Board Games Pt. 3

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For today's board game list, I think I'll do a couple of more classic games and maybe a few more lesser-known games. I guess it'll just come down to what I happen to think about on a whim. I'll let my undiagnosed ADHD do its thing. First up, I've seen it in comments, and I've thought about adding it a few times but never got to it, and it's the game everyone usually either loves or hates if you can't guess what I'm talking about, it's Monopoly. It couldn't be a post about board games without eventually bringing it up. I don't feel I need to explain the game because I have never met anyone who didn't at least know what this game is, but I'm sure they are out there. I don't know if I could fully explain the game if I tried, as the rules always seem to change from family to family. Everyone seems to make up their own rules. The game is probably one of my absolute least favorite games. It brings out the worst in people. This is the game where the whole board often ends up on the floor, money and all. My brother made it his mission to make this the least fun game for me; he could never be satisfied with just winning; he had to win big and own every property on the board. This game has caused rifts among families. It has probably caused bloodshed at some point for some people. It takes the people you thought you knew and turns them into complete money-hungry monsters, and it's not even real money. If you want to really know someone, play a game of Monopoly with them. I don't think I've ever finished a game of Monopoly in my life, because I got bored after three hours, which is on the shorter side of how long this game lasted when my brother played. Monopoly is a game where there is a version for almost every TV show, movie, or video game you can think of. Some people make it their mission to collect all of the variations of Monopoly; I make it my mission to never play a single game of it again in my life. Next up is another classic: LIFE. The Game of LIFE is a pretty self-explanatory game that doesn't require much challenge, but it's still fun. Your goal is to make it across the board after starting in college or in a career and then ending up in one of two retirement homes, and to win, you need to end with the most money. Things happen throughout the game that give you life tiles that you'll flip over at the end of the game, and that will have different things pop up that either give you money or take it away. It's mostly a game of chance, and I like that sometimes. I have a few different versions of this game, but my favorite is probably the game I have from the 90s. I also have an electronic edition, an extreme reality edition, and the anniversary edition that is basically the original game from when it first came out. Now, for one I own but for the love of all that is holy couldn't figure out how to play it. Growing up in the 90s, there was a game called The Oregon Trail where you had to get yourself and your wagon full of people to the finish line as a settler without dying along the way. This game, as a child, was a pain in the butt because your whole wagon was dying of dysentery left and right. I am not sure I ever made it to the end, but when I saw they made an actual board game, I was so excited. I thought, " Wow, I can play this in real time". The only issue was we couldn't figure out the directions. They seemed so complex, and for a household full of people with ADHD (one diagnosed, one therapist suspected, and one who has every trait of a woman with ADHD but has never been officially diagnosed) who struggle to focus it was not going to happen. I need games with simple directions, or a game where someone shows me how to play it because I was not reading through those rules. YouTube videos don't cut it; I need someone present at the game table showing me as I go. The video game wasn't complex at all; it was hard, but you knew what you were doing, and you usually knew you were probably going to die before the end of the game, because that's just how it works. I'm going to end it with this game, and I'm well aware most people probably won't have heard of this game, but just because I'm a millennial and was a giant NSYNC fan in my pre-teen and early teen years, and because where would a game list by a millennial be without some sort of weird boy band trivia game? Well, here it is: The NSYNC Backstage Pass Game. I know the vast majority of you probably have no clue what this game is unless you were a major NSYNC fan, but I had to add it. It just adds to the more obscure board games from the 90s/early 2000s. The whole point of this game was to answer NSYNC band member trivia and make it through the stadium and earn the backstage pass. This is the game my friends and I fought over who knew Justin Timberlake best, and the other band members, of course. My obsession with NSYNC has long since faded. I actually think Justin is kind of a jerk now, but that doesn't mean I don't still get a little excited when I hear "Bye, Bye, Bye" play and get mildly annoyed by all of the kids today calling the dance the Deadpool dance. I still own the game; I still remember Justin's favorite color was baby blue, because apparently some things stay with you long after the obsession has faded. If I broke out this game now, I'd have a very unfair advantage over anyone I'd probably play with. Now I keep it as more of a memory, but back in the day I played it a lot. I still have most of my old NSYNC stuff.