Fun Games to Play with your Family and Friends
In an era where many people live in technology-be it laptop, tablet, smartphone etc-playing games with family and friends involving real interactions can be quite challenging. The rise of electronic games relegated the old-fashioned board games. We’ve seen less and less of Monopoly and Parcheesi in the past that most of the kids these days don’t even know what they are . Today, game nights is slowly fighting their way back to to the social scene competing with electronic devices to provide a more socially-engaging games . In Minneapolis, a board game called Catan (previously known as Settlers of Catan) is becoming wildly popular where the players are as young as 16 and as old as 60. New generations of Minnesotans are attracted to the game because of the need to use logic, a cerebral game to exercise the mind.
Nothing really beats the thrill and joy of playing challenging games with the ones you love. It’s the fun factor, the pleasure in the play and the socializing part of the games that lacks in video games that would want you to participate in fun games. This article provides a list of games to play with friends and family inside when it’s winter or it’s a rainy day, outside when it’s all sunny, and with just two players or multiple players.Use it when you have a family get together, a sleepover or if you just want to have fun!
Freeze tag
Freeze tag is a variation of the classic It-Tag Game. What’s the difference? Once you’re tagged, you must be “frozen” (do not move) until someone in your team tags you to release you from being frozen. This takes up a lot of your energy and works best for a large group.
2. Scavenger Hunt
Buy some small items from your local dollar store for a backyard or indoor scavenger hunt. Hide the items and make sure to make a list where you hide them so you won’t forget them yourself. Use funny, witty questions and be creative in providing the players a clue where to find the item. The player who finds the most items wins the game. If the group is big, divide them into 2 teams.
3. Tug of War
Putting the teams directly against each other in a test of strength, the best tug of war happens when teams are evenly matched. This is such a classic game that both kids and kids-at-heart would enjoy.
4. Water Balloon Toss
This is so enjoyable to do in summer! You have to form two groups with equal participants, have them toss the water balloons back and forth. The team left with their balloons or with the most balloons at the end of the game wins.
5. Board Games
The classic in game nights, board games has been played in most cultures throughout history. It was a royal past time and was popular among Egyptian pharaohs and even the prehistoric people played board games! Did you know that board games were existent even before men had written language? The first board game ever placed was Dice, a piece that is so essential in most modern board games developed.
Here are some of the most popular board games played of all time:
Chess
Chess needs two players and is wholly a strategy board game played on a chessboard, a checkered tiled board with sixty-four squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most ancient and popular games, played by millions of people all across the globe. The chess is believed to have originated in India, 280 – 550 C during the time period of the Gupta Empire. Today, it’s considered a sport of thinkers.
Monopoly
In 1933, a board game called "Monopoly" was created. The game is named after the economic term of monopoly, the domination of an entire market by a single company or entity. It was created and sold by Parker Brothers.
There's generally no middle ground when it comes to Monopoly, either you're going to love it or hate it. Hate it or love it, Monopoly seemingly has been timeless in its goal, whether to entertain or simply pass the time. Everyone has Monopoly memories. Everyone's been pushed to the edge by a frustratingly long game.
Catan
In Settlers Of Catan, players are in the role of settlers; each player tries to build and gain holdings while acquiring and trading for needed resources. As an individual player's settlement increases in size, they earn points. The Player that reaches the set number of points wins.
The word game Scrabble consists of two to four players who score points by placing tiles, each tile bears a single letter onto a game board which is a 15×15 grid of cells. The objective of this game was to put letters together, build words, accumulate the most words and out-score the other players. The game encouraged many repeat players to improve their vocabulary base and overall literary skills.
Battleship is essentially a guessing game consisting of two players. It was published by numerous companies as a pad-and-pencil game in the early 1930s, and in 1967 was finally released as a board game by Milton Bradley. Additionally, Battleship was among one of the earliest board games to be developed into a video game.
Before the actual game begins, each of the two players strategically and secretly arranges their ships will be on the play grid. Every ship occupies a set number of consecutive squares, arranged either vertically or horizontally. The type of ship will determine the number of squares it will receive relative to the grid.
6. Charades
An all time favorite party word guessing game. Charades requires a single person to act out a phrase without speaking while the other member of your team guesses what phrase it is. The representative to act out the phrase/s will get the word(s) that he/she will act out from the game master. The objective of the game is to guess the phrase/s as quickly as possible. A time limit of up to 2 minutes is allowed and when the time is up and your team didn’t guess the phrase, the other team can guess and they’ll get your point. The team who guesses the most wins.
7. Hide and Seek
This is probably one of the oldest games. The objective of the game is not to be caught by the “it”. It can be truly fun to both kids and adults as they try to hide from the it.
8. Duck, Duck, Goose (or Duck, Duck, Grey Duck for us Minnesotans!)
A fun indoor game, the game needs about a minimum of 6 children to play it. Choose someone to be the Goose (or Grey Duck). All the other kids sit in a circle. The Goose then walks around the circle, tapping each kid on the head and says “Duck”. “Duck, duck, duck, duck…” Eventually, the Goose choose a new Goose and says “Goose!” instead of “Duck” when tapping a person on the head. The old Goose has to run around the circle and try to sit in the spot of the new Goose, while the new Goose has to get up from where they were sitting and chase the old Goose in the same direction. There are two outcomes: 1) the old Goose is able to run around the circle and sit down in the new Goose’s spot without being tagged. The old Goose is now a duck and gets to sit in the circle. The new Goose is now truly the Goose and needs to repeat what the old Goose just did. 2) The new Goose chases the old Goose and tags the old Goose before he/she gets to sit down in the vacant spot in the circle. The old Goose then remains the Goose and repeats what they just did, trying to become a duck sitting in the circle.
Whatever game it is, as long as you are playing with your family and friends, it’s guaranteed to be fun and enjoyable!
“Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.” -Michael Jordan