Saudi Gazette

MANY young Saudis are reviving their childhood memories by playing several board games and cards. Traditional games such as the Carrom, a board game of Indian origin, Monopoly, a board game that originated in the United States, and UNO, an American card game, came back to the Saudi market and have become the best selling games in the country.

These vintage school age games helped enhance communication skills of the youth and had a major role in gathering family and friends together, according to the young players.

Some of the old games such as Komkom, which is a traditional game popular in Hejaz, have been developed into new and better versions. Players compete to gain the most points by hitting shells against each other.

Bidoon Kalam is a game using a bunch of colorful sticks. Each color has an idiom or maxim from one of the Arab regions.

New games with similar ideas have been innovated and introduced to the Saudi market. Darahem and Saudi Deal are games that are rapidly gaining in popularity and are likely to push electronic games out of the Kingdom's games market, according to some of the players.

Some of these products are available through various online stores and retail outlets, including Version, Jareer Bookstores and Baby Etra.

Waad Alabdullatif, a Saudi financial analyst in her 20s, plays several traditional games including Rock-Paper-Scissors, which is an old, zero-sum hand game.

When she was asked about the reason behind going back to the old games and playing them again, she said reviving these games brings happiness and helps in gathering the family members around.

“It is better than having a gathering where people just sit and gossip. So we play these traditional games to entertain ourselves and enjoy our time,” said Alabdullatif.

She added that these games make the players laugh and remember old memories and we create new ones through having incidents during the game. For her one of the special features of these games like, ‘say or not to say’ game is that it fit different ages, elder and children can play it, while other games can gather many people such as, "Wajh Alnahs" wkere around 10 people can play it at the same time.

Nada Jambi, a Saudi female in her 30s Specialist Nursing, mentioned that she plays Monopoly and UNO. She explained that these games makes the player enthusiastic and gather the family and increase the positiveness at the house.

“These traditional board and card games are more entertaining than the electronic games, including Dharahem , a new Saudi game. These games become a main reason behind the family gatherings recently,” Wael, a male in his 30s working at IT Analyst, said,

People nowadays prefer to play traditional games rather than video and electronic games, according to Maryam Alaidarous, a Saudi female in her 20s.

She said, “Honestly, these games are better than the electronic games. I play several games but not always such as, Carrom, Uno, and Komkom because they help in gathering people. Yet, my husband still play electronic games, so I think it depends on the taste of the players.”

Salwa Khalid, a Saudi housewife in her 30s, said, “Old is gold as they say. These games enhance your communication skills, make you smile, and you can always think and be more creative and think out of the box to win. Most of the electronic games make you feel lonely and you spend long time alone.”