In 2000 Mattel distributed a game
called Chatter Matters. I don’t know how
the game happened to fall into the hands of Sunny’s family, or if it had been
given to a specific child. But they didn’t
seem to enjoy it.
They left it at my mom’s house without
directions. It’s pretty self explanatory,
but I printed the directions anyway.
Jenna absolutely LOVES this game.
We started playing it just this year.
We must have started in summer when
Jenna was off from school. The game
continued to live at Grandma’s house, and that is where we would play it. Jenna wanted to take the game home. I told her that it wasn’t ours to take. But Corey said he thought it would be okay if
we did. But I know Jenna and her lack of
ability to clean up after herself and how many game pieces turn up
missing. I fully believed we could make
better use of it at my mom’s.
And after Thanksgiving we brought the
game home to live with us. Not intentionally.
But I haven’t bothered to return it – which has been intentional.
Jenna has always liked answeringquestions and listening to the answers of others. We would play the ungame – which isn’t a game but a pocket sized case containing questions. Questions such as: “what was your favorite subject in school? and why?” “Where would you like to go on vacation?” “What is one quality you admire about each
family member?”
Each case came with two sets of
questions. The generic easy ones and the
more thought provoking ones like: “name an experience involving death”
I
remember asking my dad that one before he passed away. His Uncle Reese was seventeen when he passed
away. I think my dad was six. He choked as he answered. Kayla and I set the cards aside and decided
to play something else.
I don’t know how many years fell
between the card packet to the board game (I would guess 14) – though it was
still not a “game”. There were no
winners, no losers . . . no definite end.
Chatter Matter’s seemed to have many
similar questions that were asked in Ungame’s level one – but with a
twist. The board game was designed with
four rooms and a deck of cards for each room that would ask questions not
necessarily geared toward the room – but may be where you are when you ask
yourself the questions that come with the card.
For example, the bedroom has questions
especially geared to the player about his or her personal self like:
“What’s one of the strangest foods I’ve
ever eaten?”
or “If I could travel anywhere, where
would I go? For how long? Who would go with me?
The other players write down answers
they believe the card holder will say and for each one that matches, both (or
all) receive chips.
The Family room is designed for the player
to answer questions about family members:
“What religion, if any, did one of my
parents practice as a child?”
“What is the name of the first street
I lived on?”
Sometimes the other players will write
down their predictions but not always.
The two questions above offers chips for each correct answer. Helps if you actually have family members
playing that can assist with the correct answer.
Kitchen. This card will allow you to collect chips for
doing chores or will punish you and have you move your game piece to “time out”
I painted the bathroom. Go to Chores/Allowance corner and collect
And
then the player has an opportunity to talk about a project he or she has done
around the house.
The game room offers a variety of “games”
to be played with each card. Jenna’s
favorite is called “Scavenger Hunt”
It helps if you are familiar with the
house of where the game is being played.
You divide into teams and look for whatever is written on the card:
A receipt
Something with a player’s name written
on it (that could be a monogram or a piece of mail)
A picture of me and somebody else in
my family
“Verbal Blitz” is the one I like the
best. It is also played in teams. Three categories are listed on the card. The player who draws the card selects the category
and each team goes back and forth naming off soup flavors, or vegetables, or
television shows or whatever happened to be selected, until one team stops or
repeats an answer. Winners get one chip
each.
“Doodles” is a mini version of Pictionary. Three words are listed on the card (usually
household items or chores) and you can draw either a chimney, a kitchen table
or a window. And the first person who
guesses correctly gets a chip along with the “artist”
The last game room play card is called
“Home Movies” Player acts out verbs that
are written on the card:
Riding a bike, skateboarding or skiing
for example.
Each player has a chip holder that
will fill with 15 chips. The first
player to have 15 chips wins. Not a
tough game. But can be long – especially
when the players get stuck on a game card.
I told Jenna that we would play it
after our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday – and we probably would have had it
been on top, but Jenna picked another game.
And that was the only one we played as Grandma was getting restless and
we needed to remove her from the environment.
I told her that we could possibly play
it after Thursday’s dinner – but everyone else had to agree. We played Spades instead.
So on Friday, when I took her over to
Bill and Kayla’s house, we played. Anna
wanted to play with the chip holders and game pieces. So Bill decided that she would play the
game. So he shook the di for her and
asked and answered questions. Ironically
I think Anna won. And Bill declared that it was really a boring game. I think we could have ended sooner if he hadn’t
insisted on taking a turn for Anna (as well as himself) every time (after all
she had lost interest long before he did)
It can get boring. But so can Monopoly. And given a choice, I’d
much rather play Chatter Matters. And I’m
really happy that Jenna really likes it.
