Board Games are Brain Gyms
Heaven on Earth. That’s my goal. I’m trying to make pockets of Heaven wherever and whenever I can. How?
By enjoying great art, eating yummy food, drinking tasty beverages, while I engage in a cordial battle of wits with my good friends. I know I’m successful when I hear the room is filled with laughter and intense gazes as people plan their next move. There are few things in life I enjoy hearing or seeing more. As Game Master, I am intent on serving my friends and being a good host. When that happens, I know I’m on the right path, wherever it takes me.
Want to join my cause? It’s easy. All you have to do is make your world a better place. Stress less. Keep your mind sharp. Have more fun and genuinely connect with your friends. If this sounds like a plan you might want to get on board with then keep reading and…
Welcome to the wonderful world of modern boardgaming!
Thanks to COVID lockdown, the hobby of boardgaming is more vibrant than ever. No matter where your friends and family are you can connect to them. It’s even fun to do over Zoom.
Concerned boardgames are just for kids? Well, I don’t know if you’ve seen modern board games, but they aren’t the simple games most of us grew up with. They are sophisticated aesthetic experiences and brain gyms that will give you a full brain workout while you hang out with your friends. Instead of sitting around gossiping you can also do something meaningful and consequential together.
Feeling like something light and casual? Perhaps you prefer to play a heavy strategy game that’ll make your brain sweat? Either way, dial in your challenge level, then get ready to have some of the best fun on the planet.
Not competitive? No problem. Cooperative games are hot. In fact, they’re some of the most satisfying games you can play. There’ll be no sore losers either, because everybody wins or loses together. But that’s not all.
Games have a ton of mental benefits. They’ll hone your memory, lift your spirits, enhance your social skills and make you a better strategic thinker.
Here are a few of the many benefits you’ll enjoy from gaming.
· Play — Play’s great for both kids and grown-ups. It may even be more important as an adult who needs time to de-stress and be creative now more than ever. So, keep your brain young and flexible while you let out your inner kitten, or puppy because play is one of the great joys of life. In fact, it’s so important that according to Hindus, all of reality is Lila or God’s divine play.
· Fun — Life is way too serious these days. It’s insane really if you’re paying attention. Ironically, I think it’s too absurd to take seriously. I grew up in an apocalyptic, fundamentalist family. Everything was serious and “end of the worldie”, so I make it a point to have maximum fun. I’ve gone all-in on fun and am convinced it’s one of the best ways to motivate people and in fact, we won’t “save the world” without a fukton more of it.
· Laughter — Ever hear of Laughter Yoga? It’s a real thing. Laughing lifts your spirits(endorphin levels), and works out your core. (Dude, that’s funny.) I consider it my duty to laugh as much as possible because I’m too damn serious. It’s not easy though, and I need to practice more. That’s why I’ve been playing King of Tokyo and Monster Factory. Once the laughs start rolling, they don’t stop.
· Something to look forward to — Got a long week ahead of you? Don’t we all. It’s nice to have something fun to look forward to, so I’ve set aside my Friday lunch hour and 2nd Saturdays to play games. We all would have gone insane during the lockdown, if not for games, and now it’s “a thang”. I Zoom every month with my friends. We catch up while playing short, fast, light games on Board Game Arena. (Incidentally, that’s the best place to play board games. You get as many games as you can play, for the ridiculously low price of $5 a month.)
· Competition helps us get better — Bodies are honed by resisting gravity and trying to keep up with others. Likewise, minds grow sharper when challenged by opponents. Playing with friends will help you get better and hopefully keep me from getting Alzheimer’s or dementia. Their horrible diseases. I’ve seen what they did to my sedentary family members and it’s not going to happen to me.
· A practical application of Game Theory — Game Theory is a branch of math that explains how and why people make the decisions they do. It also rules the world, from the stock market to traffic to politics. (Watch “A Beautiful Mind” with Russel Crowe, for an excellent intro to the topic.) Unfortunately, the math is way above my head, so how can you get hands-on experience with it in the real world? By playing games, of course. So feel free to dive deeper into games and geek out. You may be surprised at the useful patterns you find that give you an edge in life.
· Practice math — Games are a math cake with a story frosting on top. Fortunately, the math is easy, but elements of probability keep things unpredictable and interesting.
· Communication skills — There are a number of useful communication skills to be practice while gaming. For example, clearly and succinctly teaching a new game is tough. Explaining well is a skill that is useful throughout all walks of life. But wait, there’s more…
· Reading Body Language — 40% of our communication is body language. Experienced gamers get better at gleaning subtle hints about their opponents' plans, by paying close attention to their eyes, for example.
· Negotiation skills — Being able to negotiate is a critical skill in relationships and business, but we don’t get to practice it often enough. Games are a good place to get hands-on experience with active listening, mirroring, and tactical empathy. (For more on this life-changing skill set, check out “Never Split The Difference” by one of the world’s top negotiators, Chris Voss.)
· Tactical Empathy — Understanding people deeply is a super useful skill, especially if you’re a leader. Empathy, or “theory of mind” is also a critical test of social intelligence. The better you are at putting yourself in other people’s shoes, the more likely you can predict what they’ll do so you can help or outsmart them.
· Collaboration — Cooperative games are my favorite game genre. Also known as “co-ops”, everybody either wins or loses together. Practice team problem-solving. It’s the perfect genre to play if your friends hate losing, are super competitive, or really hard to beat. If this sounds like them, then no worries! Put them on your team and play a game of Pandemic. Not only is it one of the best games ever made, but it has a timely narrative: “Save the world from Pandemic.” You get to tell the story of a crack CDC team trying to contain deadly outbreaks and find the cures for the diseases together.
· Practice good sportsmanship, a.k.a. good manners — Want to play more games more often? It’s essential to be a good sportsman. That means being a good winner and loser. This is an important lesson for kids, but I know some adults who could learn it too. They’re way too serious. It’s just a damn game for Pete’s sake.
· Practice winning by losing — Inexperienced gamers focus on winning, but sometimes you win by losing. For example, I have a family member who wins all the time, so we never play with him. It’s not fun, because it's so predictable that it’s boring. Experienced gamers aren’t afraid to practice the art of losing, so their friends will want to play with them. Also here’s a pro tip: Never play with your boss. With few exceptions, I’d advise losing, especially if they are insecure. Winning will probably hurt your chances for career advancement. Just saying…it’s one of those dumb social things.
· Get to know your friends and family deeply — Boardgames show you a side of people you don’t usually get to see. Sometimes that is a good thing, sometimes not. Fragile character or over seriousness is common with poor losers, but I’ve seen some really bad winners too. Want to know what somebody will really do when the pressure is on? Step into the board gaming ring and find out.
· Bluffing, a.k.a. Lying –There are socially appropriate times and places to deceive others. For instance, if your mom is an alkie who can’t handle the truth, even if she asks for it. If you’re in that kind of a dysfunctional family, you know telling the truth isn’t a good idea. So kids learn to lie, but how do you get them through that phase? Games provide a safe context to talk openly about lying and its real-life repercussions on trust. For example, my niece was going through that phase so we played Sheriff of Nottingham, a bluffing game. The kids love it. The laughs are always off the charts when we play it. Anyhow, it was a safe place to have a discussion about lying and trust. Best of all, nobody had to lose face.
· Social Connection — True connection happens best when face to face. Texting and social media posts don’t connect us. They’re barriers of convenience simulating authentic connection. In reality, they’re a big fat lie. Rediscover the pleasure of face-to-face time in the real world. If you play over Zoom it might not be perfect, but at least you get to see somebody’s face and hear their voice real time, which definitely ain’t happening on social media.
· Strategic thinking — People who can plan for the future have a distinct advantage over people who can’t. Gaming works out your imagination. It helps you model the future and play out complex scenarios. 7 Wonders Duel is perfect for strategic thinking. It’s lightweight but scales up in complexity if you want.
· Delayed Gratification — Delaying gratification is a key to success. Want to get ahead in a substantial way? You’ll probably have to put off having fun. Often, when playing strategic games, you have to delay gratification to build something bigger, especially if they are worker placement games building systems.
· Resist mental illnesses like dementia and Alzheimers — Lying around passively watching TV all the time, is a great way to get Alzheimer’s or dementia. That’s what happened to a couple of family members, and that nightmare is not going to happen to me. I want to stay sharp in my old age and plan to keep my mind active by playing board games as often as possible.
· Systems thinking — Feedback loops are integral to games. If you like to understand a whole system and how all the different parts interact with each other, you probably enjoy games and systems thinking. You might also worker placement games where you build economic systems to build great achievements. One key takeaway from game design is that minor tweaks can radically change a system dynamic and its feedback loops. This is useful in life for optimizing or hacking systems social systems.
· Algorithmic thinking — Boardgames are programs for the mind. You execute them sequentially, just like an algorithm. The more you play the more you learn to think systematically like a programmer. This is often why building a game is an excellent starter project when learning to program.
· Make better decisions — Making good decisions is the most important skill in life. I’ve lost several family members to bad decisions…bad, impulsive decisions that had lasting repercussions. Boardgames teach you to stop, think, and weigh your options. They also give you the chance to predict consequences more quickly.
In conclusion, I’m here to build Heaven on Earth. But I ain’t waiting around for the Second Coming. I’m a child of God, a son of God actually, and it's time to start acting like it. I’m certain board games are a key part of God’s plan. He told me so. He said “tell everybody to play more board games. It’s good for them. That’s why I put them there.”
Did I just go too far? Probably. But screw it.
Game Theory rules the world. The more you learn about it the better. We will never fix climate change without harnessing it.
All that “big plans” stuff aside, Gandhi said you have to become the change you want to see in the world. This is the change I want to see in the world. If there were 5% more gamers, there would be a lot fewer dumb people who get duped by leaders. They would make better strategic decisions and because they could think into the future about their consequences, they would be more effective.
Boardgames are the easiest ways to practice that skill set while connecting all the important strategic dots like friends, family, yummy food, fun, music, storytelling, math, lying, tasty beverages, and art.
But most importantly, it’s just fun. YOLO and this is how I want to spend my precious time on this planet.
