When I was a kid I could play Monopoly for hours. During summer vacation I spent most days alone watching Dick Cavett and playing Solitaire. Scrabble was my game of choice in my twenties, usually a one on one game. I remember my female relatives always laying on the floor playing Scrabble, we had some major crossword puzzle fanatics in the family and they loved showing off to each other. Trivial Pursuit was popular in my thirties. Then it was back to solo games like: Intellivision Night Stalker...Nintendo Mario Brothers...GameBoy Tetris...Pogo Poppit...and the dreaded Farmville on Facebook. It's the games I play alone that concern me. The solitary and addictive qualities seem unhealthy as I while away the hours with nothingness. Shouldn't I be whiling away the hours reading or creating?
Sometimes playing a game with real people can get scary.
When you play games with other people you sometimes meet an entirely new person you didn't know you knew. A competitive side comes out that you don't usually see, sometimes people even seem to get a little mean. Don't get me wrong, I like to win, but it doesn't bother me if I lose. After all it's just a game and you can always play again. I'm not a strategic player, I don't do things that will lessen my opponents chances of getting ahead. I guess my favorite games of all time are those that take at least a small bit of smarts...Pictionary, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit to name a few. Games can be lots of laughs as long as you don't play with a meany who's only goal is to win.
After all it's not whether you win or lose...
