Monday, April 26, 2004

For reasons unknown to Parker Brothers and me, the boardgame classic Connect Four has captured the interest of the office recently. I’m not really sure how the game made it onto my desk or where it came from, gentle reader, but the ungainly blue-and-yellow set will remain there for days to come. Why? I can’t put my finger on it, really. Perhaps the game embodies all the qualities that make timeless games timeless: a gradual learning curve, hidden complexity, seemingly edible pieces, that kind of thing.

Compare this to modern favorites such as Cranium, which has allegedly sold a bajillion units. I picked one up for Board Game Night, thereby boosting sales to a bajillion and one, and the crowd reaction was decidedly lukewarm. True, there were colorful pieces, a truckload of activity cards, and a container of purple clay, for crying out loud, but the game ultimately wasn’t as compelling as Catchphrase, the perennial crowd favorite.

Here we were, a gathering of supposedly educated twenty-somethings, and the overriding feeling was patent stupidity. Northwestern University? No, you must’ve heard incorrectly. I actually went to Best Western University, where I learned to steal travel-sized shampoo containers while pocketing condiments from continental breakfasts.

Then again, perhaps a liberal arts education doesn’t prepare you for pantomiming “claw-foot tub” or recreating the double helix using frickin’ CraniClay, or whatever they call it. I ask you, when will someone invent the next classic boardgame? Will there ever be another Monopoly, another Connect Four, another Uno? When will we find, in a modern update to a lesser classic, Professor Plum in the Broom Closet with the Garroting Wire? Wait a sec. Do you smell an idea?