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GiftTRAP Board Game Review

Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 at 7:12 PM Category: Games, Meryl's Notes Blog, Reviews, Shopping 1 comment

GiftTRAP Game Think you know your friends and family well? GiftTRAP sets out to challenge that assumption with its game of giving and receiving. When you have a choice of giving a roadside emergency kit, learn to be a graffiti artist (obviously a course), space age purse or a space hopper (???) — gift-giving turns into an adventure.

At first glance, it looks like a game promoting materialism and the gimmes, but instead the game is about great conversations, laughs and getting to know each other better. After all, it’s not as if you would actually get a flagpole, whale watching trip, or a public speaking course for family and friends.

The creative packaging looks like a gift box. Open the lid to reveal the folded game board. Move that and find the eight brightly colored gift bags sitting in a tray filled with game pieces. Remove the tray to find the game cards with the gift ideas from absurd and weird to practical and cool.

Place the gift cards on the board so players decide on who gets what while ranking the available gives from “Great” to “No way!” Players receive points for giving others gifts they like and lose points for giving a gift that gets a “No way!” The same concept applies for receiving gifts: Score points for the right ones and lose ‘em for getting the “I’ll be returning that one to the store” gifts. To win the game, a player needs to get both Give and Get markers in the GIFTED zone.

Imagine how hilarious it was to hear another player admit to wanting laser hair removal treatment. Not exactly something to give as a gift, but it loosened up everyone in the room within seconds.

The games business sees a disappointing trend. Manufacturers reissue older and classic games with cheap quality game pieces. But GiftTRAP doesn’t fall into this trap with its lovely gift bags and good quality game pieces and markers. The box contains colorful photos, as do the gift cards.

Side note: Something interesting lurks in the game instructions: a Creative Commons license! This is the first I’ve seen in a game, heck anything outside of the Internet.

Also the folks behind the game have a few fun contests happening. They’re accepting photos for use in the next edition of the game. Got my camera ready and hunting for odd gifts.

P.S. Anyone know what a space hopper is?

Included in GiftTRAP:

* 1 full size game board

* 640 Gift Ideas

* 1 Rules booklet [Read the rules online and see exactly how to play GiftTRAP]

* 8 Organza Gift Bags with each having:

* 2 scoring markers

* 9 gift tokens

* 4 choice tokens

* 3 advanced strategy cards

Players: 3 to 8
Age: 8+
Price: $39.99
Game play: One hour

Tags: board game