Top 5 Greatest Games

Slate magazine published an article this week listing their Top 40 greatest family games. That got me thinking about my favorite board games and all of the great memories that these games have brought to me over the years. Playing Stock Market with my Mom and brother on our kitchen table, playing chess with my Dad, playing Careers (who remembers this game?) and many more. So without further ado, here are my top five games:


1) Monopoly - played since my childhood (with varying rules) - Played this game with my immediate family (super-competitive bunch that we are) and remember as a child staying up late on a school night while playing with my Papa. He steadfastly refused to listen to my mother's pleas that young minds and bodies might require sleep over the importance of establishing a capitalistic kingdom in our living room. In later years playing this game with my daughter in her room as she learned the good and bad of being born into our crazy, competitive family. Games during visits back with my parents, brother and sister-in-law and niece and her not-to-be-named idiot ex-boyfriend (who had no manners as well as zero game). How many games can invoke that kind of emotional response each time the game is unpacked? Monopoly.

2) Yahtzee - another constant of our childhood. Playing with my brother and Mom in our kitchen and praying for the dice gods to favor me as I rolled for the bonus. Another game that my wife, daughter and myself have enjoyed as well.

3) Chess - I'm not very good at Chess but I love to play this game which has zero element of luck. In fact I've got a long-distance game going with my Dad right now. (PS, I think I've got the upper hand . . . )

4) Enchanted Forest - I've lost count of how many times my daughter and I have played this wonderfully designed game but I wouldn't trade a single minute. Quick side-note: ordered this game when my wife told me she was pregnant and without knowing if we would have a boy or girl ordered this game from Amazon. One of the best decisions I've ever made.

5) Diplomacy - Have not played Diplomacy since my 30's but this game never failed to make an impression on anyone who ever wrote out orders and then held their breath to see if support was truly going to be given. You can google the horror stories of people that have played this game but I will say that I learned something about myself and my friends each time we setup the world map and picked our countries. (Not necessarily good things but things nonetheless . . . )