My wife introduced me to a product this week called “The Ungame.” I’m not sure how long it has been around, but I imagine it has been out for a while and I’m just now becoming aware of it. For others like me who are a bit slow on the uptake, “The Ungame” is a board game that isn’t a game— at least insofar as there is no winner and competition is strongly discouraged.
In a nutshell, you ask a question from a card and give an answer that must be between one and three sentences long. Players can pick whether or not they choose to answer a deep question or a more shallow one, so it works as either an ice breaker or a way to get to know your current friends on a deeper level.
What struck me most, and what I enjoyed most about the game was the comment rule. When a player answers a question, the other players are not allowed to respond to the answer. They have no choice but to listen and wait to speak until their turn. The only way to respond to a previous player’s question is to land on a “comment” space on the board.
This forces people to listen and it also forces people to think carefully about what they want to comment or respond to, because they may only get one or two chances during the course of the game to respond, so it naturally clears away trivial discussions or minor nitpicks. It also eliminates the possibility of an aggressive game of “top that.”
I can honestly say it was nice to be able to just spend an hour or two listening to my wife and not thinking about what I was going to say next. The game allows you to get to know someone’s heart, and reintroduces a valuable conversation skill called “listening” into a culture that is often consumed with talking and interrupting.
