Board or Screen?

It has come to my attention that a lot of my recent posts have had a financial theme, so I will postpone one thought in my head until a future day and talk about something else instead.

For many years, I have enjoyed playing games. It started in my childhood (obviously) with games like Perfection, Twister (my Dad's friend showing me the rude noise the box made as you closed it is a fond memory) and Ker-Plunk. I graduated as I got older to be a very competitive Monopoly player (competitive as in I wanted to win, not that I often did). As a family, weplayed certain games a lot. Yahtzee was one such game, which we played until several scorepads had been expired. Yahtzee was quick to set up and quick to play, and also highly addictive.

Card games were popular, especially Rummy and Canasta (Rummy on speed). A few years ago, a German friend of ours taught us 'Golf', which we have gone on to teach every foreign student since, and it must be all over Switzerland by now).

In recent years, the universal joy of UNO has dominated the horizon, amongst many of my friends it is wonderfully enjoyed and I have spent several nights until the small hours cursing the silent 7 rule and arguing whether +4s can go on +2s.

It strikes me as interesting that the games most often played now are those which are quick to set up and play in a few minutes - a sign of the times perhaps? Ker-plunk, with its fiddly stick insertion antics is gathering dust somewhere in the loft...

Anyway, recently, I have discovered a new joy. My Ipod Touch has numerous 'apps' to download, and most of the time I download...games. So when I have no friends to play with, I can play.... UNO, Yahtzee, Backgammon, Pass the Pigs, Mastermind, Othello, Air Hockey, Worms etc by myself.

In my recent Summer Holiday, I have had much more time on my hands than usual, and many tedious bus journeys have been greatly improved by destroying a CPU opponent at one of the afformentioned games.

One of the great attractions I have come to realise is that with a screen based version, there is so little effort involved. I don't have to set up, deal out cards, open a box, and when the game is finished, another is instantly set up for me. This awakes a naural laziness in me that frankly doesn't need any encouragement.

It slightly disturbs me though that what used to be a shared social interaction can now be a solitary occupation. Yes, the techies will argue that 'peer to peer' games allow people to play against each other, but having played Backgammon in this way, I would argue that it doesn't completely.

Again, a sign of the times perhaps, but I hope we (and I) don't abandon completely the social interaction that can be enjoyed playing board games with fellow human beings.