popsrocks's Full Review: Penny Warner - Games People Play: The Biggest and ...
Our family has always enjoyed getting together and at times like playing games. At times we look for a source for something new. A few years ago we found this book that is still available.
The Book
This soft cover book printed by Meadowbrook Press and distributed by Simon and Schuster gives a list of 180 games on 180 pages of easy to read print.
The opening paragraph in the introduction tells us that...
...Just as party food, decorations, and themes have changed over the years, so have party games. Today's party people have grown tired of the same old games. They want activities that are new, challenging, fast-paced, and thought provoking. They want to go beyond charades.
It goes on to explain that this book offers a wide selection of fun and exciting games for grownups including silly games...thinking games...physical games... and old favorites with a twist...New games...adapted from...games on store shelves...Also find plenty of old standards
The introduction continues with a brief explanation of what you will find in the book and how to use the information.
Format
Each page has one titled game and is broken down into three sections.
Materials Needed
How To Play and
Variations
One Example
The very first game happens to be.
Academy Awards I found it interesting that I started this review just after finishing watching the 2005 American Academy Awards that for me at least were the most uneventful and boring of all time. Maybe this game would have made it more interesting for me if my wife and I had a few friends over and played this game. Here's how each game is ...
Academy Awards
Invite a few movie fans to watch the Academy Awards. Then vote for the most trivial, ludicrous, and just plain silly nominations.
Materials Needed
*Large sheet of poster board
*Felt-tip pens in a variety of colours
Playing time 2-3 hours
How To Play
1. Draw a large grid on poster board, with enough rows for each of the nomination categories, and enough columns for each of your guests.
2. Write nominations categories down the left-hand side of each row, such as Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and so on. Write the player's names across the top, one name for each column.
3. Also include funny categories, such as Most Embarrassing Speech, Most Boring Speech, Ugliest Outfit, Most Risque Gown, Worst Hair Style, Weierdest Walk to the Stage, Oddest Couple, Best Commercial, Funniest Joke by the EMcee, Most Pompous Actor, Most Excited to Win, and the Most Blase' about the Awards.
4. Hand out a different colour felt-tip pen to each of the guests and have them write their nominations in the square next to each category, beneath their own names.
5. As Awards are announced, draw stars on the winning squares.
6. Determine winners at the end of the show.
7. Offer a prize to the player who has the most correct answers.
Variations
Have guests come dressed as nominated stars, and let the players guess who they are supposed to be. Have the costumed players act out scenes to help others quess their identities.
More Information
The book gives tips for the host with regard to having enough room for the particular game, how to set time limits on the games, let people be aware that most games are new (especially those who may not care for games), how to work through conflicts, be sure everyone is included and playing, and if possible have some fun prizes (booby prizes included).
Our Experience
We have used a number of the games in the book. One we most recently did was the Baby-Food Taste Test.
It's pretty simple. Get 8 jars of baby food. We picked up fruits, vegetables and a couple of cereals. You then cover the label and then pass around the jars one at a time. Everyone has plastic spoons and take a bit, taste it and write down what they think it is.
Be sure to have the list in order so that when all have been tasted, the correct answers can be told. That is of course after asking what everyone thought each was.
This is a lot harder than one might think. I don't believe anyone has ever gotten them all correct.
More Games
A simple game to do with kids, or adults, is to send them around the house getting unbreakable flat items like books, cards, dominoes, CD's, VHS Tapes, junk mail, cereal boxes or any boxed foods.
Everyone sits in a circle with all the items flat on the floor or table between them. Starting with one person and going clockwise, each person places an item on top of the preceding players stack until someone makes the one pile fall.
There are some fun games that challenge the two sexes against each other. Others can get a bit of sexual flavor like a game where you tell a story. This is done after index cards, containing words that are common to romance novels such as hot, steamy, lusty, passionate, throbbing, enormous, ample, heaving and such, are taken one at a time by each player and that person must use their particular word in the continuing tale of a romance story that is started by one person and continued on. As each person takes their turn a tape recorder records their sentence. At the end the tape is rewound and the story is told, with different voices following the preceding person and ultimately finishing the tawdry tale.
Another silly game is to collect a few cheap tabloid papers with outrageous headlines and stories about celebrities. Write down the story on some index cards. Just a headline is enough. When the group is together have everyone make up their own headlines about celebs. These are then all collected and the fake ones are read along with a real one or two. The guests have to guess which is "true" ot not according to the papers.
For those who know books well a game to play is Infamous Last Words. The host goes to the library or book store and gets as many famous and classic books they can find and just note the last sentence of the book.
At the party the host reads a last line and everyone must write down the book it came from. The person with the most correct answers is the winner. To make it easier, if needed, give the sentence and also a list of the matching books.
In Closing
There are just so many games inside this book that are indeed different and new that I can't even break the surface in a review. Some are perfect for showers and the like. Some are physical games like dunking for olives out of wide mouthed glasses using only your tongues and others are thinking games based on memory, trivia and general knowledge. Many are just silly and some are challenging. There are drawing games, some with music, others pertaining to food, sports and culture.
Most games are pretty easy to set up using everyday items in the home and little more than index cards and pencils. Others do take a bit more time and effort to set up but what you need to do and get is clearly explained. I happen to like the fact that there are so many new games that we will never get through all those listed in the book.
All the games can be played indoors. The book advises how much room you will need.
I do wish the book was in some kind of order like physical games, thinking games, games for groups of couples, and the like. Unfortunately you just go through each game until you find something you like. We mark pages and the index to help our future searches in the book.
This book is a winner when looking for new, unique, challenging, and fun games. In my business I am always looking for something new to adapt into game shows I host. This book does give me good ideas. I highly recommend it for people who are "game".
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