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7:51am on Wednesday, 12th March, 2025:

Fewer Games

Anecdote

Yesterday was the day of the class in which I get my second-year students to play board games then write reviews for them. The aim is for them to learn to analyse games objectively by writing said reviews, but it also helps them to make friends through play.

I've been giving them the same form to fill in for well over a decade, and have hundreds of reviews that use it. This time, I thought I'd try something different, and gave them a choice of three forms: standard magazine-style review; Schell's tetrad; PENS (player experience needs satisfaction). Of the three, they far preferred PENS for filling in, which was interesting as it's not in wide use as far as I know.

At most, I'll be running this class one more time. I had 40 board games in my office, and took 17 for them to select from to play. Afterwards, I let any student who wanted any of the games have it for free. Around half the students took me up on the offer, which was great! It meant I didn't have as many to take back to my office afterwards on my sack barrow.

The games they fought over (because more than one person wanted to to have it) were Ticket to Ride, P for Pizza and Abandon Ship. Games that individuals were keen to have included Machi Koro and Bears vs Babies (!). Some classics, such as San Juan and Puerto Rico, were ignored.

Apparently, there's a board game society at the university, but it has too many games so it's selling some off. I therefore don't think I shall be offering them what's left of my supply when I retire.



Yes, the chairs in that room do match the colour of the walls.




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