As a child, I enjoyed making games and, in addition to dreaming of being a vet and a writer, wanted to become a developer of board games. In those days online games were non-existent. A part of our physical activity was gathering with others and playing outdoor games – hopscotch, elastics, rounders, marbles, etc and indoor ones such as Scrabble, Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit, Mastermind and the like. These encouraged group fun, healthy competition and the chance to get to know each other better, through the workings of our minds and unfolding mirth and conversation.
One of the games I developed as a child was a card game which I called TIGUM – a scrambled version of the acronym for "The Game I Made Up" (TGIMU). A pack of cards is shuffled and divided among all the players. As in the game "Boy, Girl, Animal, Place, Thing" (which we also loved playing), TIGUM involved the use of random categories and called for very quick thinking.
When it is person A’s turn, he/she thinks up a category randomly (eg, something you would find in a kitchen) and deals a card face up. Let us say it is a king; the answer must begin with a k. The first person to answer (eg, knife) gets the card and puts it to one side, then plays again. Only the winner of a round can play next. When all the cards have been used, the player with the most cards placed to the side is the winner.
Letters are the first initial of the names on chosen cards eg, ace – a, two – t, etc, or one can say "starting with the second letter”– eg, five (letter "i").
My sisters and I loved playing this game. The quicker one was able to think also meant the louder one’s voice would be in shouting the answer.
On Monday, when my sister was taking me to the airport to return to Tobago, I noticed a bag of board games in her car – Scrabble, Risk, Cranium and Monopoly. She was giving them away. They were (as she described them) "old, but still usable" but would probably not be as popular now in the age of covid, when many people are still wary of gathering and touching physical objects. Her extra reason for giving them away is that they were occupying needed space at home.
Online games, like online books, do not take up physical space – but, unlike board games, they are often solitary, potentially addictive pursuits.
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Recently, while dining with friends, some of them started discussing the popular online game Wordle. Initially designed by a software developer for his word-game-loving partner (that they can enjoy playing together at home during the pandemic) the game quickly became a favourite with their family members and, with astounding rapidity, exploded into popularity with a soon-addicted global public.
I had never played Wordle, but as one who likes word games, I found it sounded interesting when the others explained how it worked. (If unfamiliar with it, you can Google it for an explanation).
Just before waking this morning, I dreamt I was playing Wordle. So vivid was the experience
