After years of obsessing about choices related to love
and money, teacher Susan Morry decided to create a board
game about life’s little trade-offs.
As they work their way through the game’s 660 questions
on 330 cards, players of If You Had To Choose...?™ can
also look forward to many hours of considering the pros and
cons of different decisions.
They may get to consider whether they prefer to be rich
or in love, whether they want to live a long life or be slim,
and whether they want a mate who is intelligent or beautiful.
Or perhaps they’ll get to ponder this: “If… you
have to choose one, would you rather be wealthy but never
meet the person of your dreams or earn minimum wage but find
your soulmate?”
From two to 10 adults can predict how their counterparts
will respond to that and other questions by betting on
their answers with chips. The winner is the one who most
often correctly predicts the others’ responses.
Morry, who teaches high school English in Toronto, said
her game is ultimately a spiritual one, as it makes players
think about what’s really important, while at the same
time enabling them to interact and connect with one another.
“We live in a spiritually starved time, and people
crave entertainment that will put them more in touch with
their souls,” she said.
When she was younger, Morry said, she was always asking
her friends, “Would you rather this or would you rather
that?”
Then, when she became a teacher, those questions often became
journal topics for her students, and over time, in-depth
discussions about them would develop in her classes.
Around 10 years ago, she realized the questions could become
the basis for a board game, and she began to create the game
model and write 700 questions, which she said are intentionally
provocative and based on hypothetical situations.
Although conceiving the game was relatively easy, its birth
was not, with Morry struggling to find the money to make
the game a commercial reality.
But she persevered and finally launched her game last December,
with an initial run of 500 units selling out in the first
12 days after the game was featured on CityTV, CFRB radio
and in Toronto Metro newspaper.
She markets the game under her own company name, “Choose
Games Inc.,” which has six shareholders, all friends
of hers.
Morry said that even the graphics for the game were carefully
chosen. They feature Michelangelo’s Adam and Botticelli’s
Venus – who look like Adam and Eve when placed side
by side, Morry said – to emphasize that the game asks
questions that are timeless and universal.
Having already broken into the Canadian and American markets,
Morry is now focused on Europe.
During the summer, she will be translating the questions
into French, to be followed by other European languages.
She also has ideas to expand the game onto the Internet
on dating website chatlines, as she feels it could be an
excellent way for people to see whether they are compatible
with potential mates.
Recently, she received a letter from a chassidic Talmud
teacher who said the game was “holy” and embodies
the essence of the Talmud, as it is a lesson in choosing
between alternatives.
Reprinted with permission by The Canadian Jewish News. http://www.cjnews.com/
All rights reserved.
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