My dog was 120 pounds, so we were about the same weight when I was growing up. The game involved throwing a bouncy ball onto the gabled roof of the house. The first to catch the ball won the round. The game was full contact. To mitigate my height advantage I had to let it bounce once.
lesson learned - animals understand play WAY better than we do.

The Christmas ritual at my house involved stocking and presents, but between the two we had breakfast. Breakfast each year (for some reason), was always toasted bacon and tomato sandwiches. The game was, if we children asked if breakfast was over and it was time to open presents, my mother or father would decide that they wanted another sandwich. So the trick was, you had to act like the presents didn't even exist or breakfast could last for hours.
lesson learned - adults can be a$$hol3z

lesson learned - games can be addictive and change the way your brain works.

When my older sister got her license we would play this game. Each of us would pick a destination somewhere within the city limits (population 300,000), and keep that pick to ourselves. We would take turns being the "navigator". If it was your turn you could keep driving straight as long as you wanted, but if you said turn left or turn right, it would become the other person's turn. Fist to reach their destination wins (games lasted for hours).
lesson learned - it was an innocent age when wasting gas was cool.

I liked this game partly because nobody else did so it was always free.
lesson learned - vector games on a true vector monitor were visually stunning. Like seeing a black and white movie projected, you realize that newer's not always better.

CE is a fantastic board game from the 70's - it has a couple of great gameplay dynamics. Each player receives a character at the beginning of the game that effect the game in some way. So unlike most games, you start with an unbalanced playing field. However, you can have more than one winner, so it's easy to gang up on a stronger player.
Lesson learned - unbalanced gameplay and group wins.

First fully realized 3D world you could really explore. Brought me back into console gaming as an adult.
Lesson Learned - Sometimes new hardware leads to new possibilities in gameplay.

A perfect example of how to tell a story in a game, while avoiding "movie like" cut scenes.
Lesson Learned - My mom got into gaming by playing Ico one night until 4 in the morning. Be careful what you wish for.

a Video game that's actually funny? wow.
Lesson learned - The Cake is a Lie.

A really fun board game that I got for my birthday a few days ago. We'll play it in class some day.
Lesson learned - If someone really wants to get you a birthday present, you should tell them exactly what you want.

back to class website