Board Games

Before the internet, LAN parties, and modems, the only way we used to be able to play a cooperative game was to either play sports (boooo!) or play a board game (yay!). It has been about 3 years since I've last played a decent board game (Puerto Rico), but when we were kids, we used to play board games all the time.

The gang of players would include my sister, my brother, my two older cousins, and me. Sometimes, we'd include school friends into the posse as well. The popular games of choice would include Monopoly, Cluedo, Poleconomy, Ratrace, Game of Life, Ulcers, Mad Magazine, Taxi, Postcards (also known as Seaside Frolics, one of the most beautiful games I've ever played) and Saidina (a Monopoly rip-off based on Malaysian towns and streets).

Succeeding in the Game of Life - it's all down to luck.

The earliest board games I remember playing probably started with Fun Fair, Sorry, Ludo and Snakes & Ladders. Most of these games didn't really have much in the way of strategy, just luck with the dice which explains why we progressed on to more 'mature' games as we got older.

Sorry, the game that taught kids about sarcasm.

We used to play board games either at home, at Lake Club's kids' room or the kids' library. Looking back at it now, we were a big bunch of competitive board game nerds, carting them around with us wherever we went. If anything, playing the games probably taught us how to be competitive in a good way, though some of us may still need to learn how to lose gracefully.

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Pictured above, the faces of treachery behind masks of innocence

Monopoly was by far the most popular game we played, which we played with our own interpretation of the rules. Some variations included no purchasing properties on the first round. I think it was supposed to even out the game so that everyone was moving by the time the first property was bought.

Another change to the rule was getting automatic exclusive rights to a colour strip with the first colour property bought. This sped up the process of achieving a monopoly so that we could develop houses and hotels faster. The alternative to that was that we could develop houses and hotels without the need of a monopoly. Then there was the Free Parking Fund where all taxes were placed under the Free Parking square, and the first person to land there would get the accumulated loot.

I think the most exciting version we came up with was the double board figure eight configuration where we collected double the income each time we went past GO. This provided the players with more money, and more properties to buy. As you can tell, with such drastic changes to the game dynamics, the games would last through the night.

I think we even had a version where you could purchase multiple hotels per title and rack up debts.

The last time I played Monopoly with my immediate family, which was before 1999, we had a big blow out about people ganging up on other people, and there were a lot of tantrums thrown around the place, so we've since put that on the Banned At Family Gatherings pile. I think the first time I've ever played Monopoly by the rules was about 4 years ago with friends from Canada and France and I have to say, it's a lot faster by the rules.

The good thing is, we have most of our games stacked up at Mum's place. I think most of the pieces are still there, but we could always get replacements online, or rebuild them from scratch. You can even print your own Monopoly cash if you're short of $1s, $5s, $10s, $20s, $50s, $100s or $500s. The only thing is, I need more players, but hopefully in a few years, the boys will be ready to take me on, otherwise I'll have to get together with my family the next time we meet up. In the meantime, I hear that my nephews are already being trained by my sister for the 2015 Monopoly Royal Rumble. Good luck to them, as I'm teaching my boys strategies on how to play Monopoly well and how to palm loaded dice.

You're never too young to learn to scam.