Customer Reviews

NAQ

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Great game. A group of us played it the other night and got really into it. The concept is simple but very unique. It's the only game I've played that requires both intellectual knowledge and knowledge of the other players to win. It was a great evening.

I have played NAQ several times with friends and family members. It's been a blast every time we've played. It's also a new and fresh game every time because the players make up the questions. I also like how the NAQ Cards add a fun twist to the overall strategy of the game. Now, I find myself thinking of NAQ questions all the time. Great game!

I am bilingual and NAQ is the first game that my whole family was able to play and we had lots of fun! Some of my family members do not speak English and NAQ allows the questions and answers to be in any language. Many of our questions were about our own culture. This game is awesome.....good job NAQ!

Nine of us played NAQ on Thanksgiving and everyone enjoyed it a lot. My favorite part was that everyone was trying to stump the leader, which is the best strategy to slow down the leader. All nine of us were near the finish at the same time, which was very exciting. NAQ is a super fun party game!

NAQ is a game that is all about the people playing the game. My family and I have been playing NAQ for years and it's our favorite board game. It's been fun every time we have played, except on one occasion. My brother had a friend who joined us in a game one night and he was such a negative person that his energy took all the fun and creativity out of the game. A negative person with bad energy will make any game a bummer. I have played NAQ at least 20 times over the last few years and have learned that as long as you have positive people with good energy, then playing the game is so much FUN.

I've been spoiled. Spoiled by playing above-average game after above-average game. It was a good run. An unbroken streak of maybe eight just plain great games.

Well, those who have long envied the fun I have been having playing boardgames with friends and family alike, can all rest very assured. I have played NAQ and there is no going back. No matter how blissfully ignorant of what the rest of game-playing humanity might have had to endure, I have now stared into the eye of the demon, seen through it's crystalline gaze, and witnessed first-hand the blood-slick walls of the antechamber to his altar to gaming depravity. I have played NAQ. And the greatest wonder is that my soul has not been entirely drained of its tenacious will to play games.

Seriously. If you want to ruin games for someone. Make them play this. No, better yet, trick them into playing it by raving about how good the game is, thereby making all the more devastating their experience as they peel off their own flesh in an attempt to purify their being.

Now I know what you're asking yourself as you try to pick through what you assume must be thick hyperbole. Could it possibly be as bad as all that? My truthful answer to you? Probably. Maybe. Well, yes.

Yes, NAQ is a horrible awful game. Granted, I'm not any kind of great evangelist for party games. They aren't my favourite activity by a long shot. But still, I have been known to enjoy myself while playing Beyond Balderdash, Taboo, Pictionary, Outburst, etc. Certainly there are games I'd prefer, but sometimes a party game is the only game that will do. And in cases when only a party game will do and all you have available is NAQ, you have officially received confirmation that it is time to send everyone home and end your party. Because really, that's what NAQ will do as it sucks all joy from the room, causing your guests to wander aimlessly about the room quoting bits of Sarte's Nausea in an effort to properly equip themselves for the dreadful ennui that must verily follow.

Now, to the mechanic.

When it is your turn, you think up a trivia question to ask everyone else. Your goal is to think up a question that exactly half of your opponents will answer correctly, while the others sit stumped and pained by their ignorance. You get points for an even split of answers and less points the more extreme the divide. It essentially comes down to Know Your Room.

If I'm playing with Tom, Reginald, Vicky, Julie, Michael, and their teenage daughter, little Gunhild, I can think to myself, well I know that Julie, Michael, and little Gunhild just moved from Kentucky, so I'll ask, "In what county is Pikeville, Kentucky situated?" knowing all the while that they had lived in Pikeville until two months ago. My gamble is slight - that Tom, Reginald, and Vicky would have the good sense not to know that Pikeville is located in Pike County. The thing is, once I find a divisor in the group, I can hone in on questions that will benefit from the division. Only half the group are familiar with Italian directors? Great! All my questions will favour Italian directors. I'm in a group in which half the members didn't read Harry Potter because they thought it was the Great Satan? Bingo. I'm a sure win. Or, as it happened with me, a group that was half kids/half adults: Naruto trivia for the win.

The game wasn't fun. Not even by a stretch. I could imagine it being remotely less tedious in a group of friends who are all exactly the same age and grew up in similar households and no one is able to determine the divisor. But no, nevermind, then its just random guessing and where is the fun in that.

In conclusion, when you see or hear advertising promoting NAQ as at all worth your while, please recognize this as little more than bitter lies designed to part you with your presumably well-earned dollar.