GAMES!

I’ve always been obsessed with games. Any type of game really. It started out with game shows. It was the only thing I would watch when I was a kid. My favorite being Wheel Of Fortune, followed by Press Your Luck and Classic Concentration.

I remember as a really little kid being afraid of the Cliffhanger game on The Price is Right because I thought the Mountain Climber actually died when he fell off the cliff.

I don’t remember this, but when I was a little kid and I forced my Aunt’s and Uncle’s to play the Wheel of Fortune at home game when they won I would take them around the living room and tell them what they had won for doing so well.

I would set up my own games based on what I saw on TV in my room. When Legends of the Hidden Temple premiered on Nickelodeon I set up my own Temple in my room. When Nick Arcade became popular I would set up my own video board using blank cards that were laying around the house. I memorized what was typically on the game board at any time and used that to randomly generate a game board to keep myself on my toes. Because I had a game boy I was able to do the video challenges with the various games that I owned.

As I got a little bit older I watched more and more Jeopardy! I still go in spurts with Jeopardy watching it on a regular basis to not watching it at all. One of my goals is to get on Jeopardy! Probably a long shot, but a guy can dream can’t he?

When I got into high school I joined Quiz Bowl when I found out that it was basically like being on a Game Show.

At least once a week I try and play Trivia at one of the bars in town.

I will always try and suggest playing board games when there is a large group of people. A few weeks ago at an improv festival I convinced a group of people to play a game of Clue. A game I hadn’t played in years and also a game I hadn’t really been playing correctly.

Every time I go to a store with games I spend at least 10 minutes in the toy department looking for the latest game that could bring to a gathering of people.

This week I bought two games, one game being Codenames; which is super fun and challenging the same time. You set up a grid of 25 cards that each have a word on them. You have to communicate the words that are your “Agents” to your team but only giving one word clues. The catch being though if you can find a connection between more than one of the agents names you could potentially give your teammates more agents to guess correctly. I had only heard about it through a tweet, but when I looked at how it was played I found a way to get it right away.

The second game is Likewise which is very simple. You have a dry erase paddle board and two stacks of cards. One is an adjective the other is a subject. So one card could read romantic and the other reads city. Everyone writes down a romantic city and whoever has the majority matches in the group gets a point. So if 3 people have Paris and 2 people have Venice than the people who put Paris get the points.

Both games require a lot of, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” which makes the re-playability very high.

Not only do I like playing games but now I’m also getting the itch to create a game too. Cards Against Humanity produced a series of web videos called Tabletop Deathmatch where people pitched their games to a group of game makers in hopes to win a first printing of their game. Once I saw that I wanted to create a game.

The only idea I’ve had for a game has been for a Presidential Election game that is as messed up as the Electoral College process.

Essentially two teams of people would try to get their candidate elected by essentially buying as many votes as possible within the country but at the same time making sure they obtain the right amount of electoral votes as well. When thinking of the game and trying to figure out the game mechanics it has gotten very complicated and when looking at how it would be played, doesn’t look like it would be too much fun.

But my quest will continue to try and play as many games as possible, but to also create a game as well. Also, maybe host a game show, or at least appear on a game show. I don’t know. I just know that this whole stand-up comedy thing is my elaborate plan to play or create as many games as possible whether on TV or not.