Each month, we dedicate a blog to our Steven James Staff Selections. It might be favorite music, movies, restaurants, a getaway spot, or just about anything else. We like to share ideas and suggestions with our clients and followers, of course, but more importantly, it's a way for clients and potential clients to get a little flavor of our staff from a little bit of a different perspective. This month we asked the staff what a favorite game is that they enjoy. We had five people say a favorite card game that is very popular in our part of the land (Western New York), but we only listed it twice here. (Hint: it starts with an E that sounds like a U.) We didn't include video games here, but we'll do that in a future blog. Never doubt the power of play! The research proves time and time again its connection to creativity and productivity!
Brianna, Social & Branding Strategist: "My favorite game is called Reverse Charades. It takes the classic version of Charades and flips it, so instead of one person acting out their card for their team, the entire team acts out the card for one person. My family is obsessed with board games, especially on the holidays, and there's no game that makes us laugh as hard as we do when we're playing Reverse Charades."
Jess, Social Media Intern: "This past weekend I had a birthday pool party at my boyfriend's house with my friends and we played this game we call Float-y Wars where two people get on a float-y with a pool noodle and hang on separate ends of the pool. Someone counts down "3-2-1 FLOAT-Y WARS" and each person pushes off the poolside towards the other player and they start to joust with the pool noodle. The goal is to get the other person off of their float-y first without getting off of yours. There is also a narrator who live broadcasts the float-y wars like reality TV. It's intense!"
Hayley, Social Media Specialist:"My favorite game that I would play and still play today is Euchre. I will never forget when I first was learning and my dad was trying to explain to me how to play. Of course, he picked the most confusing way to teach me, but if I do say so myself, I am a Euchre champ now."
Nate, Video Production Manager: "I'm a big fan of the card game Loot. The goal is to capture as many high-value merchant ships as you can; the player with the most merchant gold at the end of the game wins. Each turn you can do only one thing: lay down a merchant ship card from your hand, attack someone else's merchant ship with a pirate card, draw a card, or 'cash in' a merchant ship that is in play and in your possession. Very enjoyable and perfect for groups of 4-8 people."
Sharon, Creative Director: "So I told Paul when he came up with this game idea--that I had dibs on Euchre but apparently, I've been sold out--twice! (Just means a Euchre tournament is in our future.) Anywho, may I suggest some games-on-the-go that we play when waiting in line or standing around at festivals. Usually someone out of the blue will say, "here's the game, here's the rules." This year at the Jazzfest, we played "Celebrity Look-a-Like". Every time you spotted someone in the crowd, you'd have to nonchalantly tell the group and name the celebrity the person looks like (Ex. at 2 o'clock-- she looks like Madonna) and then the others in the group determine whether you get points or not. Last year, at Band on the Bricks, we played the Compliment Game: you have to talk to 3 strangers and give them a genuine compliment and then to raise the bar, you have to talk long enough to find out a unique fact about them. My cousin Joan won with "Hello, you are very tall, are you Swedish?". She was. This year, we arrived at the Jazzfest late and I wasn't sure what the game was. As we were walking in, I spotted my two cousins and made them follow me just in case we were playing Human Scavenger Hunt, as we always get extra points for finding people we are related, or semi-related to. Next time you're standing in line or just standing around, why not play the "make-it up-on-the-spot game."
Katie, Senior Web Developer: “Our family loves playing games when we are together- it is so hard to pick! The one we seem to go back to over & over is Wonders. It’s a board game, where the goal is to create the most successful civilization. It has ‘multiple paths to victory,’ which I love because there are endless strategies you can use, and no two games are alike."
Jeremy, Video Production Specialist: “No video games, really? You're killing me here. But when it comes to board games, no other can compete with CROSSFIRE. It’s one of the most hectic two-player games you can experience. It also has the greatest commercial ever made!”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCwn1NTK-50
Abbey, Marketing & Graphics Strategist:"In my family, Euchre is the name of the game. I learned how to play when I was about 10 years old and I absolutely love it. We have a blast playing together on every holiday even though sometimes it can get a little competitive."
Brian C., Creative Consultant: "We have a great time playing what I call 'Beach Horse Shoes' at our place at Conesus Lake. When we have friends down, we have great tournaments – it gets seriously intense and competitive, but we have a ton of fun!"
Jim, Managing Partner: "My wife got me into Scrabble and we have loved playing it for years. We have an over-sized Scrabble board and we have intense matches that are really fun, competitive, and if you’re not careful you’ll find that your vocabulary is being stretched!"
Brian D, Director of Business Development: "Stratego is a game I always loved growing up and still do. It’s just a two-person game so you don’t need to have a big group to have fun. It’s fast-paced and you have to employ strategy so it’s a good workout for your mind muscles too!"
Paul, Content Developer: "I am a word nerd so my game is actually the Dictionary Game that I believe was turned into the board game Balderdash a long time ago. But my family and friends used to just call it the Dictionary Game. Whoever is ‘it’ picks out an uncommon word that most people will probably not know in the dictionary (a book with words defined in alphabetical order -- for the uninitiated). They write down the real definition while everybody else writes down a made-up one that hopefully sounds realistic. If people vote for your phony definition, you get points, and whoever picked the original word gets points if people don’t choose the right definition. It can be very hilarious to hear the creative definitions people dream up when they are trying to sound like a dictionary!"Although we love to play games in our free time, when it’s time to get down to business, Steven James is here for all your marketing and video needs!
