I've had a couple of Wii Bowling nights and they were a blast.

Thank you, Matthew! Based on your advice, I'm going to look into a more public setting for our Games Night. I think that might help... I'll also stress the "relaxing" part of it. Folks may be remembering really intense Monopoly games from their youth and that's just not what we're doing.

Thank you!

Hi, Matthew,

I've been reading your blog for a few months now and I want to thank you since I really enjoy it. You're funny and the content is clean, a feat it seems not too many humorists have the intelligence or creativity to pull off today--throwing out a swear word is far from ingeniously bringing about a sophisticated mass catharsis. By the way, what happened to Moby Dick? I enjoyed that.

Anyway, what finally got me to say hello is your grandfather. He was also funny, and the idea of a chuckling old man having a great time putting together a letter like that is such a terrific mental image. Eighty-seven and still trouble...

By the way, it might interest you to know that I'm an ultra-orthodox Jew living in Jerusalem. You never know who's reading you out there.

Thanks again,

Braha

I concur re Settlers of Catan... good game, requires lots of strategy, but fairly easy to get into playing.

how long did it take you to reply? When was her party? shame...

Braha, the piece Matthew links to is part of a larger feature that includes a piece by Yehuda Berlinger, who is also a gamer living in Jerusalem.

http://www.flakmag.com/games/puertorico.html

What town is this? I live in central PA and like to playing games.

I enjoyed the article. Lots of good tips.

Do you have any advice on ways to keep androids from ruining the all-human game night experience?

Every Turing test I can come up with either fails or gets mis-interpreted as a pre-game trivia contest.

Matthew, good advice, well done. It turns out that being nice and friendly counts for more than winning or even playing for most people.

So I have a private group for hardened gamers, where we play brand new games and learn the game together, and call each other bastards.

And then I have a public game club, where courtesy and respect come first (no swearing). And we make sure new people turning up are greeted properly (handshake, names, welcome, what sort of games do you like?) and we make sure someone sits down with them and plays a fun game. If someone is left standing around, we make sure the next game that starts includes them.

Hey! That's My Fish! and Through the Desert are great starters, and Diamant too. Anything that shows them games are not Monopoly and gets them thinking and making decisions in the first minutes are winners. For non-gamers, it's a revelation.

But, and this is so true as you say, if they don't want to play, nothing you can say will make them.

Cheers,
jon.

Hey Matthew,
We meet once a week, not bi-weekly. Every Tuesday, in fact. You should come back and play with us again sometime.

Take care,
-N

thanks for yet another fabby post! me and the seester coordinate a family game nite and what a suprise it was that some family wanted to eat and booze while others wanted to chat it up! it took like 7 hours to play one measly game of scrabble. now i know - set the purpose! nice!

Oh, it's one of those speed-reading things, I suppose. Earlier today, when I first read your post about McD's, I thought it said Less dangerous than eating a Circus