Game with Your Family
July 2008 Issue
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Make Your Own Mounts
- Gaming in the Media: Nintendo Learns It Ain’t Easy Being Green
Interviews
- Interview: Lady Fireez [The Guild of Gaming Women]
Articles
- Girls Just Want to Make Fun
Author: Mara Poulsen
- Game with Your Family
Author: Robyn Fleming
- Learning to Roll with 4th Ed.
Author: Carla Lee
Mara talks about how Microsoft is revolutionizing video game development.
Robyn has some tips on what kind of games are ones that the whole family can enjoy.
Carla shares her experience playing D&D at Worldwide D&D Game Day.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
Odds 'n Ends
I learned to play Dungeons & Dragons because my cousin Brian (who lived with my parents, my older brother, Erik, and me for several years) wanted to put together a game, even if that meant playing with two little kids. I got into computer games because Brian and my father were both early fans of that amazing new machine, the personal computer.
I kept playing tabletop games with Erik as I grew up, and I’ve played through several computer games with my brother or my parents along for the ride (one memorable Christmas, the four of us and my mother’s youngest brother took turns playing Riven and completed the game before the goose was cooked). I met the newest addition to my family, my husband, on a MUD.
I guess you could say that I’ve had some experience in gaming with family! So I’d like to share some ideas based on my experiences so that you can set up some game time with your family.
What Makes a Good Family Game?
Multiplayer Capability: With rare exceptions, one-player games aren’t great for family play. I’ve played through a few with my family (Erik and I were big fans of the Sierra adventure games in our pre-teen years), but it’s always been less of a collaborative experience and more of an exercise in backseat-driving and endless whining that it must be your turn by now. Generally, what you want to look for is a game that’s designed for at least two players, ideally one where the play is simultaneous.
Easy to Play: At least to begin with, you’ll want to choose games that are easy to play. That doesn’t necessarily mean easy to win, but rather that the controls and mechanics aren’t difficult to figure out, and gameplay is rewardingly fun from an early level of mastery.
Appropriate Content: Obviously, you don’t want to play M-rated games with your five-year-old. But you should probably consider whether you want to play them with your parents, either. A game that’s fun with your friends or significant other might be a little embarrassing when played with your grandfather. Beyond issues of mature (or immature…) themes, consider what the family members you’re planning to play with like and dislike, and choose games with content that will appeal to the players.
Competitive or Cooperative? You might also find that competitive games that are really fun with your trash-talking buddies are not so entertaining with your relatives. Your dad might be a sore loser, or perhaps your sister is one of those irritating gloating types. Competitive games can still work with family dynamics like those, if the game is mellow enough, but cooperative play games might be the better option.
Spend some time thinking about what you’ve had fun doing together as a family in the past, and use that to help generate some ideas about what sorts of games to look for, and whether you’ll want to lay down any ground rules or expectations (no throwing controllers at each other!) before beginning a game.
Ready to Play?
Here are some titles I’d recommend trying out as family games:
The Lego Star Wars series. Available for a variety of consoles, the games in the Lego Star Wars series are fun and silly and will appeal to a variety of ages. Gameplay can be a little difficult for the inexperienced at times, but losing a life is entertaining, too.
The Guitar Hero series and/or Rock Band. These games are great for people who’ve never really done any console gaming before, since the controls are unique and very intuitive.
Wii Sports. The Wii has been heavily marketed as a family console, and with good reason. Many titles are designed to be attractive to new gamers, and with multiplayer capability. It’s hard to do better than Wii Sports for simplicity and enduring fun in a family game, however.
Metroid Prime Pinball. If multiple members of your family own a Nintendo DS, this game is probably the best multiplayer investment you can make. Up to eight players can play pinball against each other on one card in wifi mode. Take this one to the family reunion.
The Munchkin series. The Munchkin games are available in a variety of versions to fit your family’s genre preferences (the sci-fi loving family should try out Star Munchkin, for example). The rules for this series of card games are easy to learn, and play is fast and consistently funny. The humor in Munchkin tends towards the mature, so play this game with a group of grownup relatives instead of the kids.
The Letter Game. If you want to get some of your family members into tabletop roleplaying gaming, you might find it easier to start with a game that has no dice and almost no rules. In the Letter Game, each player creates a character and roleplays by writing letters (or emails) to the other player(s). The only rules are that the main characters can’t meet during the course of the game, and the players shouldn’t talk about the plot as they’re playing. The goal is to tell an entertaining story together (usually with separate but linked plot arcs for each character), or describe an interesting setting.
These suggestions are hardly an exhaustive list. Use them as a jumping-off point for your own ideas about games that you’d like to play with your family. Good luck, and have fun!
