Bored Games

I've always loved playing board games, but unfortunately for me I have rarely had the opportunity to do so. Growing up, my family rarely played board games and the like; when we did it was only because we had nothing else to do. In this way they became 'bored games' because we wouldn't ever play them until we had nothing better to do. In a world with tv, that was difficult to achieve!

That's not to say that we didn't have any games to play. On the contrary, we had and still have hundreds of them- I exaggerate slightly. But we had all sorts of games that I always wanted to play, though finding the time and a willing partner was just too difficult. Trying to get the four members of my family to civilly engage in an activity in which three of them would lose was never going to be an easy task. I didn't have any friends to play them with either, so no luck there. My brother, bless his soul, doesn't cope well with losing. I'm not saying I'm exceptionally good at these games, but let's just say that he didn't like playing me very much. Attempts to play a new game would often result in frustration, shouting and the occasional bout of fisticuffs. 

Trivial Pursuit was about the only game my family could play together in a civil fashion. However, the outcome of these games invariably came down to whose team my father was on. He knows more than the rest of us put together; how useful that knowledge is, is another question. We would also play Mahjong, with a nice old set that we have, though we were very slow at it indeed. It would normally end when my father gave up in frustration at yet another unnecessary attempt to make some elaborate and complicated hand. My experience of board games therefore was often one of disappointment, either that I didn't win or, more usually,  that I hadn't even got to finish the game. 

So it is with much regret that I reflect on a childhood in which I very rarely played board games, and when I did they weren't always enjoyable.  I can't think of the last time I played a game of Monopoly and actually got to the end of it. As a result, I can't say that I am as good as I would like to be at these games. But I do love board games; I've even designed a few of them, though they weren't any good. I've even come to the point where I play versions of them against a computer, which is never really that satisfying. I'm not trying to sound sad and pathetic; rather I am simply reflecting on one of the regrets of my younger years. Then again, you're probably never too old to play them!