The Gaming Fairy
Today, due to a late work schedule on the feminine side of the household, I found myself done with work around 5:30 and no one to go home to, so I decided it was a good day for a downtown haircut + other activities evening, in which "other activities" included a visit to MacStation, dinner at Salsa & Agave (to see if it lives up to the hype — the Sopes al Pastor I ate were certainly at least moderately hypeworthy), coffee and gelato (and reading a book) in a little cafe in Yaletown, and the requisite visit to the Chapters on Robson.
It's bothered me for a long time that Chapters, in so many other ways a bastion of literacy and culture in a world so full of contact sports and reality television, that in such a store full of books of all types and stripes, and one of the largest magazine selections on the planet, and with an interesting selection of toys and gifts and other impulse-purchase fodder, always had such an abysmal selection of games.
I'm sure Cranium and Scene It have their virtues and their fans, but otherwise, does stocking a collection of Monopoly, Canadopoly, Vancouveropoly, and Bob-and-Dougopoly really contribute much to the cultural fabric of the city?
But today, on a whim, and never missing an opportunity to pass judgement on what passes as quality board games in much of North America (and having plenty of time to burn at any rate), I wandered past the Chapters game display only to find that some mysterious game fairy had come in the night, and replaced much of their mindless (and not even particularly fun) party game selection with some actual, quality, thought-provoking, award winning items.
Carcassonne, the much regaled tile-laying game of French cities and coloured wooden meeple people.
Seafarers of Catan, a popular sequel to the archetypal German game Settlers of Catan. The original game was nowhere to be found, so I'm not sure what the expansion would do for newcomers, but perhaps (optimistically?) that's because all the copies of Settlers of Catan had already been sold.
Hive, a beautiful tactical two-player game of satisfyingly hefty insect-decorated bakelite playing pieces.
Bohnanza, the whimsical wheeling and dealing card game which made bean-farming a family pastime.
I'm not sure who exactly is to thank or blame for this transformation, but it's obvious that someone in the Chapters world is making an effort to revamp the quality of their game offerings. I just hope the public response is good. It'll be doubly disappointing if it turns out that Canadian Idol-opoly is the only thing that actually sells, after all.
It's bothered me for a long time that Chapters, in so many other ways a bastion of literacy and culture in a world so full of contact sports and reality television, that in such a store full of books of all types and stripes, and one of the largest magazine selections on the planet, and with an interesting selection of toys and gifts and other impulse-purchase fodder, always had such an abysmal selection of games.
I'm sure Cranium and Scene It have their virtues and their fans, but otherwise, does stocking a collection of Monopoly, Canadopoly, Vancouveropoly, and Bob-and-Dougopoly really contribute much to the cultural fabric of the city?
But today, on a whim, and never missing an opportunity to pass judgement on what passes as quality board games in much of North America (and having plenty of time to burn at any rate), I wandered past the Chapters game display only to find that some mysterious game fairy had come in the night, and replaced much of their mindless (and not even particularly fun) party game selection with some actual, quality, thought-provoking, award winning items.
Carcassonne, the much regaled tile-laying game of French cities and coloured wooden meeple people.
Seafarers of Catan, a popular sequel to the archetypal German game Settlers of Catan. The original game was nowhere to be found, so I'm not sure what the expansion would do for newcomers, but perhaps (optimistically?) that's because all the copies of Settlers of Catan had already been sold.
Hive, a beautiful tactical two-player game of satisfyingly hefty insect-decorated bakelite playing pieces.
Bohnanza, the whimsical wheeling and dealing card game which made bean-farming a family pastime.
I'm not sure who exactly is to thank or blame for this transformation, but it's obvious that someone in the Chapters world is making an effort to revamp the quality of their game offerings. I just hope the public response is good. It'll be doubly disappointing if it turns out that Canadian Idol-opoly is the only thing that actually sells, after all.