Thursday, February 25, 2016

I Am In Total Support Of This Idea

 
For too long now, the great and esteemed country of New Zealand has been missing from the game board map of Risk™!  First published in 1957, players the world over know all about the benefits of camping out in the very defensible antipodean land of Australia, but they may not be aware that just to the right is the beautiful and great 'land of the long white cloud' – New Zealand.

Check out this wonderful site detailing the many other influencers, media and entertainers who are not aware of New Zealand existing on the map. We can only assume this is because of NZ not being on the Risk board they played when they were children themselves. 

You may ask 'what's so special about New Zealand?' – to that I'd say, what isn't special about New Zealand? New Zealand is home of The All Blacks rugby team – one of the most successful sports franchises in history. NZ is renowned as the home of Hobbits and Middle Earth (which I note you made a version of Risk™ of, but that doesn't count). NZ is a true force in global politics and are not only a current member of the United Nations Security Council, but former New Zealand prime Minister Helen Clark is the currently serving Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (the first woman to do so). In fact, New Zealand was the first modern country in the world to give women the right to vote in 1893. Our influence is quietly felt the world over.

I say that New Zealand is as worthy as many of the countries featured on the Risk™ map and emplore you, the team at Winning Moves Games and Hasbro, to right a near sixty year old wrong and add New Zealand to your board game map.


Regards,
The Risk™ Players of New Zealand


I have mentioned many times how I love to play RISK. I have often taught classes of students who were not in that class due to their stellar academic records. They were 'housed' in those rooms mostly because of their criminal records. I did many things to motivate them and keep them interested but none were more popular than Thursday Afternoon Games. We would put two boards together and establish routes between 'worlds' and then go at it. Kids could play as individuals or as a team. I never played with anyone. I would tell them from the start not to trust me or anyone else. I would lie to them and steal their cards and make them almost cry. I didn't care. It was the one things I refused to lose at to them. It was fun to see their feeble attempts to unite against me then watch as I turned them against each other before crushing their weakened armies. LOTS of learning went on both during and after the game. They learned most how to work together to achieve an objective - of course that meant the destruction of another persons hopes and dreams but that is what made the lesson so memorable when I delivered the death blow.

Good times.

Go New Zealand. I can always use another landmass to conquer.

6 comments:

DrGoat said...

Back in the 80s I worked at a microchip manufacturing plant
and the first and second shift crew would get together
on the weekend and play a double board game of Risk, lasting
into the wee hours. Miss that a lot. We had lots of laughs
and good times.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Did you crush their dreams of world domination also??

DrGoat said...

Indeed I did. And got crushed in return during the next game.
We did tend to smoke a lot of wacky tobaccy during the games
so munchies played a big part in off board politics.
But it did tend to get deadly serious during game play.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

I get that way with all board games. I have to be the magic hat when I play Monopoly and I never say SORRY because I am not sorry. It's really a distasteful part of my personality but there it is.

DrGoat said...

Hey, losing isn't fun. Besides you have a competitive nature.
That's no secret to anyone who had followed you for any
amount of time. I hate losing in Trivial Pursuit or Scrabble.
Doesn't happen very often. We are the Dream Team as you well know.
I always had to be the cannon or battleship in Monopoly.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Beaten in Trivial Pursuit must really hurt. Never happened to me, EVER! I am proud of that. Now Battleship is like Jenga - no skill involved whatsoever..stupid Jenga.