Game Spot: Gotcha Party Game

We had a lot of laughs playing this game at our last staff meeting. Gotcha is a party game for 3-8 players. The rules are fairly simple, but following them is another story. Each player is dealt a few cards and the rules are set initially. Players are trying to follow the rules and at the same time trying to catch their friends breaking the rules. It gets tricky because the rules keep changing. Rules might includes things like all females have to use their last name before speaking. Or all people wearing socks have to use finger quotes before speaking. Or all people with red on have to play the air guitar before playing a card. With the rules always changing, someone is bound to get confused. When a player breaks a rule you hit the gotcha button and you move ahead while they move back. The first person to the finish line wins.

Because players can place a new rule during their turn, players can change a rule they don't like or add a rule they do like. We were picking on Kyle this time. "Players with facial hair must use air quotes", "males must not speak unless it is their turn". (I wonder if they have a players with dreads card?).

We give this game a thumbs up for a fun game that will add a few laughs to your evening. The game is easy to learn and easy to play (if you can follow the rules). Play time might last anywhere from 15 minutes to 30 minutes.

The True Cost of Family Board Games

I'm not a big fan of winter. Limited play time outside and limited daylight hours leave us searching for something to do with the kids indoors a lot of evenings.

I've always enjoyed playing board games, but I have to be honest. The price tag on many games has made me reluctant to buy them. Most games are $25 to $35. All I could think was, "Wow, that's a lot of money to risk on something we might only play once." I've changed my attitude lately, though. And here's why.

We went to a movie over the holiday season (thanks, Grandpa, for the Christmas money!). I was shocked how expensive even a matinee was! For our family of five, tickets alone were $35! We got a bucket of popcorn and a drink to pass and share, so our total was over $40. This was for a little over an hour's worth of entertainment.

During this hour, none of us talked to each other. None of us interacted beyond requesting a sip of rootbeer from the community drink. Did we enjoy ourselves? Sure we did. And we did talk about the movie on the way home. But it was expensive and didn't really feel like "family time."

We also got invited to go bowling. Wow! Really? $3.00 a person to borrow shoes for an hour? Plus $3.00 a person per game?! We were at $30 quickly again. The same was true for an afternoon of ice skating and a couple hours at an indoor inflatable playground. Some fun was had, but it's not something we can afford to do on a regular basis.

So my conclusion? I'm not going to balk at the cost of a family game any more! Even if we only play it one evening, we're not any worse off than if we had tried one of the other activities. Plus, in our experience, we always give a game at least three tries to really "get it." Each time, we'll at least have spent the evening talking and laughing as a family. We'll also have had access to our fridge and snacks that aren't outrageously priced. And there's always the chance we'll find a game we look forward to playing time and time again, like Dicecapades. I'm guessing if we broke it down into cost per play, this game costs us about 25 cents a play at this point. Family fun doesn't get much cheaper than that!