What makes it so much more fun than your average trivia game? Three things: one, you're not working alone, against everyone else. It's you and your partner. Two: everybody plays, all the time. There's quite literally, "never a dull moment." And three, it's not so much trivia as it what you might call "Family Feud meets the Match Game." How "right" your answer is depends completely on what the other guy has to say. It's a trivia game (over a thousand questions), but you're all playing together, you're actually trying to get more connected, trying to think like what you think the other guy's thinking. It's got all the ingredients of a good trivia game. It's all about facts and memory. But it's even more about connecting to the other guy; getting on, what you might call, the same "wavelength," so to speak.

Major FUN-wise, Wavelength is what the award is all about.

Backgammon Redux

Ray Williamson sends us some of his unique variations of Backgammon:

Triangular backgammon.

When you have three people who want to play backgammon, there's no reason to have one of them wait for the others' game to end. (And since the game is played with dice, winning is more about creating a good game than about killing your opponent.)

A plays white, B plays black, C plays white, A plays black, B plays white, C plays black, etc.

The board is moved clockwise and rotated clockwise to present each player in turn with his new position. Everyone participates in creating an interesting game.

(see the first principle in Seven Ways to Make Almost Anything More Fun)

Virtual Backgammon is inspired by the quantum weirdness of virtual particles, which can pop in and out of existence.

Step one: Agree that the next game will be "virtual."

Set up the board in the customary way.

WHEN someone rolls doubles, IF they choose, they may instead use the entire toss to bring a pair of 25 cent pieces into play. These are entered on either home board, on the position number of the double, IF that point is available. Henceforth they may be moved alone or in combination with the other "real" pieces, singly or in pairs, in either direction (or both directions) by either player. They may also be "hit" and are then removed from play.

Weird? Oh, yes. Why do this? Well, let's say you're getting creamed and the game is no longer interesting. Or it's close, and you're feeling impish. Entering a pair of virtuals injects an element of temporary chaos and new possibility that can enliven the game.

Example: Black is getting creamed. White has only four pips left, on the 2,4, and 6 points. Black rolls a double 5 and chooses to enter a pair of virtuals on White's 5 point. White doesn't want them within shooting range, and can't knock them off, so he spends his next roll pushing them away. Black moves one of them back closer. White covers instead of removing. Black removes his own pieces. Finally white exposes a piece four points away from a virtual. Black rolls 5-1: He moves back one and forward five, hitting white. The game is now even. But it wasn't cheating because we agreed it would be a virtual game, and it was fun getting here!

Having played this many times I can tell you that 3/4 of "virtual" games never even use the quarters. But when they do, look out!

Ray's idea of "virtual" was guided by this definition. He explains:

"It was this concept that seeded the vision of "Virtual Backgammon." In an extremely short time ;~) my friend Alex Havasy and I put it into practice on the board.
- They aren't there in the first place
- They are created together in pairs
- They can be separated
- They can interact with real particles (the white or black pips)
- They often annihilate rapidly.

Knock-Out

Knock Out is the second game from the Muggins people to get a Major Fun award. Again, it's made for durability and ease of use - a wooden board, marbles, plastic trays for holding the marbles - and elegantly conceived. And yes, like Muggins, the first "educational game" to receive a Major Fun award, it's value, at least for adults, lies in the learning opportunities the game provides. And, even more importantly, it's fun.

Numbers, from 1-18, are spaced clockwise around the board. A hole above and below each number can be filled in by marbles. Throwing three dice, the object is to use the break up the combined number to capture as many of the numbers as possible. A number can only be captured when both holes are occupied by the same color marble. As you play the game, you get a vivid lesson in probability. The lower numbers are always the first to go - and the most hotly contested. It's a remarkable opportunity to be explore the machinery and mystery of math.

Variations allow for more sophisticated play. There's a "Place Value" level in which the dice can be arranged so the first die represents tens, the second units and the third can be added or subtracted from the total, which is then broken down to its components. For example, a 6, 5 and 3 are rolled. The 6 and 5 become 65. The 3 can be added or subtracted to make 62 or 68. 68 can then be broken down to a 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 12, 15 and 17.

Above all, it's fun enough to want to play again and again, especially for elementary school children. Major Fun. For kids.

Bang!

They call it "Bang!" - this award-winning card game from Italy. The first time we tried it, we called it "quits."

You know the rule we have at Game Tastings - the one about a game taking maybe 15 minutes to learn. Well, we gave it a half hour, that first time. Who'd think that a card game, in that small of a package, could be that complicated?

The second time we tried it we gave it 45 minutes - an exacerbatingly long time to learn a game. There are so many special cards, each with its special function, that we were especially frustrated. Before the next Tasting, Tammy took the time to find the best versions or the rules she could, and sent them out to all of us so that we could prepare. And, as you so well know, preparing for a Tasting is simply not done.

The third time, we devoted the last half of the Tasting to playing Bang! We were outside. And it was getting colder. But we were determined to play it through. And we did. Even though it got colder and still colder. And, yes, somebody shot the sheriff, and they didn't kill the deputy. And we finally actually played the game. And we had fun. I mean, we were beyond Tasting. We had established, beyond doubt, that the rules are just too complicated, and can take veritable hours to learn. Which is simply not your typically Major FUN-awardable scenario. And yet, fun was definitely being had.

Our conclusion to date: if you like role-playing games, you'll definitely get a Bang! out of this one.

Now Tammy's at work on creating visual aids because she's convinced she can make it easier for us to play next time. Even though, according to Tasting protocol, that next time might not be for a couple months. I'm having a sneaking suspicion. Protocol or not, we'll be playing it again this coming Sunday.

Word Spin and the best of the toy-like games

I have so far encountered two toy-like games in which the sheer play value of the toy-likeness makes the playworthiness of the games almost secondary.

The first is the "Double Dice Game" from the all-things-dicelike Koplow Games. Each die has another die within it. Very cool in sheer play potential, despite the games the manufacturer describes in the instructions.

And now, the amazing, magnetic Word Spin from Geospaceplay:

Made of eight, ten-sided magnetized wheels, Word Spin is just simply fun to play with. Even without the letters. With the letters, it's fun to see if you can arrange them and line them up to make an eight-letter word. Yes, yes, you can try to make a high-scoring word, and you can even, as the rules suggest, add the totals of all the two-or-more letter words you can find once you've made one word using all the wheels.

The fact is, as with the Double Dice game, there are so many different ways to play with Word Spin that it really doesn't matter what you play. Yes, you can play competitively. You can buy several sets and give each player his or her own. But the operative word here is "toy-like." Word Spin is simply fun to toy around with. Don't worry about the games. Make up your own.

P.S. The manufacturer notes: "Unlike most all other word games, one of the features many many people like is the fact that WORD SPIN is entirely a 'hand-held' game you can pull out and play just about anywhere when you have a few idle minutes. So it great for travel --- or even for people who are bedridden." Which reminds me - a travel pouch is included, bless them, which is a doubly good thing, because once you open the package, you can't really put it back. Which is also a good thing, since you're probably not going to want to.

A Playset for the Office

Yes, now you, too, can "build your own corporate labyrinth, one cube at a time." It's The Cubes, a complete, expandable, grown-up playset. "Each set has one 2-3/4" posable plastic figure and all the necessary plastic parts to build a classic corporate cube: four walls, desk, chair, file cabinet, in/out box, phone, and computer. Comes with a sticker sheet of decor for your cube, complete with graphs, charts, screens for the computer and pithy office posters. Also includes a job title sticker sheet so you can create a convoluted and meaningless position for your employee."

Need help creating your own convoluted and meaningless position? With the aid of the online " Job Title Generator," worry no more. Here are a few, randomly generated samples: Junior Personnel Administrator, Domestic Financial Associate, Level B Communications Processor.

This is a phenomenon worthy of much contemplation - these dolls and playsets designed for people who work in an office. It's what Christopher Noxon might classify as another example of rejuvenila. For me, it's yet further evidence of the power of play, and the need.

Thanks for the find go to Pat Kane, Boing Boing et al