Poll: Best Multi-Player Board Game of All Time

[mutepointe]

Which did you like to play? Do you have a favorite memory? Were you a cheater? Is there a game from your country that didn't make it to the USA?

You may revote. You may only vote for 1 option.

[emmline]

Ok, Pollman...I had to go waaaaaay back. But, the one I remember generating the most fun and laughs in my youth was Masterpiece. I'm not sure why. Something to do with the fact that my sibs and I gave all the objets-d'art our own special names. Like, there was a weird Picasso we called "Egyptian-Greek." Not particularly clever names, I'm sure, but they amused us. Oh, and the fact that my future brother-in-law (who was then the 11 year old punk across the street,) once bid $1.1 million on a painting (where the maximum value could only be $1 mill,) and crowed about what a great buy he'd made.

Clue would be a close second.
Sorry comes in third ONLY because I found it such a frustrating game to play that when my dad suggested it, my sister always said "ok," and I'd protest how hateful it was, then go ahead and play anyway. Then my short-fused sister would hit her frustration threshold, and scream. And I'd win.

And no...I was not a cheater. But my sister always skewed the Ouija Board results, so that it would come out weird and freaky, and my cousin and I would get wigged.

I will append, that the best games were not board games at all, but the times when my brother, sister, cousin, and I took the tape recorder and recorded spoof episodes of The Brady Bunch and The Waltons. I'm sure they were classic. Luckily, we will never know, as the media rarely lasts 35 years.

[I.D.10-t]

Pachisi

I have never been able to find a traditional set with cowry shells.

[mutepointe]

We found Masterpiece was an easy peaceful game to play and a person didn't need to know how to play to fully participate. We added a variation to the game. Each time something happened with a painting a value card was added. What was offerred for sale to the bank as a $1 Million painting, could quickly become a forgery or a $2 Million painting, just like in real life. Our family always overbid on "American Gothic" just on principle.

[brewerpaul]

Try this one if you have some uninhibited friends who are not afraid of embarassing themselves. It's wacky fun.

http://www.wiggitybang.com/quelf/index.html

[BillChin]

Monopoly #1, Risk #2, the others I didn't play much.

I played Monopoly so much that at some point I had memorized every rent, and every price for every property. That's for every line on the card, to buy the property, the standard rent, the rent for one house, two houses, etc. Scary. What if I had devoted all those brain cells to some worthwhile task or skill? Hmmm.

Risk. What is more fun than conquering the world? Unfortunately, later in life, I discovered a strategy that rendered standard Risk to be kind of boring. If anyone plays computer Risk, it works really well against the computer AI. Of course against repeat opponents, they learn what the strategy is, and can counter it by allying against me.

The problem with both games, it that they can drag out to six hours or more if the players are dawdlers and/or equally matched. In today's world no one has that kind of time for board games against humans. Online is one thing, but in person on a table top, literally no one has that kind of time anymore.

They have some contrived rules for Monopoly that make it shorter. I too have a quick game option, but not everyone likes it. I like my short-game rules a lot, though, and it condenses the game to about an hour, with veteran players.

[rebl_rn]

It's "Chutes and Ladders", not "Shoots" - you go down a chute or up a ladder.

I haven't voted yet, can't decide. We played "Life" a lot and I really liked it. But Clue was fun, Careers was fun, Risk I had limited fun with. My family spent a lot of time with Trivial Pursuit, but we had to ban my dad from playing, as he always knew all the answers (except for the sports questions).

I didn't have it, but I liked playing "Trouble" at friends' houses, but I think only because I liked the cool bubble-dice-roller thingy.

"Bonkers" was another game I had a lot of fun with.

[s1m0n]

It's "Chutes and Ladders", not "Shoots" - you go down a chute or up a ladder.

What he said.

[missy]

I didn't vote, but.....

I had forgotten all about Masterpiece! We loved playing that, but like others, added our own "rules".

One of the ones we've had fun with is a four person chess set. Everyone has the traditional move patterns, but when you have people coming not just toward you, but also from either side, it can get really interesting.

Our family was also big in card games. Even when my grandmother's senility was so bad that she didn't talk or recognize anyone, she still would love to play 3 card rummy.

[Innocent Bystander]

It's "Chutes and Ladders", not "Shoots" - you go down a chute or up a ladder.

What he said.

Never heard of it. Is it any resemblance to "Snakes and Ladders"? (You go down a Snake and up a ladder.)

I like to play Backgammon and Mancala, but neither of those is multiplayer.
The best, the Best... no, THE BEST multiplayer game is the one the pollster forgot (or didn't know about).

DIPLOMACY. Wiki on Diplomacy

There is a computer version of the game, but it is much better to play it in meat-space with real people.
There are people who say you can finish a game in two hours. Ignore them. Six hours, and make sure you have food and drink available, plus boxes of tissues if anyone goes off on a crying jag, and a working telephone just in case you have to phone the police (tempers do sometimes get raised).

The favourite in our house is a game called Therapy, but the unwritten rules are that you do NOT play it with just family. As we know from bitter - very bitter - experience.

[emmline]

I would guess that whether families tended to favor one sort of game over another could tell you
something about their overall intellectual bent.

iow, do they prefer straight strategy, or mathematical thinking? Are they right-brainers, preferring something (like Masterpiece) which
may be more conducive to inserting your own narratives into the game play?
Do they have incredible attention spans? (Monopoly?)
Or short, like the ADD side of my kin? (NO Monopoly!)

Other games I recall enjoying were card based, such as Milles Bornes (which I also played with my French exchange-family, in France, in French,) and...for when we could stand the freneticism...Pit. Especially cool when you could say: "Corner on corn!"

[mutepointe]

And whether families did things together too. My 3 older brothers must have waited forever for me to be able to sit still and roll a die. Having a 4th person balanced games. I was playing games long before I completely understood what was going on. I began my career as a card counter in kindergarten with the first card game of "Steal the pile" and I was playing "Pinocle" equally with adults before I could hold the 12 cards in my hand. If I could earn a living with guaranteed health benefits playing "Spades" I would quit my day job or at least get a part-time job. We used to play games to see who cleaned up breakfast, made lunch, cleaned the livingroom. We still play games for money, even "Shoots & Ladders". You folks need to see how that game is played in West Virginia, it's all different.

I left "Scrabble" off the list, bummer.

[dwest]

carroms, scrabble, scrapple, oops! that's something different. nevermind.

[Pammy]

Articulate is brilliant.

http://www.drumondpark.com/rules/articulate.php

People of all ages (well perhaps not little children) can play as you can break the words down into syllables.

Nice and fast moving, none of this "pay me a fortune as you have landed on my hotelled street", just like real life rubbish!!

[fearfaoin]

Settlers of Catan