Even though video games have a strong presence in both my childhood and current life, I have always had an appreciation for board and card games. At my house, we have almost three closets full of board games, when we probably only play a few of them regularly. By “we”, I don’t mean my family. In recent years, I found myself only playing board games with my friends. The youngest member of my immediate family is eighteen years old, so I suppose we all got too busy to play board games together, and outgrew them. It’s a shame, to put it bluntly, because I have so many good memories of playing board games with my immediate and extended family. When I was a child, it was practically a tradition in my house to play our Spongebob version of the Game of Life when our power went out, before it got dark. At almost every holiday gathering, someone always ends up recalling how we all used to play Uno Attack together, and how the machine lasted a surprisingly long time before it stopped working. It is extremely difficult to get a game started with my family lately, everybody is always too tired or has work the next day. However, this past Thanksgiving, I finally got to have the experience again.

My family got to host Thanksgiving this year, and it was nice to see everybody again, since we didn’t get to last year. When we host holidays, my mom likes to either set a theme, or plan something for us to do together, besides eating dinner, of course. For example, when we hosted Christmas Eve last year, we asked everyone to wear black and white. It’s never anything too complex, just something fun to do and help us enjoy the holidays together. So, this year, because my mom plays it every month with her friends, and it’s basically common knowledge among my family members, we played a 16 person game of Bunco.

For anyone who may not know, Bunco is a dice game meant for a bigger group of people, where you play in groups of four and move around different tables. There are 6 rounds, one for each number on a standard die (we played 12 rounds, 2 for each number). When seated at a table, you play on a team with the person seated diagonally from you, and you have to try and score more points than the other team at your table. There is a “head table” that dictates when a round begins and ends, once a team at the head table reaches 21 points, a round ends. Every other table keeps scoring points until the head table rings a bell to signify the end of a round. During a round, members of each time take turns rolling three dice. If you roll the number of the round (first round you roll for ones, second round for twos, etc.) , your team gets a point and you keep rolling until you don’t roll the number you’re looking for. Then the dice are passed to the next person. If you roll three of the number you’re rolling for, that’s called a bunco, and your team earns 21 points (an automatic win at the head table). If you roll three of any other number, that’s called a baby bunco, and you earn five points. At the end of a round, both teams count their scores, and determine a winner. The two members of the winning team then move to another table. Throughout the whole game, you cannot be on a team with the same person twice. During the game, everyone keeps track of how many rounds they won, and how many buncos and baby buncos they rolled. At the end of it all, prizes are distributed for the most buncos, last bunco, most wins, and most losses.

Like any group of adults would, we played this game for money. Everybody contributed $5 to the pot, creating a grand total of $80. But when the game started, nobody seemed that focused on the money. Except for one of my cousins, who was on such an impressive losing streak that she figured she was better off trying for the most losses prize (she did earn that title, she lost 10 out of the 12 rounds). It was so nice to see everyone having fun together, and to learn just how competitive my family can be sometimes. I never really look forward to family events, because everyone just talks about work and other adult topics that I can’t quite relate to yet. As the youngest members of the family, my sister and I just kind of sit there and talk to each other the whole time. Bringing everybody together allowed for family members that don’t interact often to catch up and enjoy each other’s company.

With a simple game like this, everybody had an equal chance of winning, and we were able to focus more on spending time together than the logistics of the game itself. If I were to try to teach any of my family members a video game like Mario Kart, it probably would not have been as simple. My cousins that aren’t much older than me know how to play, but teaching it to my 83-year-old grandmother probably would have taken some time and effort. Video games also come with player limitations, and you can only play with the amount of controllers you have on hand, and most games max out at four players. With board games, all you have to do is deal another person in and teach them the rules. And board games tend to be much less complex and mentally straining as video games, and don’t require skill or practice to have an enjoyable experience. I can’t say I prefer one over the other, I love the single-player experience of watching a story unfold in a video game, or just having the liberty to do what I please. However, whether it’s a game of Card Against Humanity with good friends where we’re trying our hardest not to laugh, or dominoes on Christmas day with my family, the board game is an experience that simply would not be the same if these games were digital. Being able to fan out the cards in your hand, or rearrange your pieces and tap them against the surface of the table makes the experience more physical, and therefore, memorable. It’s like how some people will only play as a specific piece in Monopoly, they create an attachment to the object. Whether the person likes the item the piece represents, or they just think it’s a charming little trinket, it becomes a part of their experience playing the game. The tactile experience of a board game makes it more appealing to people, especially those who are older, or don’t find enjoyment in video games. I truly cherished this analog experience, and I hope I can do something like it again in the future.

(Also in case anyone was wondering, I ended up winning $40 that night!)