During 1986 I met Jack and Marc, two chemical engineers who introduced me to the world of board games. Over a period of two years we played games like TwixT, Third Reich, Civilization, Diplomacy, etc. regularly on weekends. Being exposed to their great gaming skills opened new thinking patterns in my mind that are still extremely useful today when I need to think at the strategic and tactical levels of business. It plays a major role I believe in helping me solve problems in "out of the box" ways.
We also shared fantastic ideas, good food and great wines during and after our encounters. We came to understand how different we are and how many things we share. I also learned about losing (no mercy with these guys) and still having fun, something that was a foreign concept to me at the time.
Today, our kids are spending an "inordinate" amount of time online or over weekends playing games like Warcraft (
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml). Recently my son finally gave in and introduced me to the basics of a variant of Warcraft. I played against intelligent agents for a while before taking him on. I played a great game, but finally lost. He allowed me to
learn before finishing me of in a flash. And it was great fun. There was little strategy to it, and he assured me that this is because I am playing a simple version at the newbie level! I see him and his friends when they
lan, and I recognise so much of what I experienced with Jack and Marc. It is my conviction that some of these games are enabling our young minds in the art of strategy and tactics and we should rather engage and encourage before we criticise our kids.
Last, but not least, I still love board games: there is strategy and intrigue, little cute bits and pieces and the warmth of being engaged in a meeting of minds. If anybody out there has a full physical set of TwixT (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TwixT) that you want to sell, let me know. Let's play!
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