Friday, January 20, 2006

Board Games and Jigsaw Puzzles: Are They Interlocking Hobbies?


One thing I've been puzzled (!) by recently is the interesting connection between the hobbies of board gaming and jigsaw puzzles. Perhaps this is a sign of me having studied too much this week, but hear me out...

The similarities between the two are significant:
  • Both involve moving around colorful cardboard bits on a table, looking for patterns to emerge
  • Both frequently deal with interesting locations, historical eras, fantasy themes
  • At least in Europe, several of the top board game companies are also top jigsaw puzzle companies (e.g. Ravensburger)
  • Both can either be a family / social activity or can be done solo.
Anyway, don't worry... I haven't lost my mind and defected to jigsaw puzzling. I did just pick up a very cool jigsaw puzzle of the Alexander the Great's battle against the Persians at Issus (2,000 pieces), which is right in line with my ancients gaming theme... A picture of the puzzle is above.

posted by Ben @ 4:17 PM   4 comments

4 Comments:

At 11:26 PM, January 20, 2006, Blogger Simon said...

I think you can make similar inferences between any two topics given a certain amount of creativity.

Hamsters and weapons grade plutonium anyone?

I'll give a cookie at the next game session for the best response.

Oh, I'll do it.

 
At 11:58 PM, January 20, 2006, Blogger Rob said...

I kinda felt the same way simon. I think they aren't similar at all. But with a good swig of whiskey, I can start "seeing" the similarities between 2 of anything. HEHEHE

BTW, plutonium is absorbed at different rates by hamsters that are fasted for different lengths of time.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3539844&dopt=Abstract

 
At 2:03 PM, January 21, 2006, Blogger Jonathan W. said...

With the right amount of preperation hamsters and plutonium can be deadly weapons.

Hamster:
http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/6583/Hamster_Fighting.html

Plutonium:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_explosion

They are amazingly close.

 
At 3:33 PM, January 21, 2006, Blogger Ben said...

Hmmm... having gotten a good night of sleep last night, I afraid I agree with you guys.... :)

 

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