Today’s Game – 9/13/2009 – Who? What? Where? (Board Game)

So to continue with the varied types of games I want to discuss, I’m going to touch on one of my favorite board/social/party games. So without much adieu, here’s today’s game

Who? What? Where? (Board)

First off, this isn’t so much of a board game, as it is a set of 3 boxes of cards and some paper. The cards of course are a selection of Who?s (Famous People or Characters), What?s (activities), and Where?s (locations, both specific and general). Each player selects one card from each to draw their scene, and with a time limit imposed, it levels the playing field between artists and those artistically inept. The drawings are then passed around, and points are awarded for guessing the categories correctly.

The fun in the game comes from the wildness of interpretations visually as well as the crazy guesses that are thrown out. The other great thing about the game is that it is very well paced, with drawing, guessing, and sharing. It doesn’t suffer from the end of the game lulls that bog down things like Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly.

However, as much fun as the game is, there’s a handful of things that could be improved. The first, which can’t really be controlled since my edition sat for about 4 years before being played, is the timeliness of some of the cards. Some of the Who?s leave players now scratching their head, since they haven’t been relevant in about a decade. The second is the amount of content that is in the game, since playing the game multiple times, especially with a lot of people, you start seeing the same items again, leaving you guessing on the interpretation. And the third is that the box is just way too big for a game that is really about the size of 3 decks of cards.