There’s a method to spending quality time with someone. It has to be at least an hour, maybe an hour and a half if you’re hanging out during the daytime. Direct eye contact is a must, which means big phones have to crawl back into tiny pockets. Finally, you have to be doing something with that someone, like painting pictures, drinking coffee or desperately trying to find depth in the kiddie pool of small talk.
Quality time isn’t easy. Putting on a movie or a show doesn’t count nearly enough, and your arsenal of creative activities ran out after the tie-dye disaster at your 6th-grade birthday party. So, what do you do?
In my family, you play board games. When guests come over, during hurricanes, after dinner — you play board games.
I’m not sure when the tradition started, but throughout my life, the pantry was slowly stripped of its food storage job to take on the role of creative director and manager of board games. Now, we have over 30.
Board games are the ideal orchestrators of quality time. They’re played with family, friends, significant others and even the tipsy aunt who can’t learn the rules after 15 rounds. The challenge of learning new rules and strategies is stimulating, while the competitive edge keeps players excited. Most importantly, there’s no room for phones or small talk while everyone’s focused on the game.
Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? Are you still not convinced?
If you’re worried that board games are too childish, I have good news: you’re not as smart as you think. My family has transgressed the desire to play games like Monopoly and Clue 10 years ago. Now, we play the ones designed specifically for adults, the ones with creative nuances and plays that require a lot more than luck.
Because I’m an expert (Kidding. I somehow lose nearly every time), I’ll provide few suggestions so you can give board games a try.
One popular game is The Settlers of Catan, one of my personal favorites because it’s a game of old-fashioned trading and farming. Essentially, you try to build a village near the best collectible resources, like wood, rock or wheat. From your haul, you build additional structures until you reach 10 points. The award-winning game is easy to learn, but the game board changes every time and makes it nearly impossible to foresee a guaranteed victory. Catan is perfect for 3-4 players (with an expansion pack available for more).
Ticket to Ride is also a game of building, but you’re building train routes from city to city. The longer routes you build, the more points you earn. But, if you run out of train cars or cards to build with, you’re stuck with pricey unfinished routes that may cost you the game. Warning: this game should be played with people who won’t harm you if you happen to steal their route.
One of the best games I discovered this year is a little game called Wink. When I played it for the first time with my roommates it was a fan favorite. The game is possible to teach on a big dining table to a group of eight rowdy, slightly tipsy college students. You have to try to secretly wink at people while trying not to get caught yourself. If you see someone winking, you get to yell, “J’ACCUSE,” and steal their cards.
If you and your friends prefer nights without passionate yelling in French, you can opt for more complicated games like a “Game of Thrones” board game. It’s set up exactly as its book synopsis, in which you get to use characters from your house to fight others for land. With mustering of ships and people, white walker attacks and battles for the iron throne, this board game is a lengthy but worthy time investment.
You might have heard of the more known Codenames before, and I have to say it’s worth the hype. If you’re a fan of wordplay (and good at Scrabble), you’ll like this one. With two teams, the goal is to group words into one category and try to make your partner read your mind. It can be frustrating, but the satisfaction of choosing the perfect word makes the game a perfect way to spend a night at home.
I may have just exposed myself as someone with too much board game knowledge, but it was worth it if you give at least one of them a try. If you want to try one before buying it, my family is always looking for new players to torture — I mean teach — during our never boring board games nights.