Do you play board games with your friends and family?  

Oh I second your vote for "Mad Gab"... that's a fun one... and so is "Taboo". I agree with your point on the trivia games. Our youngest just turned 13 and she still finds them a bit hard, depending on the type of questions. My husband is a HUGE trivia buff -- especially movie trivia and history. I can't keep up with him on those kinds of games!

All the time!!! We love playing games. We get a new game every year. Sometimes card games too. My husband and I play a lot of times after the kids are in bed.

We just played Monopoly tonight and we had even more fun than we expected. My husband was winning like crazy but he had to cash out and go to bed because he gets up so early for work :( We're going to play again soon and start earlier in the evening so we can have a really competitive game! LOL

I used to play Scrabble with my mom quite often... she was REALLY good. It was a real accomplishment for me when I could win against her :) I haven't played Yahtzee in years but I remember it being a fun dice game. Boggle is good for people that like word games, too.

It's true that it can be hard to find people who like or want to play. Do you find that people are a bit intimidated because they don't want to feel silly or they don't want to be put on the spot? I think that's one of the biggest reasons that people don't want to play.

If I were a better poker player, I think I'd enjoy having poker nights. I don't think enough women play poker... it still seems to be more of a "man's game" but that's slowly changing. My husband received one of the Risk games as a birthday gift last year and I admit that we haven't played it just because it's a REALLY long game to play and we can't always find that much time :(

LOL! My mom used to beg me to play Scrabble with her and I think it was just because she figured she was always going to beat me... then, when I started winning, she didn't want to play so much anymore! :D I have to learn more card games. I don't really know much about cards except for basic poker, a little gin rummy, that kind of thing. What card games do you recommend that are fun and easy to learn?

Here are a few easy ones:

Kings in the Corner
GoFish
Crazy 8's
Solitare
Bullsh*t (lots of fun and featured in the movie: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days)

UNO

I'll see if I can find some links for you on card games.

I totally agree with this! :) We are a family that sits down at the dinner table together every night. I believe in this very strongly. We will also have "movie nights" once in awhile, where we rent a movie and get pizza and sit on the floor in front of the tv together. But I really like playing board games because you're actually talking and laughing and interacting. Watching a movie just means being together in the same room but not really "spending time together."

Karen, you're right.. I remember in my father's family, we'd go to visit for dinner on a weekend. After dinner, the table was cleared and out came the Rummy game and everyone's jars filled with small change. The adults would all play, laughing and yelling the whole time. It was a priviledge when one of the kids got to be old enough to be allowed to play too. Then, after the card games, they would pull out the leftover meat from dinner and the bread and condiments and sodas and everyone would have a snack together before heading home for the night. I remember these visits fondly because they didn't happen often... but, when they did, everyone went home happy!

I forgot about Sorry! That's another good family game... I'll have to have a look for that in the store and see if I can pick one up. Thanks for the suggestion :D

It's true that it's sometimes hard to get enough people together to really make a game fun... and playing in teams is something that more people seem comfortable doing. Maybe some people in this discussion will suggest some games for couples or for very small groups :) and maybe they can supplement your online games every now and again.

I agree! With a fun group, you can play games for hours and never get bored! We also have the "CSI" game (from the tv show) but we have only played it once... we LOVED the game (you have to solve the crime and it's all very well put together) but it took soooo many hours to play that one of the kids got bored and didn't make it very enjoyable for the rest of us. For adults, though, it's another good one.

I should add that this year for Christmas my girls got tons of games; Chutes and Ladders, Tic Tac Toe, Boggle Jr., Memory, Memory Match, Hungry Hungry Hippos and probably a few that I can't even recall right now! They already wear us out with Candy Land, so now we have a nice mixture of games.

imadriscoll, you have a great variety there for the whole family! I haven't played Ultimate Outburst.. that's a new one to me... can you give me an idea of what it's about? I know I could google it but it's always fun to get the perspective from someone that has already played!

I agree completely with how you describe the fun and laughter. I have an old board game called "Hummmzinger" ... you have to "la la la" or "dum dum dum" and try to get your team to guess the song that you're humming. Well, MAN, it's hilarious LOL My sister is quite possibly the worst singer ever and she isn't much better of a hummer ;) She hums a tune and she thinks it is so obvious and no one has a CLUE. So she just hums LOUDER! LOL It's soooo much fun but again, it's one of those games that some people won't play because they are embarassed to do the humming.

I'd love to have a weekly game night like you do! I'll have to think about that and talk to some friends and family and see if they'd be interested!