Thu 13 Dec 2007
Have you played this game? What’s the deal? There aren’t any real rules — the person in charge at any time just arbitrarily picks whatever answer they like.
How can anyone possibly find this fun? Can’t you pick random nouns and adjectives out of the dictionary, put them together into whatever pairs you want, and achieve the same results? Without buying the game?
Why am I the only person I’ve ever met that hates this pathetic excuse for a board game?!
Posted by bizurke7 answers so far!
I’ve never played the game (never even heard of it until now), but scanning over wikipedia, it seems:
The fun is in the strained logic used to pair the noun and adjective. So you’ve got to figure a way to tie one of the 5 cards in your hand to some adjective that doesn’t really apply to any of them. So in that sense, it’s a mental game, plus it’s easy to play for laughs, so it’s “playing mental games to make a joke”.
One probably could pick random nouns and adjectives out of a dictionary, but if you only pick one noun, and there’s no joke or bizarre twisty logic connection possible, you’re kinda screwed. Now, picking FIVE nouns out of a dictionary would have the same result as buying the game, so as long as you’re talking “pick 5″ and not “pick 1″, yeah, a dictionary would work just as well.
In that sense, it seems to me just a bit of a labor saving device. Like automatic card shufflers, when you can shuffle by hand, or pre-made flash cards for some test, when you could write up the flash cards yourself. The game seems like it might be fun, if you’re playing with intelligent and creative people, but having everybody look up and write down five nouns from a dictionary before each round sounds really really boring. Being able to just shuffle and deal out a card seems much better. Plus, when you’re spinning through a dictionary, most words you encounter won’t be nouns, so it would take even longer, as you scan down “adjective…adjective…interjection…verb…adverb…noun! Ok, second word…adjective…particle…verb…noun!…”
I think people like it because it’s like having an actual conversation, without all of the stress and embarrassment that comes from making conversation. A good session of gameplay is just like an argument, only you argue about random crap like whether Marlene Dietrich is more or less alarming than a toothbrush. Lots of people are horrible at interacting in groups, and so Apples to Apples gives them a very loose framework in which to do it. So I think “game” is something of a misnomer.
And maybe the reason they need to sell the cards is because they’re good at picking words with humor value.
I’ve played it, own it, and love it. It sits on our shelf next to Carcassone, which with it has literally nothing in common.
It’s not a boardgame, it’s just a game that comes in a box. And bugbread is right that having the cards preprinted for you is a labor saving device, but it’s also an editing-saving device: they’ve not only done the work of looking up words, but made the effort to decided on a good mix of nouns and adjectives to the point where dealing out cards gives you a nice variety without you having to put in the work of achieving that variety yourself.
See also Balderdash, a game whose materials, practically, are nothing but a bunch of definitions for strange words. You could conceivably play it with nothing but a good dictionary, but that’s not nearly as easy as it looks. Instead, they’ve done the grunt work on the word search so you can get right down to the game play.
As for the game play itself: you’re right, there are no rules, except what are established on the fly (either implicitly or explicitly) by the current Dealer—but the fun is in playing to the Dealer and to the audience; in arguing your case for your word choice, or against someone else’s; in trying to make the best (or the worst!) of an inapt selection of adjectives to the current noun. It’s all about the joy of pitting words arbitrary against each other, deploying whatever twisted reasoning you need to to justify a choice.
It’s a social game first and foremost, so it’s really only going to be fun if you’re playing with a group of people who find it fun for its own sake. Rules lawyers (or, at least, unselfconscious, pedantic rules lawyers) would probably ruin it, or anyone otherwise taking the matter of scoring and judging too seriously. It’s a game designed to make everyone laugh.
Well you’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
The point is, you’re sitting at a table with 5 old friends, and Player 1 puts down the card that says “twisted” on it. Players 2 - 6 now have to divine, from what they know about Player 1, which card in their own hands Player 1 would most likely associate with the word “twisted.” A few of the players will throw down cards like “sister,” “tornado slide,” “corkscrew,” etc, but you, you have “maple syrup” in your hand and you know Player 1 will choose yours because of that time 6 years ago when you went to IHOP! Man was that hilarious; you *know* Player 1 will give you the win because of the look on that waitress’s face.
Inside jokes aside (sometimes you just aren’t dealt good inside jokes), sometimes it’s a challenge to work with the words in your hand to come up with something that has a chance to be chosen. When the word is “appalling” and all you have is “flowers,” “Disney,” “mom,” and “puppies,” you have to do much the same as before: from what you know about Player 1, which of your cards stands a chance?
And then sometimes you’re dealt utter crap and there’s just nothing you can do besides pray that Player 1 will have pity on you for your “sexy”/”impetaigo” play.
At least, that’s how I play it.
You could get your own box of index cards and write a whole bunch of words on them, but see, that’s what we’re paying the creative people at Out of the Box Publishing to do for us.
I’ve played awesome games of a2a and a few pretty boring ones. It’s definitely a game that’s better with (a) a group of old friends inclined to silliness or (b) alcohol.
Also, it is a popular ESL game for intermediate to advanced students where I am. They get to play a game designed for “real” English speakers, but they also have to learn new vocabulary in order to win.
It’s a great game (But not a board game. Go play Settlers.) that tests, forges, and evaluates group creativity or rationality dynamics.
Playing with very mixed groups can be fun in a radically different way than playing among drinking buddies. We played at Thanksgiving, with teenagers through 60-somethings. Not only is it enlightening to discover that a 14-year-old girl will stubbornly choose “Homework” as a match for “Disasterous” over “Cyclone,” it’s enlightening to work your rhetorical charisma about such foreign concepts to her as “Rush Limbaugh,” versus your Right-wing stepdad. ;)
Played this over the Christmas. It was surprisingly addictive for the sheer fun of it. It was interesting seeing how people think and how they match things up. iguana pretty much nails it.