Games

My family has always been big into playing games. And I mean all kinds of games. I have fond memories of watching my mother play volleyball, sometimes holding one of my younger siblings on one arm while hitting with the other. My parents, my older sister, and I often played pinochle when we were older. We still enjoy board and card games like Flux, Settlers of Cataan, Ticket to Ride, Munchkins, and Five Crowns. Occasionally I get a hankering to play Global Pursuit (a geographic version of Trivial Pursuit) but nobody else wants to play. Not to mention that it was made in the 1980s so most of the questions and even the maps are wrong. I can't complain though. My mother loves Scrabble but nobody (and I mean NOBODY) will play with her.

While we were growing up the closest thing to a game console we got was my siblings' Game Boys (I never bought one as I just stole theirs). However, I can't remember live without a computer. Even from our first Commodore 64, my siblings and I would play games, classic epics like Bruce Lee (the video game), Rebel Assault, Betrayal at Krondor, Lode Runner, Dark Forces (And the rest of the series), and Civilization I and II. My father bought the first joystick in our family and usually brought a game when he got a new computer. Once we got more than one computer that could run games, we started playing games across the network. Even now, their are only my parents and my youngest sister at home and their are an equal number of computers, all equipped with a selection of games that can be sent across the LAN. My wife will tell you that I still enjoy playing video games, but generally only a selective collection of them.

While my family does not watch a lot of sports, we still enjoy playing games and sports. Growing up, most of us played soccer. We all love volleyball, having watched Mom play it every week for the last 30 years. I would play two-hand touch football with friends, basketball and softball with church groups, and racquetball and ultimate Frisbee with roommates. Many camping trips have featured Foxtails - the professionally done equivalent of a tube sock with a tennis ball in it. Spin it around and lob it towards others. Depending on where you catch it scores you points. So all in all, I like to think I can say that we my family plays a lot of games.

I mention this because my father and I supported a kickstarter campaign for the game "Ogre version 6" and we now have a release date. Dad introduced me to Ogre when I was quite young. It originally came out when he was young and we were cleaning out the garage when we came across them. He would take it backpacking because it was very light weight and packed easily. The rules are relatively simple, the board straight-forward and the play both quick and stimulating. We've played a variety of games that use the same basic ideas for almost 30 years, both board and computer versions. Ogre was one of the first and is still considered by many one of the best. We are both very excited about the game and looking forward to matching wits with and against each other. However, we need to find a table big enough to play the game. Below is a picture of everything that comes in the massive 1 cubic foot box. While we obviously won't need everything spread out like it is, but those big green (and one red) pieces with the hexagons on them are the boards and they look pretty big. I don't think we'll be taking this game backpacking any time soon.