I’m privileged to have a built-in “stay-at-home bubble” because I rent an apartment from my friends, who live on the first floor of the building with their son (see “Interview with a gamer” for his take on video games). We all have a fondness for the design and aesthetics of board games from the 70s and 80s, and quarantine time has given us a bit of an excuse to do a deep dive into the household collection. Note that while these are all games that were sold in the U.S. more than 30 years ago, for the most part we have the Canadian versions (as my friends grew up in Canada and these games are all from their childhood homes). All of these were available on eBay when I last checked.
Whosit?A more contemporary version of this was made in the 90s (with flip cards like the Memory board game) but we often play the 1976 Parker Brothers original. It’s a guessing game in which each player gets assigned a character, and the other players have to figure out “who’s it?” by a process of elimination using the game-issued questions on cards. You’re basically asking the others “does your character have glasses?” and those sorts of things, but the game loves capital letters and was created in the 70s, resulting in cards that read ARE YOU ORIENTAL or ARE YOU BLACK. The newer version doesn’t have these questions. Of course the fun of the game is getting confused about your own identity in the process of figuring out everyone else’s, which sound like some deep thoughts but I’m not sure if the Parker Brothers intended this game to be analyzed. A “B”—it’s pretty fun, but not an “A” because it feels weird to hear your friends screaming “Are you oriental?!” at you.
