1001 How-Tos

February 28, 2009

How to Enjoy Your Favorite Board Game

Filed under: General topic — Tags: — Johnny @ 12:39 pm

We all come to a point where we get tired of playing board games, hide them under our closet and forget that they ever existed.

At this point, you simply stop playing because you lost the interest anymore. While it is very unfortunate and should not happen at all, the reality is, it does. This doesn’t mean, however, that you cannot bring back that lost interest you once had.

Here are some of the ways to rejuvenate your interest in playing your favorite board game and start enjoying it as if it is the first time you play the game:

Play with your best pals
You have to agree on this: in most cases, enjoyment is not dependent on the game itself but on the people you are playing with. Board games just facilitate the fun no matter how bad or how well it is rated by the experts since a good company of friends can always turn a horrible game into a source of laughter. Make sure that you maximize the number of players in the game. And if the game allows you to play with as many players as you can, call all your friends, schedule the time and date, order some snacks and play till your hearts content.

Play with your family
You do not always have to schedule a family night in order to play with your parents, brothers and sisters. At any given moment, when everybody is doing nothing, you can always bring out your board game and invite your any member of your family to play.

Don’t think of anything; just focus in the game
Spoilers come in different forms but they all arrive at a very bad timing – when everyone is starting to have fun. An unwanted phone call or a text message in the middle of the game, a burning pot in the kitchen, a knock on the door from an unexpected visitor or an unfinished task that must be done immediately always ruin the activity. So before you begin playing, make sure that the homework is finished, the cell phones in quiet mode and doors locked. Simply put, play when you do not have anything to do.

Improve every time you play
Challenge yourself to become a better player after every game. To do this, you can read some tricks, tips and techniques on how to play your chosen game better and apply it each time you face other players on the table. It is also recommended to play against better opponents no matter what type of game it is.

Read and learn the rules
Players can always modify the rules of the game as long as everyone is aware of the changes. But playing outside the official rules of the game is more than a consensus. This is not to say that players always cheat. It only means that many rules of board games are not always used because no one is really aware of it. Reading the rule book is not so hard. Just spend some time in understanding what it says will make a difference between appreciating the game and getting bored after several times of playing.

Rules can be bent, of course. But only if you understand the game well will make some changes in the rule sensible and at the same time, leaned towards the enjoyment of everyone.

February 22, 2009

Game Board Strategy: How to Win in Scrabble

Filed under: General topic — Tags: , — Johnny @ 12:38 pm

The key to winning a scrabble game is to finish with the highest score when all the tiles have been laid down on the table – with emphasis on the phrase “to finish with the highest score.” I said this because many players, mainly beginners, only try to come up with words regardless of the point-value. As a result, they may have laid all their tiles down but still score low at the end of the game.

As with most games, constant practice makes one perfect, or at least, better. In scrabble, however, you have to possess some tricks in order to win.

Work with the Q
The letter ‘Q’ is perhaps the most dreaded letter in scrabble, especially if it is not hooked with the letter ‘U’. But did you know that there are 21 words that use a Q without a U? They are: FAQIR(S), QAID(S), QANAT(S), QAT(S), QINDAR(S), QINTAR(S), QINDARKA, QOPH(S), QWERTY(S), SHEQEL, SHEQELIM and TRANQ(S). Other words that may come in handy are QIVIUT(S), MAQUI(S), SUQ(S), UMIAQ(S) and BUQSHA(S).

Learn the X, J, Q and Z words
The letters X, J, Q and Z have the highest point-value. Ironically, beginners hate these letters. But if you will just study words that have any of these letters, not only you will have a higher score, you will also prevent your opponent from scoring a bingo.

Don’t waste your S’s
Surely, the easiest way to score is to add an S to an existing word on the board. This is good if you will land on a double or triple word score. But if you are just using S without any reason or simply because it is the first possible move you see on the table, you are just giving your opponent an extra move and at the same time, wasting a valuable letter. Play the letter S if the value yields to at least 10 points, lower than that and you are playing to lose. For example, ROLL is just 4 points. If you add S to make it ROLLS, it will just give you 5 points. But if the word is JUMP, adding S on a double word score space will yield to 26 points. Keep your S for a while until you can maximize its value.

Go Bingo Hunting
Another trick you have to remember is to look for prefixes and suffixes. The word PAIR can become REPAIR or PAIRING or even, REPAIRING. TAIL can be linked with RE- to make it RETAIL or RE- and -ERS to make it RETAILERS. Having the letters S, R, E, I, N and G can be very, very useful.

Learn the 2-letter words
When the board begins to get crowded and long words begin to lose their place, you start going for 2-letter words. But if your vocabulary is limited, you cannot simply invent words, right? QI, SO, TO, UP, OW, OX, XI, KI and HO are just an example. There are more. Learn them.

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