the•truth•shall•set•you•free

when i waz much younger, say in my primary school years, i used to like to play BOARD GAMES. during those days, i had a really nice auntie (who is still as nice now), and she would bring all her kids, nephews and nieces for christmas shopping w/o fail each year. and each year, almost w/o fail, i would choose to buy a BOARD GAME, over other 'lesser' toys that my bro and cousins would buy, like soft toys, remote control cars and the like. although the christmas gifts have since 'degenerated' to towels (with our names sewn on), pseudo-nalgene water bottles, eagle creek bags and the like since we grew up (read: able to generate income on our own), i still retain fond memories of those times when we gathered around the BOARD and played a GAME.

during the few years when i accumulated my wealth of BOARD GAMES (though i do remember there waz a year where i did not buy a BOARD GAME, but a "10 science labs in 1" set, which, till today, is still unopened and sitting pretty with all my BOARD GAMES. for those of you who know me, im a super non-science person, so i guess i chose the set out of a sudden lapse of curiousity, a hope against hope dat i might perhaps be more interested in science-y stuff once i start magnifying specimens through a microscope, and/or perhaps a boredom of BOARD GAMES), i managed the few below:

1. 50 great games
2. anti-monopoly
3. hamburger
4. holiday
5. monopoly
6. payday

and i also played many a BOARD GAME like cluedo (is it the kitchen? is it the dagger? is it the professor?), mad magazine (i can still remember doing the put-the-card-on-top-of-your-head-and-walk-backwards-around-the players forfeit), risk, career and the like. however, in the years from secondary school onwards, it seemed like the craze (waz there even one to begin with?) for playing BOARD GAMES died down. or juz died.

until recently.

it seems dat the fire of playing BOARD GAMES has been rekindled, and the blaze has swept across the world and reached our door-steps. not only is there a website (http://www.brettspielwelt.info/) where people get to play BOARD GAMES with people all around the world, the quantity and variety of BOARD GAMES seem to have increased by leaps and bounds as well. locally, BOARD GAMES cafes (http://www.settlerscafe.com/) have sprung up and they offer as many as a whopping 290+ BOARD GAMES for customers to spend their time at the cafe to play.

well, i have not been spared from the baptism of the BOARD GAME fire, and have gotten a taste of the new league of BOARD GAMES these days. this new generation of BOARD GAMES offer more than juz fun through luck, but instead is characterized by a need for the players to "use their blains" and really pit their skills and strategies against one another in order to play well and win. this is perhaps why BOARD GAMES nowadays no longer belong to the sole propriety of kids and youngsters, but to young adults as well. (or should i say they are actually only suitable for the young adults? kids and youngsters nowadays choose to occupy their time instead with computer games notwithstanding, these BOARD GAMES are also more suitable for young adults, coz they require more thinking and patience to complete the game - not suitable for the instant generation dat our kids and youngsters belong to)

anyway, amongst the array of BOARD GAMES available on the market, i have played a couple like settlers and puerto rico. both of them are similar in nature, requiring the players to gain victory points in order to win, and in order to do dat, players have to perform a multitude of tasks like gathering resources and using them to build different sorts of buildings so as to produce goods to trade and ship away, etc. there are also other games like cranium, taboo and pictionary (which is not juz the BOARD GAME version of "win, lose or draw"; they have alot of stunts now like drawing with eyes closed, drawing with non-master hand, drawing w/o lifting the pen off the paper, etc etc), which are really interesting as well.

and i think these BOARD GAMES really do make for good programmes during gatherings. everyone gets to work their brains and interact as they play the game, instead of juz settling into mindless banter dat is sometimes gossip masquerading as fellowship.

ok, go play your BOARD GAME.