When you are home with your family members or friends together, what do you usually do with them? Don’t you just watch TV or look at your smart phone? Maybe plenty of modern people will do those things. It’s like an unseen curtain emerges from a cellphone and each person draws the curtain over themselves to isolate themselves from other people who are in the same area. As a result, although everyone shares the same place at the same time, they can’t feel any connection. You may realize that this situation isn’t fine. However, though you may want to do something special with them, you have little choice but to look at your cellphone because it seems there is nothing else to do. For these people, there is a perfect solution, which is playing a board game. You might expect something new and brilliant, not just a board game you played in childhood, so you may be disappointed with this. However, it can open the curtains, let the sunshine in and make you see other people around you.
Invitation to the World of Board Games
Do you know well about board games? You may say “yes” with confidence because you have childhood memories of yourself playing board games with your friends. However, as you read this article, you may be surprised by board games. They are not as simple as you may think. The board games have its own world. There are two main types of board games. One type consists of a board, pieces, and dice (such as Monopoly) and the other type consists of using cards and chips (such as poker). Board games are one of the oldest forms of entertainment. The oldest known board game evidence are dices and pieces discovered in Turkey. These elaborately sculpted, small stones are 5,000 years old. In addition, the famous saying, ”The die has been cast,” said by Julius Caesar, tells us that dice were already widespread by the Roman times. Board games have a long history and there are now more than 10,000 different types. They have been loved by so many people in the world. There are many board game clubs and national competitions.
Recommendations for You
1) Blue Marble
Blue Marble is the first modern board game that was invented in Korea. Lee Sangbae, the inventor of this game, said he was inspired by the famous board game Monopoly and modified it for Korean preferences. The name Blue Marble refers to the earth as the game’s idea is a world tour. It is one of the most popular board games in Korea and it has also been developed as a mobile game for smart phones.
How to Play Blue Marble
Each player rolls two dice at the beginning of their turn and moves their piece around the board. Each square on a board represents a capital city or a famous city from various countries. Players can buy cities where their pieces stop and erect a building on their own cities during their turns by using game money. If a player’s piece lands on a city owned by one of the other players, the player has to pay a toll or rental fee to owner. The last player who doesn’t go bankrupt is the winner. There are some special squares, including a desert island where you lose three turns, and a space traveling card that can make a player’s piece go wherever they want. A Blue Marble set is about 20,000~30,000 won and allows 2~6 people to play together.
2) Rummikub
Rummikub is the third best-selling board game in the world, followed by Monopoly and Scrabble. It was created by Ephraim Hertzano, a Romanian Jew, who tried to find a substitute for cards as card games were banned in Romania in the 1940s due to an inclination to gambling. Therefore, he developed the game with plastic tiles and began to sell it in Israel. Rummikub is made up of plastic tiles and four plastic boards – one for each player’s cards. The four color tiles are red, blue black, and yellow. Each color tile has two sets of numbers from 1 to 13, in addition to two joker tiles, making 106 tiles in total.
How to Play Rummikub
First, every player has 14 tiles dealt out randomly. Each player can lay down their cards if they have tiles which are the same color and in a sequence of at least three. For example if a player has black 2, 3, and 4 tiles, the player can put them down. In addition, players can remove their tiles from their plastic board if they have more than three of the same number, although they all have different colors, such as the black 7, yellow 7, and red 7 tiles. Players can use tiles that other players put down. If a player can’t get rid of any tiles on their board, the player must draw one more tile. The winner is the person who has removed all tiles on their plastic board first. One Rummikub set is about 20,000 won and it allows 2~4 people to play.
Presents That Board Games Give to You
The most basic purpose of playing a board game is for having fun with others. We can have fun by playing a board game with family and friends. It makes people forget about worries, concentrate on the game, and laugh at the same time. Therefore it can help to release stress. A difference between mobile games and board games is that board game players can come face-to-face with other game players, while mobile game players just look at a screen. Playing games in person adds to the fun and it is helpful to strengthen ties between family members and friends.
Moreover, playing a board game can improve brain development because to win a game, you need not only good luck but also a good strategy. By experiencing many kinds of board games, you can develop your comprehension of different situations and you can practice various approaches to problem-solving. Furthermore, as some board games require players to act or to cry out something before someone else does it to win the game, people can get used to reacting quickly in rapidly changing situations. Lastly, you can increase your knowledge while playing because recent board games have diverse themes. For instance, you can memorize the name of capital cities of the world by playing Blue Marble.
Board Game Cafes!
Now, do you notice the attraction of board games? However, there is a barrier that interrupts your enjoyment of them, which is the high price of a board game set. If you want to play all kinds of games, buying every game board is impossible. Then, is it best to just play one game that you have again and again? The answer is no because there are board game cafes for us! You can enjoy all board games in the café if you pay for each hour of play and order a drink. This is the best place to hang out with friends during unfavorable weather. Unfortunately, there aren’t these kinds of cafes near CAU, so we introduce two board game cafes in Seoul for you to consider.
Boardstory (near Konkuk University)
Price: Each hour for one person is 2400 won and every person must order at least one drink. The price of a drink is from 1500 won to 3000 won.
Directions: Subway Line 9 Heukseok – Subway Line 7 Express Bus Terminal - Subway Line 7 Konkuk University
Super Board (near Hongik University)
Price: Each hour for one person is 2000 won and every person must order at least one drink. The price of a drink is from 2500 won to 4000 won.
Directions: Subway Line 9 Heukseok – Subway Line 2 Dangsan - Subway Line 2 Hongik University