I remember the good old days when I get in on a game of spades any night of the week. I remember finding out the next day about some crazy game, epic hand, or insane strategy the next day. No one was married or had kids or had to work late because they were up against a deadline. Thursday night was as good as Friday night. If you felt like getting a game together, you could always find a fourth.

Now I find that we all watch more television and play fewer games.

But last night several of us showed up at a friend’s for his birthday. We had dinner, caught up on how we’ve been, then dusted off some games. Mission Risk is still just as much fun as it used to be. I still don’t know if I’ve ever won a game of Mission Risk (or world domination for that matter) but just about any game is fun when played among fun people. Case in point, I just bought a game called Munchkin. It brags that it’s all the fun of Dungeons & Dragons but without the pesky roll playing. We started laughing and yelling so loud that the 2 year olds playing in the other room wandered in to see what they were missing.  New Years Eve we’re all getting together again and I hope we can get a game of Munchkin to happen.

Speaking of New Years Eve, Twilight Imperium shall be played. It’s the single most complex strategy board game I’ve played (though I am sure there are others even more complicated). The last time we played it took 5 hours. It’s like a mashup between Axis & Allies and Settlers of Catan but with an emphasis on game politics. There’s a unique game board each time and each player has special bonuses and can build technology for even more bonuses. After 7 games and about 40 hours of game play, I think I have a winning strategy. I’ve actually won twice.

I signed up for gamefly.com recently and the first game I rented was Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Thoroughly unimpressed with the Aerosmith songs, but the other tracks are fun. I actually played for a little while today and the fun didn’t last very long. I had these great dreams of really getting my money’s worth out of my gamefly.com subscription, but so far, well not so much. I just can’t devote whole days a video game anymore. Although I still contend there’s no better way to break in a new CD than to listen to it while playing Tetris with the TV muted.

This Tuesday I’ve got a game night with some of my oldest friends planned. Indeed, we have a fourth: time for a late night game of spades. The next day (Christmas Eve) I’ll be heading to Memphis which means cribbage and progressive rummy. I’ll always love spending time with my family, if for no other reason than it’s the only place in the world where I can get a game of progressive rummy.