They could be using their PlayStations to wreak havoc in "Grand Theft Auto." They could control the lives of digital "people" over the Internet. They could even watch a movie.

Instead, they are enraptured for hours by a cardboard square and a few pieces of plastic.

Last Wednesday evening, more than a dozen members of the Sacramento Board Games Club set up their low-tech amusements at Weatherstone Coffee & Trading in midtown. UNO cards popped out of a special dispenser at one table, while at others, Pounce and Sacramento-In-A-Box held their own.

"It's a stress reliever," said Gwen Mascy, who founded the club earlier this year. "You're not thinking about the cares of your life. You're thinking about the game, cracking jokes with people."

Even during a holiday shopping season that offers more electronic gadgets than ever, old-fashioned board games are holding their own.

Perhaps it's because board games appeal to a broad range of ages, from a 6-year-old who places "cat" on the Scrabble board to her aunt who sets out "quixotic." Maybe it's because players have the opportunity to socialize (or squabble). And unlike movies or books, games offer a different ending every time -- unless you're playing that one cousin who always wins.

Far from replacing board games, technology often boosts their popularity. Players can meet after finding each other online or send game moves back and forth over e-mail. They might buy innovative games from Germany or Italy on the Web. Offline, DVDs enhance the movie trivia game Scene It? and the latest edition of Trivial Pursuit.

Of course, though many of the games are the same, society has changed dramatically since they were invented.

"The America that spawned Scrabble and Monopoly is very different now," said John Williams, executive director of the National Scrabble Association.

"It's no longer a Mom, Dad, two kids, a grandmother and a dog sitting around for hours every week. Between single-family homes and extended families and all the distractions of contemporary culture, it's a lot of change."

Still, the old plastic-and-cardboard models are expected to last.

"One thing will never change," said Phil Jackson, vice president of marketing for games and puzzles worldwide for Mattel Inc. "People love to compete. People love to socialize. People love to win. People love to be together and have a shared experience.

"There are very few things in life that can do that like a game."

Advance to Go

Most people take it for granted that games should be fun -- but not the early developers of board games in the United States.

Mansion of Happiness, released in 1843, was meant to provide moral instruction for children. If they landed on a space marked Virtue or Justice, they moved ahead. Laziness or Drunkenness sent them backward. Perhaps it's no surprise this first commercially produced game in the United States was published in Salem, Mass., of witch-trials fame.

Only in the latter half of the 19th century did amusement take on the importance it has today. Milton Bradley marketed the first travel-size games for Civil War soldiers. Monopoly partly owed its popularity during the Great Depression to the opportunity it gave people to buy, sell and develop property. Simon, one of the first electronic games, appeared in 1978.

Many games then and now allow children to vicariously enjoy an adult experience -- whether in making money, sniffing out criminals or sinking battleships. In some cases, they put children and adults on the same playing field, and even give kids a chance to win.

More important perhaps than winning or losing is camaraderie, a factor that may have become more important for Americans after Sept. 11.

"I don't know if you could call it a rebellion against technology or remembering what you used to love as a kid, but there has been a clear resurgence in board games," said Eric Poses, president of the game company All Things Equal Inc.

"Rebellion" might be too strong a word for the Sacramento Board Games Club. But it's true that the last thing Mascy wanted to do after working at a computer all day was spend the evening alone in front of the television. She'd enjoyed socializing at the Scrabble club in San Francisco. After moving to Sacramento, she started her own game club.

Ten to 30 gamesters show up at Weatherstone twice a month to play anything from Cranium to cribbage to the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" game.

While the games themselves are low-tech, many players found the club through Web sites such as Craig's List and meetup.com. An e-mail listserv recounts the game winners and funny incidents.

"If it wasn't for technology, I wouldn't have known this existed," said Leah Negri, an executive secretary.

Left foot blue

It's easier to name a classic game than to say what makes a game a classic. Generally, classics are relatively easy to learn but difficult to master. They can be played by different age groups at the same time and are fun to play repeatedly. They might involve all the players all the time and allow players to socialize as they compete.

They're also easy to size up at first sight so potential players will understand basically how the game is played and why they might like it.

"There's a lot less tolerance on the part of consumers for reading long rules that require lots of study before the game is played," said Philip Orbanes, president of Winning Moves Games and author of "The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers, From Tiddley Winks to Trivial Pursuit" (Dimensions, $29.95).

One way to capitalize on the selling power of classic games is to design variations. Twister Moves, a twist on the game Twister, gives players their own mat and the chance to incorporate dance moves into the game.

Such games tend to sell better than completely new releases and will probably also be the games of the future, Orbanes said. They are the blue jeans of an industry that Mark Morris, a spokesman for Hasbro, compares to high fashion: Most games only last two to three years.

"So many good games already exist that there is almost always an existing product to satisfy players' desires," Orbanes said.

That doesn't stop game designers from trying to dream up the next classic. Eric Poses and Anne Siegert developed Loaded Questions and The 80's Game, respectively, by coining an idea, testing it with friends and assertively marketing the result.

Scott Starkey self-published The Motherlode of Sticky Gulch, set during the Gold Rush, which was one of 20 or so game prototypes he created.

To his surprise, it made the list of top 100 games of the year in Games magazine. The 1,000 copies he had printed led people to seek him out at game conventions and even ask for his autograph. Breaking even is more likely than making it big, but design is still a fun hobby, he said.

"Whether it fails or is great, I need to get it out of my system to go on to the next idea," said Starkey, a computer technician at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. "It's fun to see them come to light."

Lose one turn

While today's parents don't expect a board game to teach morality, other lessons might be taught.

"Monopoly brings out human interaction skills, which we all need to succeed when we get older," said Orbanes, who has served as a judge for U.S. and international tournaments.

"Players who typically win are those who are able to work well with their opponents and don't present themselves as a threat or as an unreasonable person."

Triple word score

Topping the list of frequently asked questions at the National Scrabble Association: How good a player am I?

The answer: Not as good as you think you are.

But for those who are convinced they're champions, there's always the national tournaments. ESPN even broadcast this year's $50,000 Scrabble tournament, which featured words such as "lemuroid" (like or pertaining to the lemurs or the Lemuroidea), "santimi" (type of Latvian currency) and "pyrola" (a type of evergreen plant).

The World Board Game Championships each summer in Baltimore draw about 1,000 people -- 100 of whom gamer Bruce Monnin knows and plays against even in the evening after official competition is over.

"The friends I have around the country I only see once a year -- that keeps me going as much as anything," said Monnin, a substitute teacher.

During the year, he plays through e-mail, moving the pieces for each player in a specially built room in the basement with magnetized game pieces fixed to boards on the walls. (He can't allot three or four hours at a time for a whole game now that he has a family.)

A history buff, he prefers games in which players take on the roles of opposing sides in a real war, such as World War II, and strive to do better than their side did historically.

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For more information on opportunities to play board games in Sacramento, e-mail sacbdgames@yahoo.com or visit home.comcast.net/~patois47/club.htm or www.geocities.com/
sabagames/Sacramento_Area_Boardgame_Association_index.html.

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Rating the games

Game: The 80's Game
Age group: 25-45
Cost: $32.95
Number of players: 2-6
Fun factor (scale of four): 3 stars
Comment: Do you remember what kind of cereal Pee Wee Herman ate in "Pee wee's Big Adventure?" Also available in '70s and '90s editions.

Game: Scene It?
Age group: 13+
Cost: $39.99
Number of players: 2+
Fun factor (scale of four): 3 stars
Comment: A definite bias for movies of the past 20 years. Don't have to be a movie expert.

Game: Loaded Questions
Age group: Teen to adult
Cost: $24.99
Number of players: 3-6
Fun factor (scale of four): 3 stars
Comment: Tests how well you know the other players. If you don't -- you will.

Game: Break the Safe
Age group: 8+
Cost: $19.99
Number of players: 2-4
Fun factor (scale of four): 2 stars
Comment: It might play in 30 minutes or less, but reading the rules takes twice as long.

Game: Electronic Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey Game
Age group: 4+
Cost: $19.99
Number of players: 2-4
Fun factor (scale of four): 1 star
Comment: After a few annoying hee-haws, you may find yourself hurling the annoying critter across the room.

Game: Jargon
Age group: 10+
Cost: $29.95
Number of players: 2-6
Fun factor (scale of four): 4 stars
Comment: Scrabble with categories and the chance to play any word, but without the crazy scoring rules.

Game: Ice Lake
Age group: 9+
Cost: $20
Number of players:2-4
Fun factor (scale of four): 1 star
Comment: Too thin. This pencil-and-paper ice skating game got a chilly reception from our judges.

Game: Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture DVD edition
Age group: 8+
Cost: $26.99
Number of players: 2-6
Fun factor (scale of four): 2 stars
Comment: Too much '80s trivia for younger folks; many DVD questions are just cards on a screen.

Game: Tumblin' Monkeys
Age group: 5+
Cost: $9.99
Number of players: 2-4
Fun factor (scale of four): 4 stars
Comment: This creative take on pickup sticks tests the coordination of kids and adults alike.

Game: The Original Battling Tops Game
Age group: 6+
Cost: $9.99
Number of players: 2-4
Fun factor (scale of four): 1 star
Comment: Spinning tops offer little more than short-lived novelty for tech-savvy kids.

Game: Conjecture
Age group: 8+
Cost: $8
Number of players: 4+
Fun factor (scale of four): 4 stars
Comment: Charades with clay, this fun game asks players to sculpt everything from peanut butter to a time machine.

Game: Cranium Hullabaloo
Age group: 4+
Cost: $24.99
Number of players: 1-6
Fun factor (scale of four): 3 stars
Comment: A colorful variation on musical chairs, with a twist.

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