Board Meeting

Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Forget video games: The classic board game is back, and celebrated at a local charity event this week.

by A.D. Amorosi

Xboxes, PlayStations and computer games have gone way beyond boyhood -- with stupid results. These days, you can hardly page through "men’s" magazines to get to the good ads (the ones that merely masquerade as product placement while featuring women in lingerie) without being hit by a wealth of shoot-’em-up wares like Grand Theft Auto and Painkiller.

The rush of crash-bang gaming leaves much to be desired for men and women who don't subscribe to a frat-boy mentality. Think of these people as the Old School Gamers, the hordes dying to sink Battleships and live in Pursuit of the Trivial. For a while, these folks' glory days seemed long over. Not since Clue: The Movie had the art of board gaming gone beyond kitchen tables and rec rooms into the realm of pop-culture craze -- that is, until very recently.

Lately, there's been a surplus of brainy challenges and word-based competitions. Go to the bookstore and you'll find 2002 best seller Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble. Stefan Fatsis' action-packed book, soon to be a major motion picture, presents the minute-by-minute thrill ride that is playing with little letter tiles. Fatis presents the sweat-pouring dramas of international Scrabble competition with Tom Clancy-level suspense. And recently on television and DVD there has been the same all-encompassing word fervor, especially for spelling. While you can ignore Alan Thicke toiling against Sherman Hemsley for Fox's Great American Celebrity Spelling Bee, you can't deny the heartbreak and horror of director Jeffrey Blitz's just-out-on-DVD documentary, Spellbound. Is it as tensely drawn as Hitchcock's thriller of the same name? You bet. Do you think Gregory Peck or Ingrid Bergman would know the difference between an "-ible" or an "-able" word? Not bloody likely.

Suddenly, word games, mind games and board games no longer seem like antiquated parts of our youth. They're ferocious and fresh. "The technology of video games may be cool, but board games allow all players an active chance to relive their youth while being competitive," says Omoiye Kinney, Philadelphia-area spokesperson for the American Red Cross. She should know. Her charity's annual Monopoly tournament will turn 12 years old this weekend. It's an enterprise that allows 30- and-40-something men and women in black tie the chance to compete seriously in the most classic game there is: the regionally apt (Atlantic City, yo), ages-old, often endless Parker Bros.' real estate adventure.

"Growing up, I played Monopoly with my family," says Kinney, 32, of her memories of dice rolls through Baltic, Kentucky and Illinois avenues, visits to jail and dips into the Community Chest. "We played all board games. That's why, when we gather, the players are so into being there. They're reliving their youth."

Still, 400-some people dressed to the nines paying $175 to watch and $275 to play is more than just trying to find one's youth. You could slip naked down an aluminum sliding board on a hot day if you really want to feel like you did as a kid. Well, at least I could. But these hard-ass players use regulation boards and go after hotels -- not motels -- on the Boardwalk from 6 p.m. to the final showdown near 11 p.m. "To my surprise, each player -- some year after year -- are fierce competitors," says Kinney.

Though she's never witnessed one man kill another over the old shoe or the top hat, Omoiye does promise her Monopoly tournament comes complete with live appearances by a monocled Monopoly man, mustache, sash and all.

Play at your own risk: The stakes, like the property taxes, are high.

Monopoly tournament, Fri., Feb. 27, Hyatt Regency Philadelphia at Penn’s Lending, 201 S. Columbus Blvd., 215-299-4023, www.redcross-philly.org.

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