Conference Call...Analyzing Game Night?

"I love my employees even though i hit one of you with my car. For which I take full responsibility. Look, I'm just trying to take everybody's mind off this unavoidable tragedy and on to more positive things. So, I thought we should plant a tree"-Michael. The Office.

We all do little things in our lives that display characteristics of ourselves. Michael's are not only entertaining Office quotes on my desk-day-to-day calendar that I love so much, but he also teaches us not to be an egotistical asshole boss who has low social skills.

I'm taking this class on games-quite literally. During class we...well, we...play. That's about it. "Playing games expanded people's grasp of human nature in general and their particular group's dynamics. But even more, watching people play revealed a depth of information about them, and about the world at large, that you would ordinarily expect only from months of official therapy. Every game is a social world unto itself. What every great game does is take the bad stress of socializing out of the social situation, while leaving the good stress, the frisson of competition-and by imposing structure or protocol on the interaction to take place, a structure that removes the often-paralyzing onus of social improvisation from the players" (Wanna Play? By: Jay Teitel).

I strongly feel that upon finishing this class...Go Fish or Clue will no longer be favorites of mine where I am able to relax and play without analyzing every move the other players make. "Your action will be determined by strategy and personality"(Teitel). What a way to spend a relaxing evening-judgment and analyzing of my every move...no thank you. This is why I avoid that sheep and wood game...Settlers of Catan.


Scruples.
A Question of Scruples is a game which was invented and does not inherit the qualities of being an anti-anxiety game. Scruples, that came from Britain, had a very ill-fated, and short lived life.

However, it was a top-ten hit in North America that has sold over seven million copies! Woo. Reason being: Scruples is an ethical-judgment game where players evaluate each other's moral qualities. The success it held in America and that soon also had an ad campaign, was the exact opposite in Britain. Complaints from every which direction were appearing concerning the 'discomfort' and even domestic discord that the game was causing. 'What had been titillating on one side of the Atlantic was offensive on the other' (Teitel)...what does this tell you about our society?

Maybe I just have horrible strategy, maybe I just enjoy a quiet game of Go Fish or Scrabble for a reason, but, like I said...no matter how interesting I find this class and no matter how much fun I really will have playing and interacting with other people for a whole two hours a week...Games will just never be the same to me ever again come the end of this spring.