Sunday, January 22, 2006 · posted at 9:17 AM
Contradictory victory. I love group word games. Catchphrase. Taboo. Squabble. Cranium. They're fun and at the same time, very telling of the players. You find out who the natural leaders (and cheerleaders) are. You see who cracks under pressure and who excels. You test relationships with competition. You find out who was a Mathlete and who was the drama kid. It's really a personality/IQ test under the guise of a game.

Yesterday we played Outburst Remix. This game is basically Family Feud (guess ten popular answers in the topic) except team members are simultaneously making guesses, hence the outing of the bursts. How it differs from Outburst the Original is unclear, but hey you get to use a pentagonal trapezohedron die reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons (for the inner Carlos the Dwarf in you).

I have three gripes about the game:
  1. It uses 3-D technology, you know, "hiding" words by printing a red layer on top that can only be revealed by putting in the super secret red decoder. Granted 3-D is now so old that it is almost retro cool, but still.

  2. The answers, particularly #10, can be ridiculously obscure. Example: picking up dog doo is a "household chore" over ironing, kitty litter, and plumbing.

  3. Anytime you can, and do make a biblical version of a game, it's over, you've lost me. I can only imagine what the categories would be like... sexually oppressive verses? references to religious (and other) intolerance? songs that borrow from the text?

    It's like fun with the Flanderses!
    Where are Good Samaritan and Clothe the Leper?
Complaints aside, it's fun and apparently less threatening than my favorite, Catchphrase, which I'm told is too much pressure at the individual level. It was a close game, but we managed to scrape ahead, thanks in part to my solo performance on the Insynk (where they came up with the "k" for this loose topic hint I have no clue... Ecclesiastes x:x, perhaps?) card with the topic: Members of the boy bands *Nsync and Backstreet Boys.

Before the timer was even started I had already rattled off Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Brian Littrell and Nick Carter. Then it was noted that surnames weren't even required, but come on, you can't say Howie without the "D." for Dorough.

It was a lightning quick round that ended faster than Kimberly Stewart and Laguna Beach's Talon's engagement. As I high-fived my teammate (yes, first glaring warning of dorkdom) over our dominant takeover, I thought to myself:

How is it possible to win, yet feel like a complete loser?

Seriously, this is what my grey matter retains? Not the definition of egalitarian (which I always, always have to look up), not the quintessential example of a health behavior planning model (PRECEDE-PROCEED), or even for that matter how to spell quintessential. I hesitate when asked when the War of 1812 was because I suspect it to be a trick question. Boy band members (specifically boy bands, not just bands - ask me who the "other guys" in Coldplay are and you'll get a blank stare) and Ben and Jerry's flavors. That is the culmination of 18 years of school. And they say public education is in the dumps.

As a result of my coup, two friends are on the cusp of disowning me... Sadly, what's plagued me most about this incident is that I forgot to check who the obscure #10 was - Joey Fatone or Kevin Richardson?

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