We’ve all had that friend. The one who bellyaches about how poorly he’s doing in a game. In adults, this behavior can be amusing, and even if it’s not, we can choose to exclude a sore loser from our gaming circle. But what about our kids? Learning to put up with disappointment is part of growing up.
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Welcome to the Family Gamers Podcast! This week, we talk about a few of our favorite role-playing games, as well as what we’ve been playing, backtalk, and Andrew’s most recent “for science!” adventure.
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Playing puzzle games with children can be frustrating. If it’s mildly challenging for me, it may be impossible for my 7-year-old; but if it’s the right level for him, it’s far too easy for me. I don’t want to hold back: I want to beat my children fair and square. What to do? Match Madness gives us a possible solution.
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The rules are so simple and intuitive, even a toddler can understand them. In fact, since the game is easy enough for toddlers to understand, this makes it a great game to play with them. You can slowly introduce them to strategy, and the materials are resilient enough to handle whatever it is that makes their hands sticky all the time.
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What makes a game fun? Andrew and Anitra explore this topic. Although many games are enjoyable, we are trying to call out games that are fun in the moment.
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David Wilkinson is the designer of Castles of Caladale, a unique tile-laying game, designed with family play in mind.
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We’re back! As the first show of 2018, we wanted to share our top games from 2017. Return of special guests Claire and Asher, who share their favorites as well. Note: These games are our favorites of the year, not necessarily the most critically-acclaimed.
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It’s that time again – time for holiday shopping. Need something new for the gamers in your life? Here is the Family Gamers’ guide to games your family will love.
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It’s time to bear down and start building! This week we take a look at one of the hottest games to come out of Origin this year, the tile-laying game Bärenpark from Lookout Spiele and Mayfair. We’ll tell you whether it’s a universally koality* experience, or if we think it’s a bit more polar-izing.
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Work together to deduce which gang is helping Furriarty before he can escape in this cooperative game perfect for families.
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As we mentioned last week, we’ve been camping! We talk about several camping-themed games from Education Outdoors.
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We are all about teaching our kids (and others) to play games. But how do you teach skills that are integral to good game-playing: concepts like logical deduction, planning ahead, and making strategic choices? With games, of course! We highlight our top 5 games to teach game-playing skills.
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Donovan Eberling and Jeff James are the founders of Iron Hippo Games and co-creators (or maybe “architects”) of Tournament of Towers, a dexterity game now on Kickstarter.
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Welcome to episode 50! We’ve been doing The Family Gamers Podcast for quite a while, and thought we would take an opportunity to look back, especially at a few of our early episodes.
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Oh no! All the animals have escaped the barn and are hiding out. Can you fill your pen with the most valuable animals and avoid the sneaky crows? Barnyard Roundup is a simple bluffing game for 2-6 players designed by James Hudson and published by Druid City Games.
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Test tubes clank as their contents are poured back and forth. “Eureka!” a voice shouts. “I’ve got it!” Dr. Eureka promises fast-paced, family-friendly gameplay. But does this dexterity-puzzle game master the formula for fun?
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In 1982, a few newspaper editors came together to eventually create a game that became a household phenomenon. Using a non-linear board that facilitated stumping friends with trivia questions across various disciplines, Trivial Pursuit became firmly entrenched in the cultural zeitgeist of the United States. But for Gen-Xers and Millennials, it existed as a game with impossibly difficult questions and
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I love playing games with my kids that have either a simple setup, a simple cleanup, or simple rules. Battle Sheep, designed by Francesco Rotta and published by Blue Orange Games, has all three. With just a handful of quality components and a very limited set of choices to make each turn, games are breezy fun with your little lambs…
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Digit’y Do is a simple pen-and-paper game that combines Bingo, counting, probability, and guesswork. It keeps kids and adults engaged and entertained. It takes less than five minutes to explain, so you’ll be playing in no time. Best of all, proceeds from this game go to a good cause: the UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation (UHCCF), which provides medical grants for children
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We were inspired by our recent experiences playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild to talk about playing games collaboratively or cooperatively. We often talk about cooperative board games, but did you know there are many options for playing together with video games, too?
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