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Tracie Broom, a San Francisco writer, and her friends cannibalize Scrabble to play a quicker word game - called alternately Anagram or Grab Scrabble. They put the Scrabble tiles face down, and flip them over one-by-one, calling out new words as they are formed, or stealing words from other players.

Sounds a lot like Quiddler, a card-based game that's like Scrabble for the impatient. My friends and family are hooked on it. (The other Set games, including the eponymous "Set", are also fun, quick, and brain-intensive.)

Tracie Broom, a San Francisco writer, and her friends cannibalize Scrabble to play a quicker word game - called alternately Anagram or Grab Scrabble. They put the Scrabble tiles face down, and flip them over one-by-one, calling out new words as they are formed, or stealing words from other players.

Sounds a lot like Quiddler, a card-based game that's like Scrabble for the impatient. My friends and family are hooked on it. (The other Set games, including the eponymous "Set", are also fun, quick, and brain-intensive.)

http://www.setgame.com/ offers a daily puzzle...if she likes, buy the card game, its only a few bucks. it is a very simple game and yet, seems to take practice for anyone to get faster at it.

set

very cool, very geeky. even one glass of beer or wine will totally destroy your ability to play this game.

you should be able to find a deck at the game store at the mall.

Set is a cards game, not exactly a board game, but yet one of the best games I have played - based on visual perception, and can be played by almost any number of players - playing it alone or in a group of 10 is possible, as well as any number in between, very easy to learn, and can be fun for hours.

nowadays there is more emphasis put on the movements of the lego, shooting the soccerball or hitting the puck or whatnot.

There is little to no more imagination and creativity to that then any old action figure with judo grip action chop.
case in point

as for the best childs toy? board games (i.e labrinth), card games, sets , or perhaps the ever trusty cardboad box.

One of our favorites is the card game called Set. Each card has symbols on it with four attributes: shape (oval, squiggle, or diamond), color (red, green, or purple), fill pattern (solid, empty, or striped), and number of symbols (one, two or three). You shuffle the cards, lay out a grid of twelve (or is it sixteen?) and try to find "sets". A set is three cards in which each attribute is the same on each card, or is different on every card. Sounds simple, but it's harder than it sounds, and amazingly addictive. The web site has the rules and a Java tutorial applet that you can use to practice set-finding.

By the way, does anybody know if they still make the logic game Wiff-n-Proof?

Set, from here.

A very entertaining pattern-matching game. My girlfriend has never lost a game to anyone.

I didn't "get" set theory until I played this game, so I'm a believer that this type of learning works in some circumstances.

It's not a computer game, but the card game Set would be great. It's completely visual, so literacy is not a problem; it's easy to learn; it's fast-paced and exciting; and there are a lot of interesting math problems and puzzles associated with it.

In the educational realm, the best one of these is Maptitude (amazon sells it), and while you compete with other people, it's all chance and knowledge instead of resources. I'm an adult, and it's challenging for me. My niece and nephew play it with their parents and like it, so it must be possible for kids to play. I've only played with other adults.

Try University Games and Rio Grande Games, and choose carefully! If you focus on games that either require some knowledge or that have larger chance factors (as opposed to strategy), you'll find that they're less limited by resources. The Game of the Year is one of the best ones, with not too much prior knowledge needed, lots of chance components (and reversals of fortune), and with most of the exchange coming from the bank instead of between players.

I suppose the other thing you could do that would increase the entertainment value of a competitive game is to choose a short game, so many rounds could be played. This works especially well among equal players, but that makes it good for adults after a casual dinner party. Set Games has a couple of really great games. Set for pattern matching, Five Crowns for sequences and number matching, and Quiddler for a "gin rummy" where you have to make words from your letters.

I can't promise that these aren't "zero sum" games, but there are more options, things with better odds for a friendly game. Games you can play with friends and still be friends with them afterwards, even if they lose.

In the educational realm, the best one of these is Maptitude (amazon sells it), and while you compete with other people, it's all chance and knowledge instead of resources. I'm an adult, and it's challenging for me. My niece and nephew play it with their parents and like it, so it must be possible for kids to play. I've only played with other adults.

Try University Games and Rio Grande Games, and choose carefully! If you focus on games that either require some knowledge or that have larger chance factors (as opposed to strategy), you'll find that they're less limited by resources. The Game of the Year is one of the best ones, with not too much prior knowledge needed, lots of chance components (and reversals of fortune), and with most of the exchange coming from the bank instead of between players.

I suppose the other thing you could do that would increase the entertainment value of a competitive game is to choose a short game, so many rounds could be played. This works especially well among equal players, but that makes it good for adults after a casual dinner party. Set Games has a couple of really great games. Set for pattern matching, Five Crowns for sequences and number matching, and Quiddler for a "gin rummy" where you have to make words from your letters.

I can't promise that these aren't "zero sum" games, but there are more options, things with better odds for a friendly game. Games you can play with friends and still be friends with them afterwards, even if they lose.

In the educational realm, the best one of these is Maptitude (amazon sells it), and while you compete with other people, it's all chance and knowledge instead of resources. I'm an adult, and it's challenging for me. My niece and nephew play it with their parents and like it, so it must be possible for kids to play. I've only played with other adults.

Try University Games and Rio Grande Games, and choose carefully! If you focus on games that either require some knowledge or that have larger chance factors (as opposed to strategy), you'll find that they're less limited by resources. The Game of the Year is one of the best ones, with not too much prior knowledge needed, lots of chance components (and reversals of fortune), and with most of the exchange coming from the bank instead of between players.

I suppose the other thing you could do that would increase the entertainment value of a competitive game is to choose a short game, so many rounds could be played. This works especially well among equal players, but that makes it good for adults after a casual dinner party. Set Games has a couple of really great games. Set for pattern matching, Five Crowns for sequences and number matching, and Quiddler for a "gin rummy" where you have to make words from your letters.

I can't promise that these aren't "zero sum" games, but there are more options, things with better odds for a friendly game. Games you can play with friends and still be friends with them afterwards, even if they lose.

In the educational realm, the best one of these is Maptitude (amazon sells it), and while you compete with other people, it's all chance and knowledge instead of resources. I'm an adult, and it's challenging for me. My niece and nephew play it with their parents and like it, so it must be possible for kids to play. I've only played with other adults.

Try University Games and Rio Grande Games, and choose carefully! If you focus on games that either require some knowledge or that have larger chance factors (as opposed to strategy), you'll find that they're less limited by resources. The Game of the Year is one of the best ones, with not too much prior knowledge needed, lots of chance components (and reversals of fortune), and with most of the exchange coming from the bank instead of between players.

I suppose the other thing you could do that would increase the entertainment value of a competitive game is to choose a short game, so many rounds could be played. This works especially well among equal players, but that makes it good for adults after a casual dinner party. Set Games has a couple of really great games. Set for pattern matching, Five Crowns for sequences and number matching, and Quiddler for a "gin rummy" where you have to make words from your letters.

I can't promise that these aren't "zero sum" games, but there are more options, things with better odds for a friendly game. Games you can play with friends and still be friends with them afterwards, even if they lose.