Games on Social Occasions

When I was a child we often whiled away the evenings by playing cards, or occasionally other games. For parties there was quite a variety of games, most involving drawing or writing on little pieces of paper, which were then folded over and passed on to whoever was next for another contribution, until finally the papers were unfolded to reveal a bizarre composite effort of some sort.

Party games got a bit too much; so much time was spent playing them that it was hard to find time for a chat. In the late 1950’s a reaction began, and since then there have been parties where housefuls of people have nothing to do save wander around talking to each other, and trying to eat and drink while simultaneously holding plate and glass. That has also has got to be too much, as people often run out of stuff to say and struggle to disguise their nothing as significant communication.

Games playing on the other hand has become largely the preserve of fanatics, usually devoted to just one game which they want to play or read about or talk about, for as long as possible, to the exclusion of as much else of life as it is possible to exclude. One reason I chose to play Go is that most Go players seem to have other interests too, though there are still a good few fanatics among them.

I wish there could be a compromise, where parties still gave one a chance to chatter, without making non-stop chatter obligatory, and where games were available on social occasions but still avoidable.