The Pantiles Games Day, Tunbridge Wells

Following discussions with The Pantiles Books Crafts & Games store in Tunbridge Wells Imagination Gaming yesterday ran a Games Day in the Corn Exchange where members of the public could come along and play a wide variety of games for free. In addition there was a bouncy castle, jugglers and a slide show.

This first games event run on the Pantiles was a great success attracting nearly a 100 people. The feedback could be summed up by one of the attendees “Really friendly it was good fun” . With nearly 30 games to play, the most popular games of the day were the award winning Villa Paletti from Zoch and Hey! That’s My Fish from Fantasy Flight.

More photo's from the day can be seen here

Qwirkle – An Award Winning Game

Winner of the 2011 Spiel des Jahres prize

Qwirkle is a brilliantly simple game we have been using for years that received the ultimate gaming accolade, the German award Spiel des Jahres (an award for excellently designed family games) on the 27th June 2011. In many respects this is a surprise award as it is not a German and is an abstract game. This is unusual although not unheard but is a very different game to those more popular with gamers such as Dominion, El Grande etc but is arguably much more of a family game that will appeal to a wide audience, just not necessarily gamers! It has perhaps more in common with the little known tactile winner Villa Palletti (another game we use at times) from 2002.

At Imagination Gaming we use Qwirkle because:

1. It is popular with everybody we use it with and very versatile.

2. The rules can be taught and understood in a minute, maybe two.

3. Its ability to support maths through basic mental arithmetic, as the scores are built up, as well as colour and pattern recognition makes it a good tool in primary schools.

4. Its tactile nature and colourful patterns (although the blue & purple could be more clearly differentiated) on stark black somehow give it a relaxing and calming feel as the game progresses building into an attractive mosaic.

5. It offers simple tactical decisions that ensure each game develops very differently, so giving it a lot of re-playability.

6. It has some similarities to Dominoes and so is assessable to those nervous of modern games particularly the older generations, whilst the qualities already mentioned means it also appeals to those of younger years, grandchildren in particular; so it works well with intergenerational groups.

7. It comes in a cloth bag that together with the wooden pieces makes it a good game to throw in the car and play with kids whilst waiting at tables or out for the day rather than turning to the more common technology distractions.

Having already won a number of accolades the Spiel des Jahres rosette can only ensure that its visibility is raised globally and maybe even in the UK!

UK Games Expo 2011 – The Family Zone

Fun for everybody what ever your age!

Last year’s UK Games Expo had seen Imagination Gaming, run a number of really successful game’s competitions with a focus very much on the younger audience; this year the focus was on the family and what a brilliant idea this turned out to be. We had been allocated more space and at times were so busy (with between 200 and 300 people over the two days) we had people literally burrowing their way under tables to get into the zone, so they could play our games, and this wasn't just the kids!

This year our area was called the ‘Family Zone’ and when you think about it we are all part of a family whatever our gender or age. Over the weekend we saw games being played by groups of children, parents, parents and children, and most wonderfully of all families who had never previously met playing together. We were also supported by a group of teachers, parents and children from Westborough High School Dewsbury, one of the schools we are already working with.

With over 40 games to choose from, age and varying levels of gaming experience could be accommodated so the Imagination Gaming team of volunteers were in constant action on the Saturday, at times as

Why Games Work In Some Families And Not Others?

This is an article written for the February 2011 addition of thru-the-portal an ezine for Social Gamers which sadly due to work pressures has not yet been produced. We hope you like it.

Is it just chance or are there common factors that affect or indeed afflict those families where the mention of playing a board game will illicit groans or worse people making for the nearest door; meanwhile in other families peoples’ eyes light up and as one person on Boardgamegeek (BGG) put it “my girls are already making a beeline to the game closet”?

I suggest that there are three broad areas within families that result in a negative response to the question ‘anyone fancy a game?’

A. Playing The Wrong Games

There are thousands of games available but for those who have not discovered modern / designer / Euro games when asked ‘what games they have played’ they will likely reel off a series of games whose names will likely include 2 or 3 of the following Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, and Cluedo. The games will typically have been bought around the holiday season, arguably from retail outlets who sales staff who know little about the games themselves, they just know what sells. Worse yet there maybe the games around a popular TV series or films where the key factor in the purchase is recognition of the images on the box or whether the intended recipient like the program / film in question, if so it must be the right game for them.

Sadly the games mechanisms are often weak, heavily luck or knowledge based, or overly confrontational often with an exclusion dynamic and with a playing time that one commentator suggested leads to “the slow strangulation of the weaker players” or as another person put it 

Sheffield: Innovation & Imagination

As more of a casual and light hearted look at some of our work, I have decided to have a quick recap at the city of Sheffield and the organisations within it and look back at some of what we have done there.

Sheffield, along with Huddersfield, was one of the first areas that brought Imagination Gaming in to work with them, helping with engagement and providing challenging activities, in and out of school hours.

For the first twelve months I did a great deal of promoting to get the word out there and a number of people from these areas got back to me, really understanding what I envisioned for their area and worked closely with me to make the events a big success and really helped get Imagination gaming off the ground so to speak.

To date we have worked with several organisations within Sheffield and with some incredibly enthusiastic and energetic people. These include:

Games Build Bridges… A Universal Language

This article describes an on-going project in Beech Hill primary school in Halifax. Following an initial meeting with the Principal Officer for Primary Schools in Calderdale, Lawrence Killian, we were introduced to the Head and Leadership team of a primary school that was looking for new initiatives to compliment both the curriculum and PSHE education from a fresh angle. One thing that stood out about this school was the sheer variety of nationalities that were present and the added hurdles that can cause in school and the wider community. This is what has happened so far…

 

A Chance Meeting

At Imagination Gaming we are always talking about how games are a fantastic barrier breaker – an activity that can introduce and connect friends, colleagues and complete strangers. Usually it’s for the students or the games players and then their families and their friends. But this was different…

Playing Traditional Style Games Can Increase Children’s Life Chances!

As I write this I cannot know if this statement surprises any reader, yet the absence of traditional style games (i.e. those played around a table e.g. board and card games) in any meaningful sense from the school scene suggests to me a widespread lack of belief in it.

Yet a little reported study from the US showed that over an eight week program children aged 7 to 10 had their ‘reasoning’ scores raised by 32% a gain equivalent to “an entire year of school” whilst a separate study saw a 27% increase in processing speed. Perhaps most interestingly the study identified that the neediest children benefited the most with the greatest cognitive improvements being recorded by those children who started farthest down the rankings.

I believe these results provide compelling evidence in support of the need for formalised use of games within schools. The nature of modern education is to teach children based on the need to pass exams and children are tested regularly to ensure they are achieving the necessary progress. Traditional style games offer an engaging, fun and yet challenging way to test and stretch children’s mental and social abilities and in so doing embed their formalised learning and help develop the life skills they will need once they leave the protective environment of schools.

Interestingly over 30 countries around the world already have board games as part of the curriculum and in the US within one state they have a board game library that schools can draw on.

The full report can be read here

Holgate High School

This Barnsley based high school approached us initially for a games day and for interaction with their established games club, that had limited appeal. They were looking to broaden this and to see what they could achieve with the games. This has become a regular day at the school in which we work with several different groups with focus in many areas of learning and development.

Life Skills

One of our regular sessions is with groups of children under the Life Skills banner. These children struggle to engage at the school, often have low self confidence or have learning or behavioural difficulties. Our first job was to engage them in what we were doing, to show them that when they come to school it’s down to them to join in and engage fully. In the long term, not joining in is not an option.

This is initially done using a very soft approach, working with those that immediately decide to give it a go and having a great time with them, letting those that are reluctant simply watch. With those that gave it a go laughing and talking about the games it is never long before those that sat out ask to join in, wanting to be part of this new activity. They too quickly begin enjoying themselves and we use that opportunity to point out to them the benefits of giving something a go. We then point out that they have to do this every week, no matter what mood they might be in as it will be worth it to them.

We will often begin these sessions with games that can be played in large groups, quickly and simply. Games like ‘Wallamoppi’ and ‘Villa Paletti’ work extremely well in getting the children, relaxed, less defensive, focused and cooperative, forgetting about issues that could have prevented them joining in and having a good time. Once we have established this confidence in our activities we move on to more challenging games, often curriculum linked, that push maths or literacy based work.

These groups have now played dozens of different, challenging games that help with not only the life skills they lack but other skills that make their school life a little easier.

Making Games Champions in Wigan

In partnership with Extended Services, Imagination Gaming has been providing holiday activity days in many areas of Wigan in recent years. From a subsequent request to provide Breakfast and Afterschool Clubs with a difference, we were able to discuss the how our School Games Days could target each of the schools involved individual aims. Here you can see exactly what happened at Lamberhead Green Primary School, Wigan!

The request…

Imagination Gaming was initially contacted by Wigan Extended Services to provide Breakfast and After-School Clubs for a number of primary schools in the Orrell-Lamberhead cluster. The idea was to provide several schools, each with different needs, with a series of extended hour’s clubs that would engage and excite targeted pupils before and after school.

Let’s do the full day?!

We thought yep, no problem… but what about the time in-between?!  Why just do an hour at the beginning and end of each day? While we were there we may as well offer our services for the day. They loved the idea and of course the 6 or so extra hours we were going to do in school went down a treat!

What would you like to achieve?

Talking to the Head teachers of the different schools involved, as with most areas, it became clear that although the schools were very close together and fed to the same secondary school, each school had their own individual issues to deal with. The ideas were great…

Westborough High school

Started with breakfast club and went on to after school club, dinner time club and interacting with pupils in lessons. First came via UFA.

Lessons started interacting with COPE and EMA and went on to include Maths and French.

Went on to work with their feeder schools and the organising of trips out of school, such as this years Expo.

A journey through a changing perspective.

Westborough High School is a specialist school for Business and Enterprise. We began our work here towards the end of 2008 after a meeting we were invited to attend of the UFA. The University of the First Age is an organization that, in their own words, creates enjoyable learning challenges that enrich lives; increasing aspiration and achievement for young people aged 5 - 25.

From this meeting I bumped into an inspirational lady called Gayna Goalby. She was a UFA organiser that worked at Westborough as their extended learning co-coordinator. She approached us with the aim of setting up a games club at their school. They had a small range of games but felt they were not made the most of.

We began by coming in on a Tuesday morning and running a games club, getting the children enthusiastic about playing new board and card games together, and using this as a platform to look at social skills etc. We put in a pack of games that, after our initial sessions, we knew worked well with the children and had a high level of participation. This club proved to be extremely popular and attendance and participation within the breakfast club increased significantly.

From here we suggested trying a classroom based exercise to show how games can be used in a much more focused way; providing a highly challenging activity that made it more likely that disenfranchised young people would engage in more enthusiastically. After speaking with the head of inclusion, the green light was given for the work to go ahead. This first group was indeed pupils that found school a real challenge and were a combination of those that struggled to focus in lessons, had less developed social skills or was at a learning age lower than was required.

When the group was assembled and told they would be playing games their initial reaction was not a good one. ‘I hate games’, ‘Games suck’ and ‘Are you a geek?’ were all comments thrown at me. In turn I laughed off each of them, agreed with the geek label but didn’t rise to any of comments or taking them too seriously. This was all part of our strategy.

The Best And Worst Experiences Of Games.

Don't know about others but I have had some great times playing games. Whether that is playing within a school environment, at a local youth club or just with my family and friends. I love the fact that I get to teach a great number of people challenging, clever games that they ultimately fall in love with and want to play again and again.

I have a terrific group of friends that make the playing of games a fantasitc experience. The social interaction, the banter and ribbing is a joy to behold and listen to at times. How much stick one person can take in a night is often beyond belief! ( Sorry Lee, that means you! )

I would love to hear from others about the times they have had when playing traditional board and card games. Both the good and the bad. When a game worked and when it certainly did not. Some funny anecdotes and your great times and those awful moments that live in the memory. Get in touch and let me know :)

What Value In Playing Traditional Style Games?

In a world dominated by digital games people in the UK are largely unaware of the rich and diverse selection of traditional style (played around a table) games available from around the world.

These games take many forms but can all be played around a table by people of every age and ability. By their design they are well suited to being used as a tool to support a wider variety of tasks, whether in schools, libraries, universities, community groups etc.

The game designs:

1. Puts Fun at the heart of any encounter with them.
2. Typically are not based around the throw of the dice. So to a great degree you make your own luck by the decisions you make within the game. 
3. They are not general knowledge based, so each person comes to the game as an equal, with nobody needing to feel intimidated by other people’s greater knowledge. 
4. Offer a highly interactive social experience; it is not a matter of waiting for 10 minutes whilst John has his go, players are interacting with each other constantly. 
5. Typically avoid confrontation and can encourage collaboration; so they can help build bridges between individuals and groups where there is friction or misunderstanding. 
6. Offer simple rules that are quick to explain and belie a depth and complexity of strategy that ensure an enjoyable and challenging experience appropriate to every age and ability. 

Modern games entice people with interesting artwork and components, and humour in a way that few other tools can.

When used with young people they allow the children to test and apply their formal learning in a way that engages and energises. As a tool in the community they bring people together to sit around a table and get to know each other whilst at the older end of the spectrum they not only get people talking but they also help to keep the grey matter active.