The Herald Sport is holding a tournament bracket to find the best board game of all time. Vote below in the grand final matchup and stay tuned to nzherald.co.nz/sport to find out the winner based on your votes.
We've finally made it to the grand finale of the Herald Sport board games bracket – and hopefully not far off lockdown either!
Two titans remain as they battle it out for the unofficial title of the country's favourite board game.
But before we get to the final round of voting, here's a special interview with the actual inventor of Pictionary Rob Angel – who unfortunately saw his game fall in the quarter-final stage.
I spoke with Rob, who is in lockdown in his home in Santa Monica, California, about how he came up with the idea for Pictionary, the recent rise in popularity of board games and his favourite board games growing up.
Yeah we're hiding out and doing what we have to do to keep ourselves safe. We're doing our best for sure.
Where did the idea of Pictionary come from?
It started out just as an activity, just something fun to do like most great ideas. It was a party game. But I just had such a really great time with the game and playing that I decided to take a stab at turning it into a real board game. I wasn't an entrepreneur, I wasn't a businessman, I was waiting tables at the time. I didn't have any big ideas but I knew that there was this fun thing that I was doing that I could take a shot at.
It was just something we used to do. One of my friends from college kind of discovered it; sketching words out of the dictionary. One night he said 'hey you guys want to try this new game' and I said 'sure, why not'. So I played it and that's where it started.
As a board game creator yourself, what do you think about the whole resurgence in board games recently? And especially now with most people in lockdown around the world
I think there was a shift before this was all going on. I think games were popular again and they had five years of growth. People just in general were tired of their phones and looking down as opposed to looking at each other.
And with everybody being at home, unfortunately because of the situation, people are going back to what they're familiar with, what they're comfortable with. And nostalgia: games are part of most people's upbringing. So it is a byproduct of what's happening and I think it's resonating with people. They're feeling connected again. While it's played on Zoom a lot of times, Pictionary is bring people back to their past and quite frankly it's just fun. I think that people are going back to a simpler time quite frankly.
How does it make you feel seeing the game you created resonating with so many people around the world over the years?
After 35 years I still chuckle because it just blows my mind that it's still a part of people's life and still a part of the culture. I'm honoured by that and it's really fascinating to me and very humbling to me that it's still doing that. It wasn't the plan; I just wanted to create something. When I started I just wanted to recreate the fun that I was having with my roommate and that was my goal.
We've sold 38 million games in 60 countries and to me it's just kind of a byproduct of people enjoying themselves. So that's why it's hard for me to grasp the magnitude of this thing. I hear stories of people all the time and how it's affected their lives, changed their lives and brought their families closer together. That for me is the best part.
I've been working on a book. I finished a book actually. It's out now. It'll be on pre-sale on Robangel.com and Amazon. It's taken up five years and it's the story of Pictionary and how I overcame my fears and everything that went in to making Pictionary what it was. And that was a labour of love and now I'm selling that and marketing that. The other thing I like doing is speaking and telling the story.
What were your favourite board games growing up?
I was a big Risk fan. Jenga is fun. Well actually Risk was the big one for me.
When was the last time you played Pictionary?
The current iteration over Zoom and what not, I've actually played several times in the last month. But before that, the actual physical game itself, it was about four years and it was with my kids. And I can tell you with some confidence I got slaughtered. I'm terrible at my own game. I didn't do very well but I still had fun.
George Parker conference final: 1. Monopoly vs 3. Cluedo
The Monopoly train rolls on straight into the grand final. This wasn't even a close. I should've just called it the Monopoly conference. Monopoly books its finals seat with 70 per cent of the votes.
Charles Parker conference final: 1. Chess vs 2. Scrabble
If anyone can stop Monopoly, it's Scrabble, who has quietly beaten several big guns to make the final. Its latest victim is board game legend Chess. It was a tight battle, and a pretty surprising result, but Scrabble moves on with 57 per cent of the votes.
Voting: The final
This is it. Leave it all out there. May the best board game win.
