To many games?

Christmas  is coming and I find myself looking at games to buy for my girls and wondering,

Am I wanting these for my girls or for me?

On reflection  I think the answer is, mainly the former but a smidgen of the later, not buying games for me but more wanting to have stuff we can enjoy together.

Changing the subject we are now post move and very very happy with the new place, a study and garage just for me is awesome! !

I plan to do more with the car and bike now I have space.

Is moving stressful?

In the final stages of moving and I am ready to kill.

Never ever again.

All hail the (BG) geek

Board game geek is a source of lots of info but again and again I wonder how useful it is for the less "hardcore" gamer.

As someone who can't imaging buying a game that I will not get value (more on this later) from, seeing games that last hours high on the list makes me think it is not.

However I saw another take on this list, sort it by number of reviews first them look at the top 10! I suggest you try it.

Value.
A strange fluid concept but one that with my way of thinking I had to quantify.

I came up with this. For every £1 spent I must get 1 hours entertainment,  but that is per play not per player.

So Ticket to ride is amazing value for me, 50 plus hours @ £27 but zombie dice 1 hour @ £10 is terrible value.

While commenting on games I have finally emailed the UK Games Expo to ask about volunteering some of my time to help them next year,  I am really really looking forward to taking my oldest to this event too!

Geek Dad, bridging the disconect.

Hello,

I am a father to two girls, A is 10 now and J is 7, I often worry about how much of a connection I will have as they grow older, I have seen others end up with a relationship which is more about conflict than anything else.

I don't want that so I decided a few years ago to build some common ground between us that I hope will survive the deadly teen-aged years.

The best answer I have found so far is board games, modern board games that is, not the awful kids games of old! we play Carcassone, Settlers of Catan, Alhambra and the rest and have a great time together doing so.

Add to this how well (most of the time) my children deal with losing compared with friends and the way they embrace concepts that they may not enjoy to begin and still see them through.

They can tell you what games they enjoy and why and A is determined to create a game of her own one day.

We love the web show Tabletop (check you tube) which is what got us to this point, I happened across the show one day a few years ago and me and my girls love it. I have to say Will Wheaton reminded me of how much I loved Board games as a child and made me look again, we have not looked back since.

The Dice tower is another all be it less polished show that deals with reviews (we don't watch these) and top ten lists (we do watch these) always good for pointers about which games to look into next.

Right now we have 15 or so "modern" board games, each purchased with the three of us in mind, we have a list of about 30 (and growing) games that are possible additions, it really is the best time ever to be wanting to play games as a family.

In short, pick the right game for your family and it will draw you together and be far more enjoyable than almost any other activity you can do as a family.

Mav.