November 24th, 2009 in Lifestyle

Games for Thinkers

Pastimes to Challenge and Entertain

Thinkers relish the challenge and stimulation of brilliant games. They enjoy games for the pure thrill of exercising their minds and judgments in pursuit of victory. You can take pleasure in any number of great games. Here is a selection of recommended pastimes. Add them to your Christmas list:

1. Chess

Chess is the king of games. It represents a pure cerebral struggle between two minds. It teaches strategy, tactics, positional play and the benefits of absolute concentration. Every home should have a set. Every child should learn to play. Everyone can enjoy the challenge.

2. Scrabble

Scrabble is the classic word game. You can play it with 3, 4 or 5 people but it is ideal for couples. Luck plays a small part. You have to make the most of whatever letter tiles are in your hand using the available resources on the board. Skilled players see remarkable possibilities and know a range of obscure and short words that they use adroitly.

3. Monopoly

This is the game that Fidel Castro banned when he came to power in Cuba because he saw it as a model for capitalism. There is a large element of luck but the skilled player will often triumph because he or she has focussed on the right resources and developed a set quickly. It teaches trading skills and probabilities.

4. Bridge

There are many great card games but surely the finest is bridge. The bidding and the play of the cards represent two different skill sets, with the play having amazing subtleties. Good players remember all the cards played and can quickly deduce the lie of the hidden cards. Most players learn whist first before graduating to bridge.

5. Cluedo (Clue in US)

This is a popular family game which is great fun. Can you put the clues together and figure out who is the murderer?

6. Backgammon

Backgammon is an excellent game for two players with its own mixture of luck, skill and gambling. You can choose risky or cagey strategies and double the value of game on occasions.

7. Poker

Some people wrongly think that poker is all about bluffing. It is a highly demanding intellectual exercise in which the skilful players read their opponents. You need nerves of steel and excellent understanding of the probabilities to succeed. This is a costly game to learn and it can be dangerous but surely it is one of life’s greatest pastimes.

8. Dingbats

Dingbats are rebuses or visual word puzzles where you have to figure out the common phrase or word represented by what you see. The advice is to say what you see – but can you look laterally enough to see the answer?

9. Articulate

This is an entertaining word game for friends and family to enjoy. You have to describe words quickly to your team members without any miming.

10. Trivial Pursuit

This the daddy of all quiz games. This will test your general knowledge and your ability to think in the same clever ways that the puzzle-setters use.

11. Pictionary

You have to draw the words in order to explain their meaning to your team mates. This will test your graphical thinking skills. It can be both frustrating and hilarious.

12. Charades

Charades is a well-established game in which you have to mime the meanings of names, phrases or titles. You have to think quickly and find clever ways to get the message across without speaking.

13. Lateral Thinking Puzzles

Lateral thinking puzzles are strange situations where one person knows the solution and others have to ask him or her questions (for example, 20 Questions). The quizmaster can only answer, ‘yes, no or irrelevant’. You have to come at the problem from different directions, check your assumptions and put the clues together. Good fun with friends and family.

Paul Sloane

Paul Sloane is an author and speaker on leadership, innovation and lateral thinking. His most recent book is The Innovative Leader. He helps organizations improve innovation, creativity and leadership. He is the founder of Destination Innovation. He has written 15 books of lateral thinking puzzles and hosts the lateral puzzles forum.Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/PaulSloane.

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ndorphn says on November 24th, 2009 at 9:09 am
RISK??? your list doesn’t have RISK??? Tsk!
Adam Chamness says on November 24th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Was very surprised/disappointed that Go (aka WeiQi or Baduk) was not included in this list above Chess. It’s vastly more complex and deeper in terms of strategy.
Karel says on November 24th, 2009 at 9:58 am
I cannot understand why you completely missed GO. I would place this on #1 myself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)
rzabcio says on November 24th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Monopoly and Risk for thinkers? These are games with so much random factor (dice) it is hard to predict situation on board and make some strategy…
Where are modest board games? Especially titles with reduced or even without random factor. Where only thinking and good strategy can make victory… Pick some from the list, and try it.
http://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame
Radek says on November 24th, 2009 at 10:35 am
You’ve forgotten GO! Computers (no thinking – just algorithm) already can beat pro chess players but it has never happened in GO game… So, which game is the king?
Richard says on November 24th, 2009 at 11:06 am
I’m missing Go.
Ivan says on November 24th, 2009 at 11:41 am
World of Warcraft?
Adam Skinner says on November 24th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
The oversight of recent designer board games is tragic. As a game enthusiast, my life has been enriched by playing designer board and card games. Many of these are “thinking man’s” games.
The primary database / community online for board games is http://boardgamegeek.com.
Most of the games in the top 200 there would fit the bill.
I’m particularly fond of:
Blue Moon
Coloretto
Navia Dratp
Sticheln
Shogun (Wallenstein retheme)
Starcraft
Power Grid
Glory to Rome
For a deep and simple game with an easier learning curve than Go, check out Knizia’s “Through the Desert”.
Leisureguy says on November 24th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Here’s another person who wonders why GO (weiqi, baduk) is not on the list. By rights, it should be No. 1.
Dagonet says on November 24th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
+1 for Go and Risk.
Amanda Pingel says on November 24th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Another vote for Go and to take Monopoly off the list, and Clue & Backgammon are questionable.
Quarto: very in-depth strategy with very simple mechanics. Play a game in 15 minutes or less.
Set: find patterns in a layout of 12 cards; first one to spot a “set” gets to collect the cards; most “sets” wins.
Carcasssonne: another in-depth strategy game with simple mechanics; lay out your tiles to maximize your points by allocating your “followers” on the map. The “tying players both get full points” rule means that the best strategy to maximize your points is to help others maximize theirs… but maximize yours more. :)
Blokus: Your pieces can only touch each other at the corners, and there’s not enough space on the board for everyone’s pieces to fit. Whoever gets rid of the most pieces wins. Mechanics are trivially simple, but can be played over and over with no repetition.
All those games are very engaging to the brain, fun to play again and again, and you get to support small game developers instead of the Hasbro/Milton Bradley/Parker Brothers conglomerate that’s trying to drive everyone else out of business.
Archana says on November 25th, 2009 at 12:03 am
why is Sudoku not part of this???
Angus Willson says on November 25th, 2009 at 4:56 am
On Monopoly, I understand it had been devised to demonstrate the folly of unregulated capitalism. In it’s defence as a “pastime for challenge and entertainment” players of Monopoly, winners and losers, do tend to reveal their true character as the game unfolds.
In support of Backgammon, you can teach people very quickly and then see them apply the calculations for each move as their understanding develops.
Also, there is no mention of Diplomacy – another sophisticated board-game for making and breaking friendships!
Skill games says on November 25th, 2009 at 8:48 am
In support of Backgammon, you can teach people very quickly and then see them apply the calculations for each move as their understanding develops.Playing skill games up against other users for cash has become very popular lately. The uniqueness of a skill game is that the game’s outcome is predominantly determined by players
Paul Sloane says on November 25th, 2009 at 8:52 am
OK, OK. I agree that Go, Risk and Diplomacy should be on the list. They are great games. Soduko I enjoy but would class as a puzzle rather than a game. I have not tried World of Warcraft but have heard some good things about it. There are others mentioned in the comments that I must try too!
TesTeq says on November 25th, 2009 at 9:29 am
As I see – Lifehack no Go… :-(
AlexTs says on November 26th, 2009 at 8:51 am
One of my favorite games is “Taboo.” It sounds similar to “Articulate,” but it doesn’t necessarily involve (or prohibit) miming. You’re given a word, for example “garlic.” And you have to get your teammates to say it. Unfortunately, you can’t say synonyms or words commonly associated with it (e.g. stake, clove, vampire, breath). I love it! But none of my friends like to play with me (i.e. on the other team). :D
Chris says on November 27th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Magic the Gathering? Top 10 from Games magazine?
Tim says on November 28th, 2009 at 6:41 am
I think you’re focussing on combative and competitive forms of thinking games. Co-operative games can be just as much fun, and provoke thought.
The easiest to pick up and play are things like Crosswords, especially cryptics. Though it can take take years to master them, they are rewarding, and at times funny. I know from personal experience that they get the little grey cells jumping. It is not just a solo endevour, it can scale from 1-n players. Myself and the wife usually sit down to figure one out at least once a week.
All Women Stalker says on December 2nd, 2009 at 10:35 am
I really like working on Escape games on the internet. I’m not that good at them yet. But it’s still good fun. And working on the mini-puzzles is good exercise for the brain.
-Denise
Marko says on December 3rd, 2009 at 2:29 am
I recently decided to learn to play chess.
It is great in the pursuit of mental growth.
Joe says on December 5th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
World of Warcraft? Classic man! That game blows. So not a thinkers game, its a followers game.
r4 dsi says on December 10th, 2009 at 2:57 am
Hi..
I like to play the games and mostly find some info about gaming…
Because i am fond of gaming so this article is really helpful for me…
Joe says on December 10th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
You ought to rename this article to account for its board-game bias — the absence of a single video game in a list of “Games for Thinkers” is pretty painful.
There are so many video games that require deep, strategic thinking; I’d start with any game with “Tactics” in the title — e.g., Final Fantasy: Tactics — as they tend to be games that take the chess and BLOW IT UP. Expand the number and types of pieces, transform the playing field into an active element of the game, and increase the “possible moves” exponentially. There’s no other game genre like it.
Adrian says on December 27th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
I second rzabclo & Adam’s recommendation for eurogames, and http://boardgamegeek.com/
Some favourites:
Settlers of Catan
Carcassonne
Puerto Rico
Hive
Where’s My Fish (a no-luck game like chess, but simple enough that both young children and adults can play)
I also recommend games like Lord of the Rings, and Arkham Horror, which are a bit like a puzzle where everyone is on the same team.
rezyde says on January 29th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
I find playing COD 2 modern warfare and third person shooters to be pretty challenging. These games usually require a lot of patience and thought especially when your up against formidible opponents.