Rock, Paper, Shotgun

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Greek Island of Hydra. Which was very fancy. Roaming around the airport at 4am, the Lady and I found ourselves buying a 7-in-1 WH Smiths Magnetic Board game set. As we played them, I found myself examining them with my adult, videogame-warped critical mind and thought it would be a good idea to review the lot of them. Writing RPS’ most expansive review of all time for a cheap-ass magnetic box-set struck me as funny, but they became a wide-ranging series of essays about the nature of gaming. No, really. It surprised me too, as I had no idea where I was going with most of these, and was pleasantly surprised they ended up where they did. Here’s the complete index:
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This probably breaks the Trade Description Act on two points. Our final entry is neither a game nor magnetic.
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Even before we work out how to play the bally thing, we know Backgammon is a good game.
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Fucking Ludo.
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Yeah, we totally forgot to take photos of a draughts game when the Lady and I were in Hydra.
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Chinese whatnows?
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My Granddad never played dominoes. He played Crib.
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Chess was invented in 1959 by Mr Chess. It’s quite the game.
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As the blessed few who pay attention to bylines will know, I’ve been away for the last week on the Greek Isle of Hydra. I’ve played no videogames. I have, however, played games. My Lady and I, confused at a pre-dawn airport, picked up a 7-in-1 WH Smiths Magnetic Board game set. Between attempting to encourage the sun to alter our pigmentation, we played through the lot. And looking at games I mostly haven’t touched since childhood with my adult’s appreciation got me thinking that writing RPS’ most expansive review of all time for a cheap-ass magnetic box-set would be a suitable vessel to hold some assorted observations on the form. Also, amusing overkill.

I’m putting this explanation in its own post as i) it’ll be renovated into a title post when they’re all done and ii) I don’t want to messy up the individual posts with an introduction. Natch. So let’s… go.