I used to think Scattergories was absolutely cool. Huge letter die, timer, category lists, and scoring pads are all the components you'll need.

I will say this - the die is awesomely HUGE Other games should be kept separate, or else they may suffer die envy.

The general idea of the game is simple. Everyone chooses a category list to play and that list will have ten subjects. The die is rolled and that letter becomes the letter to use for all ten subjects.

So if a 'B' is rolled, you could write down 'Binders' for School Supplies, and 'Bumblebees' for insects.

Here's the thing though - you need to come up with a unique answer to score any points. If you have the same answer as someone else, neither person scores any points. In addition, if your answer has multiple words starting with the chosen letter you get more points - ex. Mickey Mouse is worth 2 points, while Ed, Edd, and Eddie (don't ask!) would be worth 3 points.

Now, back to my title of 'I used to like this game - what happened?' I think the love affair with the game wore off when the arguments over what words were acceptable started.

For you see, since all players are looking for that unique word to fill a category subject, some of the answers can be pretty strange. I don't mind using your creativity, as this is essentially what Scattergories is about. But why put down answers that 'could' work.

Here's some examples of why I hate this game:

Subject, Things found in Paris. An 'S' was rolled. The answer that came up was 'Swedes'. The player defended it by saying there COULD be Swedes visiting Paris. This is where the game falls apart for me. I could really have written ANYTHING here - shingles, shar-pei poodles, sinks, soda crackers, silly putty etc etc etc and it COULD concievably be correct.

There are many subjects that fall into this trap - things at the beach, things at the park etc.

Or how about 'K' for hobbies which lead to 'King Kong memorabilia collecting' which went through as being a 'well, could be..' sort of answer (sorry James if you ever read this!)

If there is a dispute over a word, there is a mechanism where all players (including the challenged player?!) vote thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the word. Of course the challenged player votes thumbs-up for his own word, but his vote does not count if there is a tie.

This voting mechanism leads to some strange decisions. 'Butterfly' for an insect was voted down as the majority believed it not an insect!!!! (although I think this may have been a case of leader-bashing, which is another problem altogether).

All-in-all, I play this game very occasionally - perhaps 1-2 times a year now (although much more often years ago). It can be a fun party game and DOES lead to some weird answers (and even weirder arguments), but there are just too many problems with this game to make it worthwhile for me on a more regular basis. If you take it too seriously like me, you'll probably want to steer clear.