Another type of game in the tabletop sub category that certainly has a strong element in the lives of children is the guessing game sub category. This is as simple as it sounds, being related to games in which the object is to attempt to guess something either obscured by the game itself or by other players who are participating in the game at hand. This attempt to come up with information without being told the answer is the very basis of guessing games which generally attempt to avoid spoken or written words, instead trying to elicit or coerce the information from the players in question when their turn arrives. These games can get very complex, but at their core they are all about guessing the information and using the player’s own inherent set of knowledge.
This type of game has become a huge hit in a way that might surprise some who are thinking of this style of game as merely a board game like Pictionary. Instead, these games have become a major part of the TV gaming experience, that is through game shows broadcast over TV. A huge range of different titles which rely on the player being able to guess something include The Price is Right, Jeopardy, Password, Family Feud and Win, Lose or Draw. While there are of course video game variants of nearly all the guessing games in the world today they are not considered part of the tabletop category and thus are included under the video games category instead. Due to the huge popularity of these types of games and the fact that they tend to have an extremely low barrier to entry for incoming players, they can be easily played in a variety of settings ranging from schools to taverns to nursing homes around the world. This easy access has created a strong love of these games, as well.
In addition to the TV versions of guessing games, there are a number of different board games which incorporate this style of play and these include Taboo, Charades, Catch Phrase, Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary. All of these games incorporate a strong element of guessing and allow players to have a more social type of experience than many other games will. There are even specific sub genres of this type of tabletop game that cater to the knowledge base of specific groups of people and offer a more specialized form of play.
Thanks to the ease of play and fast pace of these games, they have managed to garner a very large following and are nearly always embraced in group settings simply because they have a low level of preparation needed to get involved with the game. This has worked out extremely well for many who have wanted to play a game but not learn a lot of complicated rules.
