Story One

We didn’t have much time, but my flat mate and I decided to have a quick round of cluedo as a wee study break. And quick it certainly was! I usually enjoyed playing cluedo with her, but this time was different. She seemed, how can I put it? quite mean! I mean I know we are both rather competitive, but always in a joke like way, nothing personal whatsoever. But this time, it felt personal.

Like always I got to be the fabulous Miss Scarlett who I have grown quite attached in to having. My flattie always went for Professor Plum, not sure why...maybe it was the rich colour purple which he got to represent.  The murder cards were in the envelope, the remainder of the cards were dealt, and it was my turn to start.

A fabulous one was my first roll. You’ve got to be kidding I thought! However, being a good player I didn’t let my disappointment go to heart and I carried on playing. After watching my opposition roll a 6 and being only a few spaces away from entering a room, I knew I had to roll big numbers. A one, another one!! Ok I thought, as ridiculous as this may seem I’m not going to let it ruin everything in this game.

My flatmate rolled big and entered the room, typical. She asks me for Mrs Peacock, with the revolver in the study. What! I look at my cards...how can this be? I don’t have any! I’m hoping that she’s being super mysterious and asking what she already has, and not that she’s found the murder cards already! Fortunately for me, the game continued...and so went my next roll.

A two, that’s just perfect. At least it wasn’t as bad as a one, but I am still 4 spaces away from being able to ask a question. At the rate I’m going, by the time I manage to enter the room the game will be over! And you know what, I was right. My flatmate seemed to be asking the perfect questions, and I seemed to be rolling the most imperfect numbers. The game could not have possibly gone any worse for me. Never again I thought to myself, never again.

The Ergonomics of Boardgaming!
When we are looking at ergonomics, we must consider the environment, activity, and how it fits that person. Our role as an Occupational Therapist is to "constantly make slight invisible adjustments to an activity to adapt to the needs of those taking part and ensure that it continues to work for its intended purpose" (Caulton & Dickson, 2007).

Lets first look at the at the person element in regards to boardgaming. Some of the main things that a person needs for boardgaming is time, a reason for doing the activity and knowledge on how to play the game. As boardgaming requires more then one player to be successful, I had to always rope in another person who would want to play. As this was often my flatmate who is generally quite busy (as I), we decided to do it as "study break". This gave us a reason to play the game, which provided us with time to play, as well have enough people to play the game.

In regards to the environment, there is not a lot to consider in order to make a boardgame wun successfully. We often played in the sun room of the house which provided comfort and had limited distractions. When we boardgame we are so engaged in this activity, that a room full of distractions isn't necessarily an issue. Therefore boardgames can almost be played anywhere!! ....within in reason of course!

When looking at the activity we are reminded again that more then one person needs to participate in  order for the game to be successful. Having more people then just my flatmate also provides variety and new challenges to playing games. To overcome this we held a couple boardgaming nights where we could let lose and get competitive!

Ergonomics looks at the whole activity and how fits with the person, and how the person fits with the acitivity. In the sense ergonomics is about how the acitivity is shaped by the person carrying it out and the environment that they are in.


References:
Creek, J & Lawson-Porter. (Eds). (2007) Contempory issues in occupational therapy. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd