Board games, quizzes become social events

"Game night" has become the rage in many U.S. cities, as people search for new ways to socialize beyond the traditional bar scene.

"Everyone really gets into it," says Samantha Donaldson, a 25-year-old government worker who recently began competing in the packed "quizzo trivia night" at the Penn. Avenue Pour House in Washington, D.C.

She has enjoyed answering questions that test her breadth of knowledge, such as one category that challenged players to identify famous people with the initials "J.J." (James Joyce and Jermaine Jackson among them).

But quiz night - a tradition with British roots that's gained popularity over the years with TV shows such as "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" and "Weakest Link" - is just one version of game night.

At the Whistle Stop Bar in San Diego, patrons can play old standbys, from Candyland to Uno, during "games & grooves" night. And several W hotels, including those in New York, San Francisco and Honolulu, have placed board games in their lobbies for guests to use.

Robin LaSota, a 36-year-old Chicagoan, has started storing Cranium - a popular game first marketed at Starbucks - in the trunk of her car.

"You just never know when it might come in handy," says LaSota, who has helped her Stanford University alumni club organize game nights in people's homes.

"It makes gatherings more fun and meaningful."

At least one board game-maker says the notion that game night is only for kids or those with a limited social calendar also is disappearing.

"It's not the nerdy thing that people might think it is. It's actually a great way to meet people," says Eric Poses, a 30-year-old from Santa Monica, Calif., who created the game Loaded Questions in 1997. That game, which is making the rounds at coffeehouses and bars, features queries aimed at sparking conversation about hidden talents and favorite pastimes, among other things.

The fad seems to be having an impact on sales of "adult" board games.

They were up 5 percent in 2003, compared with the previous year, according to The NPD Group, a research firm that tracks toy and game sales.

"Obviously, games are something that stand the test of time," says Jim Silver, publisher of Toy Book, a trade publication.

That's certainly the case with go, an ancient Asian game in which players strategically place black and white "stones" on a board to gain territory.

Mark Rubenstein, a 52-year-old software developer, used to call it a good night when more than two people showed up at an Evanston, Ill., cafe to play the game in the mid-'90s. Now, as many as 40 players come to play on any given night.

Chris Urso - a 20-year-old college student whose math instructor introduced him to go - says he was looking for something beyond computer games.

"This is three-dimensional," he says. "You can talk to the person you're playing."