Customer Reviews

The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers, from Tiddledy Winks to Trivial Pursuit

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3 star:		(2)
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I finished reading the Game Makers at 2:00 a.m. Usually I am sleeping long beforehand, but I found it just fascinating to learn about this amazing family and their great company-- especially because of the the way the story is told. It is filled with real drama and surprise. It made it difficult to stop reading before the last page. I learned a lot about making games as well. I also understand much better now the relations between the principles of successful business and the rules of games. The incredible changes in the last 25 years were of great interest for me. The amount of details presented is astonishing and the way they are presented makes it a pleasure to read.I applaud this highly original and interesting book.

The author is a former employee and diehard fan of Parker Brothers which makes his viewpoint a double edged sword. On the one hand, his account is complimentary although never gushing. He does not shy away from relating some of the nasty corporate politics especially those during the company's recent years during which he worked for them. Some of the early history though, seems a bit too rosy especially when you consider US labor conditions in the early 20th century.
On the much brighter side, Orbanes' passion and connections to the company have afforded him dilligence and sources no other author could have attained. The book is well documented with accounts from George Parker's own private papers as well as interviews with lifelong employees from the upper and lower reaches of the organization.
Being a game fan, I can't be completely objective about the historical quality of the book. Orbanes injects as much historical context as he can and documents these references as well. Personally, I couldn't put the book down and found every chapter fascinating.

Philip Orbanes tells a sympathetic and interesting tale of Parker Brothers' long rise to fame and fortune between 1883 and the beginning of the 1980s, as well how General Mill's video-game-stoked greed and lack of prudence brought on the decline of the once so respected game maker. This is the point where the authors tone as well as coverage of the history of the firm change dramatically, becoming somewhat more emotional, although not less enthusiastic.

One thing that "bothers" me about Orbanes' book is that the author is not always as elaborate as he could be. For example, he could have been more explicit on how Parker's Banking game was actually played, rather than just a basic outline of the game. Or the history of the Mah-Jongg game could have been more detailed. Also, an early example of the clear and concise wording of game rules that George Parker was famous for would have been interesting. None of these shortcomings seriously compromise the quality of the book, but it left me somewhat hungry for more material.

Much to my amusement, from the moment I passed the first few pages of Philip Orbanes' Parker story I have been housing the notion of making games myself. I can only imagine the satisfaction of creating intelligent and fun games. I find the concept of take a set of concise, simple rules and turning them into challenging and lasting game quite intriguing. Parker certainly mastered this principle in the past with games such as Risk or Monopoly, to name two of the most prominent.

Parker Brothers have made some of the most memorable games and the story of how they came up with them and built an empire is fascinating. This is one of the great business books on the toy industry of which sadly there are few. No attention was placed to video games undercutting board games sloes but otherwise this covers everything you would want to know. The stories are great and the ideas for the games really come to life. For those who want to create board games or understand the toy industry this is a must read.

This is a must read if you enjoy collecting or playing with classic toys and games. I was to learn more about how the early jigsaw puzzles were made. Phil covers the the eras of George S. Parker, Ranny Barton and General Mills well. The Nerf section near the end of the book is pretty cool, too.

The first half of this book a fascinating adventure about the men who started the company and made millions (or billions) of people happy with their products. George Parker and his brothers went through a lot of ups and downs over the decades when they ran the company. World wars, the Great Depression, death, illness, and more were all part of what this company went through.

Once Parker Brothers is no longer run by any of the brothers Parker, some of the charm is lost in the book. It's a corporation, not a family company. Enter the typical corporate battles and machinations.

Great read for those interested in the men behind some of the great iconic table games in history. George Parker was a pioneer in so many ways, and this book tells the story of a wonderful slice of Americana.

This book covers the history of the Parker Brothers Company from its founding by George Parker in the 1880s to its final absorption by the Hasbro conglomerate in 1991. The book is a quick 220-page that goes into the mind of Mr. Parker who had absolute control over the running of the family-run company based in Salem, Massachusetts until his physical decline in the late 1940s and his subsequent death in 1952. The author presents a somewhat idealistic portrait of this man, a man that could do no wrong most of the time. However, in hindsight I would say that his eleven principles for business that are in this book kept the company on sound financial footing. This advice was heeded for the most part until the disastrous decision by the company's General Mills overseers to guide Parker Brothers into foolishly putting all of the its efforts into the video game market before the great videogame crash of 1984.

The history covered in this book lists a "what's what" of famous games including Monopoly, Clue, Rook, Risk and other games that myself and my brothers enjoyed during our growing up years in the 1960s and 1970s which I enjoyed a lot. Tragic events such as the death of Mr. Parker's two sons are discussed in depth. Overall, this book is a good introduction to a great company whose signature plant has now been gone for almost 20 years and testified to the Yankee can-do spirit that is slowly disappearing from the face of New England.

This is a perfect companion to Orbanes' other two books about the Monopoly game. If you have an interest in the history of Monopoly, this is good to have. However you would also want Orbanes' History of Monopoly.

Interesting book for those looking for how a corporation develops into a household name. Good for general entrepreneurs, but also for those who grew up w/ Parker Bro. games and have a bit of time on their hands to read a non-fiction book. Well-written.

This is a solid book, a straight history of a company written by a former employee.

The Parker Bros. started their company in the era when small businesses could set up shop in the US, with a few good ideas. Starting as a family firm, it grew on instinct and intuition, based in the founder's "12 principles" that the author reveres: see your goal, make winning moves towards it, play by (and use) the rules, be patient, etc. (THese are fine for a company that faces little global competition, when the play mattered more than the marketing, not to forget the power of the retailers, like Wal-Mart, who both control shelf space and prices.) The author continues to go back to these principles as a reference point, kind of like it expressed the soul of the company. Parker Bros. was based in Salem, MA, a firm that engendered great loyalty in a family-like atmosphere. People expected to work there their whole lives, get help and leeway when they needed it, and keep their personal work habits.

There were some differences about the company in the early days. While its foundation rested in the founder's love of games and his own inventiveness, it paid attention to markets outside the US; in this way, it found many games invented in England, including tiddeley winks and ping pong. As such the company grew in a simpler capitalism, but shrewdly and competently.

Once the next generation took over, in a somewhat joyless son-in-law, the company needed to be professionalized and "scientifically managed" via modernization of its accounting, production, etc. This meant that much of the old culture was swept away, people were fired in the depression era, which enabled the son-in-law to impose his will. It was Monopoly that allowed the company to survive. The company then did well into the 1960s, when it concentrated on good game play. In the meantime, the industry was changing, not only with modern marketing (via TV) but also the advent to electronic games and the rising power of retailers.

It is about this time that corporate politics came into play. The son-in-law wanted out, so he sold the family company to General Mills, which ran it as a profit center. After a series of very bad decisions - naively portrayed in the book as losing touch with the 12 principles - Parker Bros was merged into Hasbro, alongside its great traditional competitor Milton Bradley. It then starts to concentrate on good play experiences again, returning to popularity with specialized variations on Monopoly and the like. There the book ends, in about 1991, though there are 3 pages on what happened since.

It my reading, Parker Bros both lost its way and failed to adapt to the evolving habits of children: they change their preferences faster, have (indeed demand) more options such as video games, and marketing has taken over as a narrative that children enter (allied with films and cartoons designed to sell toys, as was pioneered by Lucas with Star Wars). What the author describes is now a boutique niche - perfectly valid to be sure - but no longer at the apex of the toy industry. To survive independently, Parker Bros would have had to transform itself, as Mattel and LEGO have done, into more ambitious brands.

That being said, there is good info on the toy industry, at least historically. The author is also critical, indeed bitter, about the corporate mentality during the General Mills ownership. As I am not an expert, this is hard to judge.

Recommended. It is a good read, well written, and has a clear point of view.