Favorite Games at Holiday Parties? 87
An anonymous reader asks: "Somehow, I got volunteered to take care of activities for the adults at my company's holiday party. For those of you who actually go to parties, what games have you played that were a lot of fun both for the geek and just the average person?"
Easy one... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Easy one... (Score:2)
>
> OK, and a camel, 3 goats and a small wooden boat.
Joe Geek: "Hey, Fred, what's that you're working on?"
Fred Geek: "New gaming/multimedia box. Radeon 9800XP All-In-Wonder, P4 3GHz, watercooling rig, 1G RAM, and SATA RAID on a pair of 7200 RPM drives. Christmas is coming up, and I wanted to get something for my wife."
Joe Geek: "Dude! Good trade!"
Party Games (Score:3, Informative)
Anything that involves a lot of people screaming at each other usually goes down well at parties.
Charades, Pictionary, are good examples.
Also Balderdash goes down well also for smaller groups of people.
I second that (Score:2)
Re:I second that (Score:2)
Re:Party Games (Score:2)
U Insensitive clod! (Score:4, Funny)
Hrmm... (Score:5, Funny)
What the other people in attendance do is their business.
G'luck!
booze (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:booze (Score:3, Interesting)
I prefer to combine the two. Get a few dozen of those tiny spirit bottles, and put one on each dot. After you spin the spinner, you have to scull the drink first then put down your hand/foot.
Standing the bottles up can be a little dangerous though. Who knows how you might fall on one?
Re:booze (Score:1)
games? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Unwatered (Score:1)
>inflatables, realdolls all welcomed).
realdolls? i don't think i could get drunk enough to even step foot in the same room as one of those creepy things. not even if the beer was free.
Mafia!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
The greatest party game in the world... I'm sure everyone has one tho... It involves logic and psychological games and I think it is great for geeks.
It works best with more than 5 people people - so lets say you have 8. Take 8 slips of paper, write the letter "M" on three of them and "C" on five. The "M"s are mafia and the "C"s are citizens.
Then, on instruction (choose a games-master for this), everyone closes their eyes and when the games-master says "mafia open your eyes", the mafia do just that and see eachother. Everyone then closes their eyes, and then everyone opens their eyes at the same time. The object of this is that the mafia know who is a citizen and who is not, and that the citizens have no idea and consequently live in fear.
Then the game begins. People talk and interrogate eachother until someone announces they beleive that someone else is mafia. They can then call a vote to "kill-off" that person, and if the vote is carried he/she is out of the game and they have to reveal whether or not they were mafia. The object of the game for the mafia is to kill all the citizens, and for the citizens it is to stay alive until all the mafia are dead.
Give it a go - it really works. Lots of tension builds up and all sorts of weird mind-games happen....
Re:Mafia!!! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mafia!!! (Score:1)
Re:Mafia!!! (Score:2)
You'd be committing job suicide by doing that at a company party.
Not just because of the possible cultural offense - some Italian-Americans would get upset - but because the concept of employees killing other employees, even just pretending to do so, will scare people, like you said. That's not "fun." People will get upset.
Re:Mafia!!! (Score:1)
Yeah, you are probably right: not suitable for offices unless it is VERY relaxed... Although, I have played in situations where as group of friends we introduce a stranger and it has always been a great way of making them feel less uncomfortable. I've never known anyone to be truly upset. I guess it depends what type of company you have.
I take your point about cultural offence. Real-life mafia are not part of our history in Britain, so please forgive me the transgression... You could choose any name, like
Re:Mafia!!! (Score:1)
Re:Mafia!!! (Score:4, Interesting)
Take a standard poker deck, pull out a Joker, a Jack and a Queen, and numbered cards for the remaining players.
The person who gets the Joker is the werewolf, The Jack is the Fortune Teller, and the Queen is the little girl.
Everyone falls asleep (closes their eyes). The Fortune Teller wakes up, and can see one of the other players' cards. He then falls asleep again. The Werewolf wakes up, and the little girl can if she wants, but can choose not to be seen by the werewolf instead. The Werewolf then kills a villager by selecting his card and it is turned over.
The dead are not allowed to speak (though they will, of course, be slack about it so long as they don't give everything away). The Werewolf and the little girl fall asleep again, and the town wakes up to see who's dead.
The villagers then arbitrate and then vote on who dies, and if the Werewolf is not chosen, another round ensues.
Variations I learned as he taught us and we played:
Cupid: usually the King of Hearts, he can select any two people to be in love. If one of the lovers dies, the other does as well, whether by the Werewolf or the villagers.
The Witch: (I forget which card) can choose to kill or revive anyone during her part of the night.
Two Werewolves.
Of course, you can't bring up a new topic without a Google:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UT
Re:Mafia!!! (Score:2)
Re:Mafia!!! (Score:1)
This game makes absolutely no sense to me. What sort of interrogation questions would people ask one another to find out if someone was mafia or not? There is definetely a missing element to this game, that you haven't shared with us.
Re:Mafia!!! (Score:1)
No, I promise, we play it exactly as I have written it. The fun bit is that when you are mafia, it is very diffucult to not be nervous and make mistakes. In effect, you can carry on with your normal conversation and try to trick people in to slipping up. Give it a go: it really works.
Other people in this thread have suggested other elements to the game, but we really do play it as is. A typical game with eight people will last half an hour or so. The more beer involved the longer the game takes, of course.
Re:Mafia!!! (Score:2)
Who, what, where, when,.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Give each person a piece of paper.
Everyone writes a name, folds it over so no one can read it, and passes it to the person next to them.
Then everyone writes an activity, folds it over, passes it on...
continue with a place, a time, a reason...
Then we read each one out to everyone. It gets pretty silly after you've done it a couple of times. Even geeks can have fun with it.
I would prefer not to... (Score:3, Interesting)
If it's the former, let all the "games" be optional. The holidays are stressful enough with vacations, shopping, planning, etc. The last thing most people want at the holidays is forced team-building.
For what it's worth, none of the company holiday parties I've attended have had games of any kind.
Big, big topic -- please be careful (Score:2)
You got volunteered, huh? That sucks. Listen, this might sound like an easy/stupid job but you'd better put at least a little thought into making sure you don't screw up. I like to think I'm a fun-lovin' and sometime outrageous guy but I hold myself in check at office parties. You never know when you're going to do something that will give your co-workers a bad impression of you that will last for years. You haven't told us anything about the type of people who are working at this company except that i
Organizing Entertainment For The Office Party (Score:2)
I read in another one of your postings that you work for a defense contractor. I did too, worked for Litton until we were bought out by Northrop-Grumman and let the layoffs fly... I've also been stuck arranging the amusements for the office Christmas party.
You got volunteered, huh? That sucks. Listen, this might sound like an easy/stupid job but you'd better put at least a little thought into making sure you don't screw up. I like to think I'm a fun-lovin' and sometime outrageous guy but I hold myself in
Doom (Score:2)
Re:Doom (Score:2)
Doom does not have a railgun!!! id Software's first game with a railgun was Quake 2 (unless you count unofficial mods).
Ack! I nearly choked when I read the original post.
Welcome to Slashdot 8-}
Re:FPS at Office parties (Score:1)
If you want to play FPS at an office party then I recommend Serious Sam, Diablo or some other game with a co-op mode so no one has to kill the boss.
Don't get me wrong, taking your boss out (especially creatively) is a lot of fun during a game, just not good for your career. Som
1000 Blank White Cards (Score:4, Informative)
Google it, or see [chromecow.com] the second entry on my homepage for a list of rules and materials.
Played this game until my sides hurt from laughing.
1000 Blank White Cards R TEH SPOKE! (Score:3, Insightful)
1000 Blank White Cards with Different Groups (Score:3, Interesting)
It's fascinating from a game design standpoint to watch the dynamic.
But it's more fun to play the Compassionate Conservatism card on someone, or Scatalogical Bonus Round. Or Zebras...};^)
Cheapass Games (Score:2)
Are you CRAZY? (Score:2)
Unexploded Cow
Lord of the Fries
US Patent #1
Hats off to these folks, they're magically delicious.
Re:Cheapass Games (Score:1)
Let's Blow Up The World! (Score:2)
Gotta be Nuke War [flyingbuffalo.com].
Got change for 25 million people?
Re:Let's Blow Up The World! (Score:2)
There also also two expansions available: Escalation and Proliferation.
Re:Let's Blow Up The World! (Score:2)
I love seeing the look in those Magic: The Gathering weenies eyes when I show them how big my Nuke deck is! "I see your Force of Nature, and raise you an MX with a 100!"
Re:Let's Blow Up The World! (Score:2)
Re:Let's Blow Up The World! (Score:2)
Cobalt jacketed bomb
Triple yeild (applies to each warhead on MX)
May be applied to 100M on final strike for automatic destruction of world.
Made a great deterrent force:
"OK, folks - See this: 100M , cobalt. Do not target me."
Of course, you still had to "spin the spinner, call your shot, Nuke War ties your genes in a knot". Really frustrating to get a Dud or Out of Fuel.
But it was GREAT on an MX-100!
Scrunchy Face (Score:2, Interesting)
various ages. Just make sure that when you split teams you don't put all
of something one one team (e.g., all of the geeks, all of the sports fans,
all of the young people, whatever). Split all the demographics across
both teams, and it works better.
Here's how to play: Everybody writes names of famous persons on a bunch of
little slips of paper, folds them once, and throws them in a big bowl. These
can be names of current celebrities, h
Re:Scrunchy Face (Score:1)
> it's illegible
Or if they think you're just being a wuss about the legibility, they can
wisper to you what it says and you have to get your team to say it.
Death Star Battles! (Score:1)
The Bucket Game (Score:2)
Climb up the ladders, hold the bucket against the ceiling, and challenge someone.
"I bet you can't take that broom, push it against the bottom of the bucket, and hold it there for ten seconds."
Of course, that sounds easy, so give them the broom and they do it while you let go of the bucket. Et voila.
Now the good part. Climb down the ladder, and carry
Re:The Bucket Game (Score:1)
Do It Yourself Holiday Themed Pictionary (Score:2)
Re:Do It Yourself Holiday Themed Pictionary (Score:1)
-calyxa
Naked twister (Score:3, Funny)
Rus
Re:Naked twister (Score:1)
I really don't want to see anyone I work with naked.
Cranium, Bohnanza, UNO (Score:2)
Bohnanza [gamereport.com] is a German card game. You have to plant fields of beans and try to make the most coins. The best part is the funny bean pictures on the cards. :-)
Re:Cranium, Bohnanza, UNO (Score:1)
One game that I *do* like is Hear Me Out. Lots of fun, you can play with as many people as you like, goes as long as you like. And is really fun.
As for Uno: Yeah, its cool, but I haven't played Normal UNO since I learned ULTIMATE UNO. Goes like normal uno, only:
Anytime someone puts down a 5, every one HITS the PILE. Last one to hit it gets 2 cards.
Anytime two 7s are played in a row, cards are shifted to the left.
When a zero is played, the person wh
Kareoke is the name (Score:4, Funny)
As someone else mentioned, the office party is for gossip, debauchery, and indiscriminate photocopying, not sitting down for a game of perquacky, or Smash Bros.
The nice thing about Kareoke is you just need one or two brave souls to get the ball rolling. After that, it's cakesauce getting others to step to the mic.
Particularly if booze is on tap.
Budget? (Score:1)
We had prizes for the biggest winners, but that led to some collusion. Instead, let people buy raffle tickets with their winnings, and raffle off the prizes.
Re: (Score:2)
Steal a gift (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Steal a gift (Score:1)
It was always funny to see my sweet grandmother get mad when someone stole a $2 gift from her!
Anyone else played this? (Score:1)
Apples to Apples (Score:2)
Re:Apples to Apples (Score:2)
LooneyLabs.com games are great! (Score:1)
Both of these are card games which are sort of like Uno, but more complex and interesting. I've played Fluxx much more, so these comments relate to that. Fluxx is a great game because if you are familar with it and good at it, you can plan some good strategies, however, if you'r
White Elephant gift exchange (Score:1)
Liars Poker (Score:1)
I guess you could bet on points instead of cash, and the winner can get a prize.
Ever play....... (Score:1)
Re:Ever play....... (Score:1)
The Pit (Score:2)
A good party game is The Pit [amazon.com] by Winning Moves (or Parker Brothers).
The Pit is a commodities trading card game that involves 5 to 10-12 people trying to collect all the cards for a particular commodity. The trick is that everyone is trying to do so at the same time by exchanging 1-8 identical cards (face down) and trying to get someone else to exchange an unknown set of the same number of cards with you. Given that everyone is trying to make trades at the same time, games typically involve lots of yelli
For the geekier party (Score:2)
Re:Mao (Score:1)
flirting (Score:2)
The best game is always trying to flirt with someone else; even if it's just innocent, which it doesn't always turn out to be.
that's ok.. (Score:1)
minutes of fun.
Other Games. . . (Score:1)
I must say, I'm pretty damn disappointed in everybody's choice of "games" for a company party! You guys are acting like it is like a junior high slumber party. Why don't you play:
I can't picture playing any of these games at a company party, and I am in a very relaxed workplace, with very relaxed co-workers.
Whiteboard Pictionary (Score:2)
Another good one is Catch Phrase. Sort of a combination of verbal charades (get your opponent to say "spaghetti" and then get rid of the device asap.) There is an electronic version and manual; either is fine.