JackBox Games
I’ve only ever played JackBox games a handful of times. During our last class meeting, I had the opportunity to play as a player and as an audience member. The game I played was called Nonsensory and the game I was an audience member for was called Trivia Murder Party 2.
Some of the mechanics involved in Nonsensory include typing, drawing, score/point keeping, ranking, and voting. As a player, we were asked to read a prompt and create a title or drawing that fit the ranking that was being asked. It was up to the other players to guess the rank of what we had written. If they guessed correctly, they would get points. They could also rank their confidence level with their answer which put them at risk to double their points or lose them.
Although the game was not initially intuitive, it was very fun to play after we understood the rules. In my experience, Jackbox is best played when there are many members involved. The audience members for my particular game had the chance to play along as well and get points. When we switched over to play Trivia Murder Party 2, I got the chance to see what playing as an audience member was like. It was my first time ever doing that in Jackbox.
As an audience member, I was able to vote on who I believed would lose the round. I was even able to answer the Trivia questions and play along. Even though I was not assigned an official character, this interaction made me feel much more involved than if I were only watching the game. I think giving the audience the ability to vote and play enhances the gaming experience for everyone involved because it adds an extra level of participation.
