Never bored with the board

The board was often left open for days at a time, the game continuing day after day like some kind of marathon. The play could not end until the last mortgage was sold and the final red hotel went up on Park Place. It was not until the last tycoon had each and every piece of white, pink, green, blue and yellow money neatly piled in little stacks underneath one side of the game board, that a winner could claim victory. It was 'Extreme' Monopoly, long before the current genre of extreme play was recognized as a trend.

Scrabble was another game that could be played over several days, as was Risk.

Talk about play value!

While it is true that games have rules and regulations. And if dice are part of the play pattern, there is likely a good amount of luck involved too. But it also takes a fair amount of strategy and thinking—even creativity—in order to play a game, board game or otherwise.

There are also some of life's lessons to be learned: like how to be a good winner, or a good loser; what it means to 'take turns.' Virtues are learned too: like patience when waiting for someone to take a turn or think of an answer and, of course, honesty—as in no moving a marker extra spaces or looking at another player's card!

We were reminded of all this recently when the women on staff were invited by Hasbro to play a game called "Go Goddess." Who could resist playing a game with a name like that?

(The guys? Hey, they had already enjoyed a run of playtime with Mattel's Harry Potter's Levitating Challenge!)

Well, we females sat around a table in one of our conference rooms playing the goddess game and yes, we were patient and honest and, of course, extremely sensitive as to whose turn it was. More importantly, we had some really good fun and enjoyed some laughs, forgetting about the mundane—at least for awhile.

It is no wonder that games never go out of style. Sure, at some point in our lives we switch to other games; where the life lessons are usually of a harsher nature. But at some point we do gravitate back to board games, card games or some sort of game playing just for the sheer fun and healthy competition of it all.

Games…they're a part of life; and that's no balderdash!