Games, Games, Everywhere You Turn

Everyone loves and plays games, even those who think they don't. They just don't call them games.

They're, uh, group activities. Competitions. Social events. Etcetera. Etcetera. The same people don't read science fiction or fantasy, but do read speculative fiction, 1984, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Sheva Brachot

Yesterday evening we went to a sheva brachot for Dylan and Genia, two of our occasional game groupies, and the hostess organized "an activity". To be fair, she told me explicitly that she likes games, but doesn't have time for them right now. I can't speak for the rest of the people there, but they certainly got into "the activity".

Our hostess had drawn pictures of objects onto posters and we had to guess what the phrase was (i.e. like a picture of a screw followed by a picture of a ball makes "screwball"). Each item had to do with happy couple, of course.

Since we all tried to guess at once, I suppose it really would be classified as "an activity" rather than a game. To be a game, you would have had to divide the guessers into two or more groups, or to time the group to see how long it took them to guess, or something else that required a number to affix as a score. Can't be a "game" without a score, right? *cough*

Alea Games Coming to Israel?

During the evening I fielded a call from some guy in Zichron Yaakov who was given my number by Gilad of the Modiin group. He wanted to know which Alea games would be worth bringing in to Israel for translation.

After getting assured that his business model wasn't going to rely on selling these games cold to the casual pedestrian on the street (he is targeting people who specifically want "something else" to play), I assured him that all Alea games are worth importing.

I put him in touch with John from Silver Stars who is importing Mayfair games, as well as other stuff. Either their business conflicts, in which case they should know about each other, or it doesn't, in which case they can help each other or join forces, if mutually beneficial. If I hear anything about the results of this, you'll be the first to know.

Music to Game By

The music group Pax Dei has created a musical interpretation of Settlers of Catan.

Calgary Game Nights points us to three articles on how gaming fights Alzheimer's.

Yehuda