Just as a disclaimer, please don't expect proper grammar and punctuation in this blog post, or any other future blog posts. I'll do my best with the spelling, but everything else is up in the air. Run-on sentences, incomplete sentences, numbered lists, and bullet points are all very good friends of mine, you will meet all of them very soon.
Catchphrase.
Mad Gab.
Blank Slate.
Scattergories.
I could go on forever.
Game Night is the chance to meet up with friends, eat some food, and play some games!
It's also the chance to DESTROY YOUR COMPETITION!!
You see, I'm just a TAD bit competitive.
So when a Game Night happens, of course there's a time to play, laugh, and catch up!
And then, there's a time to LOCK IN.
The trick is to make that transition as seamless as possible.
That way you can keep up the conversation, maybe insert some witty lines here and there.
Meanwhile, you've locked in.
If the game involves a question being asked, you can't even hear what anyone else is saying.
All you can hear is the clock ticking afterwards, and your sole focus is on the answer.
Sometimes the answer just comes to you right away.
Other times, it's on the tip of your tongue.
The clock is still ticking.
All eyes are on you.
Your pulse increases.
That's my comfort zone.
I WANT that pressure.
I WANT to deliver in "crunch time" when it matters the most.
Take the game of Catchphrase for example.
It's one of my all time favorite games.
The goal is simple, you select a category on a little handheld electronic device, and then a word shows up on the device, related to the category you just chose, and a timer starts ticking.
Your goal is to get your teammates to guess the word, BUT, you can't say any part of the word, you can't say any words that rhyme with it, and you can't say the first letter of the word.
Everyone sits in a circle, and every other person in that circle is on the same team.
That way the person to your left and your right can make sure you're following those rules.
If you can get your team to correctly guess the word, you then pass the device to the person next to you who is on the other team while pressing the "next" button to give them a new word, and now they need to try to get their team to guess that new word.
Meanwhile, that timer has still been ticking this whole time.
Whatever team is holding the device when the time goes off loses the round, and the other team gets a point.
The first team to 7 points wins the game!
And you also never know when the timer is going to go off.
It could be 30 seconds, or 40, or 50, or 60.
The timer changes every time, that way someone can't wait until the last second to get their team to guess the word, and then pass it off right before the timer goes off.
It gets really hectic, really fast, and I love every single second.
That's because I'm one of the best clue givers that you will ever meet.
I can spoon feed anyone exactly what they need to hear in order to correctly say the word that I need them to say.
A lot of people get overwhelmed with the timer going off, especially if the word is someone or something that they don't know.
You're allowed to "skip" to a different word just once, but after that, no matter what the word is, that's the one you need to get your team to guess.
The problem is, a lot of people don't break things down to their simplest form.
All you need your team to do is to SAY the word or words that are on the screen.
Maybe it's "Jerry Rice", but you don't know who that is.
That's where most people freeze.
It's not someone that they know, so they don't know how to describe him.
But the thing is, you don't NEED to know who he is, you just need your team to say the words!
So just break it down!
I would say "Two Words"
"First Word"
"Popular cartoon with a Cat & Mouse, Tom and....."
Hopefully someone says "Jerry!"
Bingo.
"Second Word"
"A popular Chinese food dish, Pork Fried......"
"Rice!!"
BINGO, NOW SAY THOSE TWO WORDS TOGETHER!
"Jerry Rice!!"
Boom. Now pass the device to the other team.
You got your team to guess correctly, even though you didn't even know who Jerry Rice was.
And as I just demonstrated, you didn't need to.
However, in the moment, a lot of people freak out, say "I don't know who this is", and just let the timer run out.
Break. It. Down!
Now if it's a word that you've never even seen before, and you don't even know how to pronounce it, let alone what it is, that's a different story.
If you're not a tea drinker, and you see the word "Chamomile", and you've already used your skip, so you're stuck with that word, then that's just unfortunate.
HOWEVER, someone on your team might still be able to figure it out if you just keep talking it out even though you don't know what it is.
I've seen MANY words get guessed correctly even though the person giving the clues had no idea how to try and describe it, but they just kept thinking out loud, and something clicked enough for one of their teammates to figure it out before time ran out!
I still remember correctly guessing "Pat Sajak" and "Bats In The Belfry" at the absolute last second because the person trying to give clues just kept talking it out.
Needless to say, I love Catchphrase!
But there's SO MANY GAMES.
That's just ONE.
Mad Gab is another favorite of mine.
It's a phonetic game.
You'll see words on a card that make NO sense at first.
But when you read them out loud, even though it might sound like absolute gibberish, you're actually saying a word or phrase, and then either you figure it out, or someone on your team does, and you say the word or phrase and get a point!
The goal is to try and get as many points as you can before time runs out!
The slogan of the game is "It's not what you SAY, it's what you HEAR"
That's why I tell people that even if it sounds like absolute nonsense, just keep saying it out loud, so your teammates can hear it.
A lot of people just murmur the "gibberish" to themselves, when most of the time, a teammate will hear the what sounds like "gibberish" to you, but they actually hear the word or phrase, and then they guess it correctly!
Game Nights are always a good time, and the fact that I've got a Game Night coming up is what inspired this blog!
With that being said, I think I'm going to end this blog right here!
Thanks to anyone who took the time to read all about why I love Game Nights!
Until next time!
