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slowdown show.org. I'm Maggie Smith, and this is The Slowdown.

There are people who like to play games, monopoly, charades, cards, and then there are people like me.

I don't know why, exactly, but generally speaking, I find games tedious rather than enjoyable.

I beg off when invited over to friends' houses for game night.

I don't want to be taught poker or yuker at a family gathering.

So many rules and so much time. And for what what i'd rather just relax and talk but here's my one exception

if my kids ask me to play something with them i will checkers a board game you name it. They might be able to tell that I'm not that

into it, but when you have teens and they want to do anything with you, anything at all,

the answer is yes. That said, some games I can tolerate better than others.

I'm partial to trivia.

I don't mind guessing games and word games.

The fewer rules and pieces, the better.

And these kinds of games, you're concerned with what's in the other player's mind

instead of what cards are in their hand. It's almost like following a writing prompt. The baseline

concept can be the same, but everyone brings something unique to the page, or, in the case of a game,

to the living room or the backseat of a car on a road trip.

That uniqueness also brings space for absurdity.

No matter what happens, in my experience, these games always end up with people

...