Nearly a decade ago, my brother bought my nephew a birthday present. It was a motorised train set, where, once built, you could watch the train and truck move around the track, picking up goods, taking them to a loader where they then get picked up again.

It looked a bit like this













I helped set up the toy and watched in amazement as the train and truck did their things like poetry it motion.

And I watched. And watched. And watched.
After not too long, I realised something. The toy required no interaction from myself, or my four year old nephew. In fact, we could have gone to lunch, come back an hour later, and it would still be there doing it's thing.

And this is exactly how I feel about Snakes & Ladders. As I've previously discussed, S&L has no decisions to be made, and therefore other than rolling the dice and moving the pieces, the players aren't really part of the game. Or to put it another way, if during a game of S&L, someone needed to take a break, another player could easily take their turns for them without impacting the game at all. Therefore in many ways, S&L is no different to the Big Loader pictured above. It's just not that engaging after a while and therefore it's worthwhile seeing what else is available.

If you're in the UK, you may be aware of Orchard Toys.You may even have a couple of them:

These games are the perfect step up the gaming ladder. Many of them are based around the concept of finding certain tiles, which is great for developing memory. They are bright and colourful which also appeals to young children, and many of them, like the one pictured above, make sounds (in this case a burp, which young children (and grown men), seem to find very amusing.
The Orchard range also contain some games that team specific skills - such as telling the time ("Tell the Time") and simple addition and subtraction ("Bus Stop").

We have quite a few of these games for Benji, and he used to really enjoy them . In fact, we used to find him playing these games by himself a lot of the time, even fairly recently. Whilst he has now outgrown these, they have been packed away ready for when Jennifer is a bit older. 

There are lots of other games available though in mainstream stores such as Toys 'R Us or even the big supermarkets. Are they all good? 

Well, no, not really. They all do a job, but some are much better than others. For instance, compare well known games such as 'Hungry Hippos' and 'Frustration' - which is better, which sees more playtime and why?

For our household, it is certainly Frustration, which even now gets played occasionally, whereas Hungy Hippos is just taking up space. Why is one better than the other?
In my opinion (and after all, that's what this blog is about), there's a couple of reasons. Let's start with Hungry Hippos.
In this game, each player has a hippo which they control with a lever. Many small balls are placed into the dish in the middle, and then all players try and 'eat' as many balls as possible by pressing the lever as quickly as they can. The one with the most balls at the end wins. You can probably guess where I'm going with this - like Snakes & Ladders, there's very few decisions to be made here. Yes, there is interaction, but actual decisions are non-existence. It's all about pressing that lever as quickly as possible, like a hamster running around a wheel.
Compare that to Frustration. In this game you roll a dice (using a 'popper' in the middle of the board), and move your pieces. However, this time you have more than one piece (4 to be precise) and if you have multiple pieces active you can chose which one to move. If one of your pieces lands on an opponents piece they get sent back to the home spot. Suddenly there are decisions, risks, player interaction, and yes, the opportunity to play nasty. But most importantly for children, this is an opportunity to learn, to have the first forays into strategy, and to see cause and effect in action - what happens if they move here, which piece should they move, should they knock you back to home, or get themselves safe.

Now it's fair to say that Frustration isn't the pinnacle of strategy gaming, but based on what your children have played so far, it's a start. It's baby steps, but a great introduction to the types of games they will be progressing to. And some valuable skills that are useful in all aspects of life (bet you'll look at Frustration in a new light!)

Of course, these still games still don't hold much interest for adults - after all, we are still talking about very simple decision making. So, what can we play that will bridge the gap between adults and children? I'm glad you asked - and we'll talk more about this in a future blog entry (I know, I'm such a tease).

Now, time for the EastEnders drum synthesiser.

As promised, this blog will feature a sort of journal of how my son became an avid gamer, and hopefully in future years my daughter will begin making an appearance to these pages. Therefore it probably makes sense to go right back to the beginning, and have a look at the first game he played, and what lessons he learned.

Like most children, my son's first game was probably Snakes & Ladders (Peppa Pig Snakes & Ladders to be precise) when he was around 2-3 years old. Snakes & Ladders, whilst a fairly dull game by adult standards is possibly the perfect game to start young children with.
In a previous blog entry I discussed how Monopoly fails as a game as there are very few decisions a player needs to make. Well, Snakes & Ladders (from now on this will be abbreviated to S&L because I am THAT lazy) takes that to the extreme - there are precisely ZERO decisions to make in the game. Think about it for a minute; I'm sure everyone has played S&L before - just think about what you actually do.
- You roll the dice
- You move your playing piece that number of spaces, following the designated track.
- If you end at the top of a snake, you go all the way down to the bottom of the snake
- If you end at the bottom of a ladder, you move to the top of it.
- First player to get to the end space wins.

That's it. That's the entirety of the game. Picking which colour playing piece you want to be is the last decision you will make in this game (and in the Peppa Pig version even THAT was decided for me - I was always Daddy Pig).

"So a useless game that should be consigned to the bin?"

Well, no, not really. S&L has one redeeming feature that makes it perfect for very young children.
It's short - a game shouldn't take more than ten minutes, which is perfect when you are dealing with little human beings who generally have the attention span of a goldfish.

"Ok, then, it's a quick, simple game but can it actually teach kids anything useful?"

Absolutely, and here lies the beauty of the game. For very young children, S&L can teach some valuable skills:
- Taking turns. You see when kids are young, they are the centre of their parents world and rarely have to wait for anything. S&L is a great opportunity to teach the little ones that sometimes they just have to be patient.
- Counting. Getting the child to count spaces and move their own piece is a great way to introduce the concept of counting.
- Playing by defined rules. Young children typically play in a free form way, so board games can be a great way of teaching them that sometimes rules have to be followed.
- Dealing with losing - most young children don't like losing, and board games are a great way to teach them that it's OK to lose. The fact that S&L is a 'safe' environment where losing has no real consequences makes it a great tool for this lesson. The fact that it 100% luck based makes it even better, as the children can blame the dice, rather than feeling they aren't 'good enough'.

However, it's worth pointing out that tantrums do happen, and Benji was no exception. I'll look at potential ways to combat these 'losing tantrums' in later blogs, but for now I'll share this quick example.

I was playing a game of S&L with Benji, and his grandfather was in the room. I happened to win the game, which of course produced floods of tears in Benji.
"He's only 3, you should let him win" came the comment.

Well, of course I could have let him win, although in fairness it's quite hard to play badly in S&L, as it's a game of pure luck. So 'letting him win' would involve actual cheating - mis-counting spaces, re-rolling the dice to get a more favourable number - in short all the things that I've been trying to explain to Benji what NOT to do. So to let him win, I'd have to lead by a bad example.
But there's another downside to letting children win all the time - it's one thing Benji having a tantrum at home; but what happens when he goes to a friend's house, or loses a game at school?

Whilst you shouldn't mercilessly crush children at games, I also don't believe in letting them win all the time - otherwise, how will they learn?

What are your thoughts on this? I'll make another blog at a later date to describe what tactics I've tried with Benji, but would be interested to hear what other people think on this subject.

Before I start to explain my son's journey into this hobby, it's probably worthwhile giving you some background into how I got started in this hobby.

I'm the youngest of 4 children, and when I was younger we used to spend Sunday afternoons playing board games with my dad, We'd play the usual stuff; Cluedo, Totopoly, Game of Life, Go for Broke, Careers, Hotel, Risk and so on - the kinds of games that most people probably had around the house. It was really nice spending time with the family, playing these games, and I clearly developed an enjoyment for moving bits of plastic around a board.

Well, times change - my siblings grew up and found better things to do on a Sunday. I'd still occasionally play these games - by myself acting for different 'players' (I know, I really needed more friends I guess), but before too long I discovered video games.

I had a Commodore 64, upgraded to an Amiga, and after a time would hover over my mum as the end of her work day approached, ready to swoop onto her new PC and get ready for a game of Police Quest, or Master of Orions, or Ultima Underworld. Then I got myself a PlayStation, and before too long board games were consigned to a dusty cupboard.

But I always kept a toe in the deep end of the geek pool - I dabbled in tabletop miniature games (and discovered I don't have the time, money, or artistic talent required), and even Role Playing games, and it was the later that eventually led me to board games - but I'll come back of the subject of these other hobbies, and how they can benefit children in later blogs

A quick Google search looking for Role Playing stores near me led me to wander down Ballards Lane in Finchley - Leisure Games was my destination, and it was there that I discovered the modern board games - and how different they are to anything I had played before.

Where we used to have 'roll and move', now we have wonderful mechanics such as 'Worker Placement', 'Action Selection', 'Card drafting' and 'Deck Building'.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. My first purchase was a little game called 'Ticket to Ride', and from there I found BoardGameGeek.com - easily the number one website for the board gaming hobby - and quickly saw the vast options that are available.

So there you have it - my name's Neil and I'm a geek.

At least 'geek' is cool these days.

Whenever I mention to people that I enjoy board games, the response I always get it "oh, so you play Monopoly then?"

Well, to be honest, no - in fact playing Monopoly is such an intensely hateful game, I would rather do almost anything else than subject myself to a game. Doing the dishes, dusting the house, hell, I'd even volunteer to cut the lawn with some nail clippers, if it means I don't have to subject myself to a game of Monopoly (and if my wife is reading this, then no, you can't keep suggesting we play games of Monopoly in order to get me to do odd jobs around the house!)

But rather than just have a mindless rant about a game, perhaps it would be useful if I point out my objections to it.

There are three main issues, which unfortunately all interact with each other to create this perfect storm of gaming horror:
- It's length. This game is long. So very, very long. So long in fact that I genuinely believe that in the history of the world, nobody has ever, actually finished a game properly. In fact what usually happens is either; the tabel is needed for dinner; it gets to a point where two players are in stalemate; an argument ensues and someone shoves everything off the table and onto the floor; or, one or more people die of old age before the game ends (ok, I admit this last one might just be hyperbole). But face it, it's a long game.
- It features player elimination. Well, what's wrong with that? Nothing in principle, but here's the scene. You have family over and someone suggests a game of Monopoly. You all sit down to play, and within 30 minutes, you are bankrupt and out of the game. Well great, now you get to spend the rest of the time watching everybody else (or better yet, attack the lawn with the nail clippers) - now remember how I said the game was long? You get the idea.....
- Finally, it features very little choice. Think about it. What do you do on your turn? You roll the dice and move your playing piece the required number of spaces. You have no choice where to move. You land on a space and do what it says. If it's available to buy, you get to purchase it or not - but even this isn't really a decision; if you can afford it, you buy it. In terms of actually making decisions, this game is one small step up the ladder from Snakes & Ladders - and at least that game has the decency to be over in about 10 minutes.

So they are the three main issues, and you can see why I call it a perfect storm; it's a long game, with few decisions, and one that you might be kicked out of early on.

But there are other, smaller issues.

No other game in the history of the world has caused so many arguments and bad feeling as Monopoly. Even my wife, who is normally very sweet and gentle, has been known to turn into a slightly less green (and much prettier) version of the Hulk, when people have refused to trade.

But it's worst sin of all is it's sheer popularity. For some reason, every household seems to have at least one copy of Monopoly. Why is this a bad thing? Well firstly it means that if I ask people if they want to play a board game, they instinctively back away with a look of fear and terror in their eyes, recalling some long repressed memory of being subjected to a game of Monopoly.
However, the most unforgivable sin is that it is so popular, that whenever I mention that I play board games, I get the response "Oh, you mean like Monopoly"!

Post edit:
Just to prove I'm not totally against this game, there is one version of Monopoly I enjoy playing - and that's Monopoly Deal: The Card Game.
This fixes everything that's wrong with Monopoly; it plays in around 20 minutes, it has no player elimination, and best of all it actually contains choices and decisions for the players to make. I'l go into this more in a later blog, but I highly recommend it.

Introductions:

I'm in my mid-thirties, married with 2 children. The main focus of this blog will be how I've introduced my son Benji to board games, and how I think they've had a positive effect on him and his development.

Now, you may be thinking, "hang on, you have two kids, why is Benji the star of the show?" - good question! The simple reason is that Jennifer is not yet 1, and her main involvement in board games is trying to eat the pieces that happen to fall onto the floor whilst we're playing. As she gets older, if she turns out to be a gamer like her older brother, then I'm sure she'll start to feature more prominently.

My wife is the final, but most important member of our little family. She is not a 'gamer', however I am slowly introducing her to the world of modern board games. She has even been known (occasionally) to ask to play something!


The Aim:

So what is the aim of this blog, why am I writing it and what do i hope to achieve?
I've been thinking about writing a blog for a little while - I've listened to numerous podcasts, and watched many video series about board games, but I don't have the time or equipment to make that sort of content. However, any idiot with a laptop can write a blog, as I'm demonstrating right now. The final trigger came recently when I offered to write a piece for someone else's website, around the educational benefits of games, and decided that if I could do that, I could write my own blog - so here we are.
This blog will do three main things.
Firstly it will take you on a bit of a journey, explaining how I came to enjoy board games, how I got my son and wife into playing games, and hopefully will serve as a bit of a 'gaming diary' as we explore new and different games.
Secondly, it will attempt to provide a case study regarding the benefits that games provide my son, which hopefully you can use with your own children.
Finally, it will provide some reviews on the games we play, how they work with my family, and will hopefully give you an insight into whether they may be a good fit for you and your family.

Thanks for reading, please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Neil