This week’s game was Hanabi. This is a cooperative game in which you have to “build” fireworks on the table. The hard part about this game is that you cannot see your cards and your teammates give you clues as you play. In addition, you only get three strikes (or you blow up) and your team only has so many clues. I love playing this game with my family because we have certain strategies and we know how each member of our family plays.

The hardest part for me is trying to think like other people. When giving a clue, you have to give a clue that makes sense to the person that is receiving that clue. Like during class, I had to give clues to people that didn’t do what I thought they would do. Learning to adjust to the players that are playing as well as adjusting based on what cards are dealt is very important. Learning that you must be patient and learn to work together takes some getting used to.

As far as leadership skills, this game has plenty of good examples for that. It takes advantage of group leadership, where there is no clear leader. Everyone has to pull their own weight and everyone is responsible to communicate and work as a singular unit. In addition, it thrives when people take on separate roles throughout the game. Learning to fit into a role is important in a group setting as well as in Hanabi. For example, I knew at one point I had terrible cards, so I had to start discarding cards on my turn in order to help the team. It is important to be good at your role in order to be successful as a team.

I think someone that would enjoy this game is my friend Cory. My favorite part of this game is giving clues that are challenging to understand and almost count as multiple clues given the circumstances like what cards are present and what cards other people far. I think Cory would be really good at that. In addition, his mind and approach to games like this are very similar to mine which would make playing this game with him very fun.