When in Rome – Interactive Board Game with Alexa

‘Games’ Night!’ – that’s me shouting up the stairs.

Every now and again I want us all to sit down together and play games, as a family. I know, ‘these are modern times’ as the kids sometimes tell me, but I want to see more of them and I know they will look back with fond memories when they are older! So yes sometimes there is a moan when I shout up to them but not tonight! I had told them that we would be playing a new game with Alexa keeping score and even giving the questions so they were super excited! Technology eh!

So we gathered together, unboxed the game, invited Alexa and she read us the instructions and kept score! It was really a fun experience. This is quite inventive! Let me tell you about it. its a trivia game involving questions about travel. Depending on where you land, the accents change to suit that area of the world. We had fun listening to the various accents. Some are really funny!

So Alexa explained the rules and also kept track of the scores. This was a big plus. We didn’t have to go find a pen and paper and none of us had the job of keeping score. There are no cheats in my family (wink wink) but I know that sometimes families have a disagreement because it is felt that the person who is keeping score is also cheating! None of this with When in Rome. The score is kept secure with Alexa and I trust her!

So I was on the red team. After Alexa explained the game, she read me my question, gave me the options and played a lovely tune whilst I pondered the answer. It was good that I could interrupt her song at any time (wouldn’t want to hear all the song anyway!) Yes! The first question I got correct so I was able to get my scores and even meet a virtual friend who joined me in the city where I was.

Like I have said before, I really enjoy hearing the accents from the different locations. The girls love the element of challenging themselves to go for the more challenging questions to earn themselves more points and they also loved learning more in terms of Geography related questions. Our kids do love Geography! and what with 20 cities to visit, they really did get their Geography fix!

so overall, we love this novel game! We have never seen anything like it before so we do believe this is really going to ‘shoot off’. Catch it while you can! I can see the price rising as the game becomes more popular. At the time of writing, it costs £24.99 if you have Amazon Prime.

A little birdie has told me that also just released from the same people is Wordmine, a new word anagram game that is free to download and play on the Amazon echo. Check it out here. That’s what I am about to do now.

Other things to do together as a family

 

When In Rome pairs up with an Alexa powered smart speaker such as Amazon’s Echo, which then guides players through the game – teaching the rules, keeping track of the score and delivering immersive audio.  Players set up the board, connect to the When In Rome skill for Amazon Alexa, divide into two teams and get ready to travel the world from the comfort of their home.  

 

With 20 cities to visit and a friendly local asking questions about their city from categories including slang and language, food and drink, and random and strange, Alexa steers the players through the game as the teams compete to make new friends, earn upgrade cards and collect souvenirs in each new city they visit.  The combination of beautiful components, real locals, emergent gameplay and Alexa playing host, makes Voice Originals When In Rome an unforgettable board game experience.

“Alexa is a voice platform, and the team felt there could be no better use for it than to bring the voices of real people from around the world into players’ homes” said Alex Fleetwood, CEO of Sensible Object. “The act of playing through listening invokes our imagination and empathy, making for a very special experience”.

So if you want to see more of your kids and want them to see less of their gadgets, then I suggest you try to include a games night every now and again. Sometimes, however, the best way to get over this is to play games with them which involve them using their gadgets.