My group this week decided to play Mental Blocks. The game is a group puzzle where each player sees the shape from one perspective. We had to construct the shape out of blocks within the time limit while also following other restrictions such as only touching one color. Overall we struggled much more than I expected, possibly because we had five players instead of eight like the last time I played. The first shape was easy enough, but that gave us some false confidence leading to a much too difficult second shape. Going back down in difficulty we found some success, but it was still a challenge.

One challenge we had as a group was only viewing the puzzle from our own perspective. We often had disagreements about the overall shape of the blocks that might have been easier to solve if we figured out which side each of us had first. Another problem I faced which likely wasn’t intended was interpreting the shape of the 3d cards. At one point after we ran out of time I showed the card to everyone at the table and we all agreed that the card showed the shape as being three blocks tall even though the solution clearly only had two. While I understand showing a 3d object on a 2d card is difficult this problem occurred several times and with only five players we didn’t have any other 3d cards.

Having a good leader greatly helps overcoming the challenges of Mental Blocks. Getting the players to work together instead of independently is the best chance for success. This requires someone to think beyond their personal goal on their card and to instead coordinate placement between players. While each player has their own goal their trying to accomplish the point of the game is to find how to combine them all to win. As a leader in this game or in real life you must find how to compromise people’s desires in order to effectively work together.