I have written a couple of times how much I love to play games -- boardgames, videogames, card games. Just a few times. Maybe once or twice.
Since I am always on the hunt for new and unusual games, I jumped on the chance to review The Coffeetalk Game when it was offered to me while at BlogHer this year. Awhile back, I hosted my canasta group and when we were done with cards, I brought this game out to get a feel for their thoughts. Later, I hosted another event with my group of gals who form our periodic Game Night Group. If there ever was a focus group for boardgames, these ladies should be in it.
First impression? The packaging is quite clever -- the playing pieces are fake coffee beans, the trump cards are creamer and sugar "packets" and the playing cards are in the shape of disposable coffee cups. Of course, the pièce de résistance was that it all came in a bag that was JUST like the ones in which you buy your coffee beans.
Second impression? The beans (i.e. playing pieces) did not exactly fit on their space and that bugged more than a few of us Type A Personalities (including yours truly). Also, many of my friends are in marketing and felt the marketing copy was a little too cutesy using taglines such as "A latte of fun!". Me? I am not in marketing and like cheesy copy.
However, how did this all stack up when we actually played the game? We figured out the gist of the game quite quickly but we did struggle with the purpose of the trump cards (turns out sugar packets are played when you want an answer pushed through and creamer packets are played when you don't like the topic card that is pulled and want to redraw). Once we figured the trump cards out, we got to playing. And....
It was really fun! I like that "anything goes" -- a topic card is thrown out, the sand hourglass is flipped over and then we scribble down anything that we think might be related to the topic card. It reminded me of word association exercises and I liked that we weren't limited to a certain letter of the alphabet. It was entertaining to see the twisted mental paths some of us went down once we got going.
We played a few rounds and they went really, really quickly.
In conclusion? This reasonably priced game would make a nice gift -- for a coffee lover, for a game lover. This would make a perfect gift for someone who loves games and is strung out on caffeine.
Since I am always on the hunt for new and unusual games, I jumped on the chance to review The Coffeetalk Game when it was offered to me while at BlogHer this year. Awhile back, I hosted my canasta group and when we were done with cards, I brought this game out to get a feel for their thoughts. Later, I hosted another event with my group of gals who form our periodic Game Night Group. If there ever was a focus group for boardgames, these ladies should be in it.
First impression? The packaging is quite clever -- the playing pieces are fake coffee beans, the trump cards are creamer and sugar "packets" and the playing cards are in the shape of disposable coffee cups. Of course, the pièce de résistance was that it all came in a bag that was JUST like the ones in which you buy your coffee beans.
Second impression? The beans (i.e. playing pieces) did not exactly fit on their space and that bugged more than a few of us Type A Personalities (including yours truly). Also, many of my friends are in marketing and felt the marketing copy was a little too cutesy using taglines such as "A latte of fun!". Me? I am not in marketing and like cheesy copy.
However, how did this all stack up when we actually played the game? We figured out the gist of the game quite quickly but we did struggle with the purpose of the trump cards (turns out sugar packets are played when you want an answer pushed through and creamer packets are played when you don't like the topic card that is pulled and want to redraw). Once we figured the trump cards out, we got to playing. And....
It was really fun! I like that "anything goes" -- a topic card is thrown out, the sand hourglass is flipped over and then we scribble down anything that we think might be related to the topic card. It reminded me of word association exercises and I liked that we weren't limited to a certain letter of the alphabet. It was entertaining to see the twisted mental paths some of us went down once we got going.
We played a few rounds and they went really, really quickly.
In conclusion? This reasonably priced game would make a nice gift -- for a coffee lover, for a game lover. This would make a perfect gift for someone who loves games and is strung out on caffeine.
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