I would have added Clue to this list. I once had someone flip out and throw the gameboard at me when I revealed that she was in fact the murderer.

GAAAAHHHHH!

I agree with Risk, and

You probably could have interchanged any war game (such as Axis & Allies) for Risk and they would be just as appropriate.

*cough* whoops....was supposed to say:
I agree with Risk, and so does Kramer and Newman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzLtF_PxbYw

You probably could have interchanged any war game (such as Axis & Allies) for Risk and they would be just as appropriate.

You missed the king of backstabbing - Diplomacy

Good list though Monopoly should be ranked higher maybe even one. I don't think I've ever played or witnessed a game of Monopoly that didn't turn violent. Whether one or more players start to rob the bank, or the yelling and screaming, or people walking away pissed when it's hopeless and there's no point in playing, or even actual physical violence (http://www.videowired.com/video/?id=918090536).

And let's not forget this classic Calvin and Hobbes comic strip dealing with Monopoly: http://schwicky.net/calvin/images/monopoly.jpg

And yes Checkers is deceptively evil.

Risk almost did end the relationship I had with my room mate in the army; we agreed to an alliance, he took over scads of territory from our common enemy but left himself really thin on our common border, I, predictably, swoop in on the next turn and knock him out of the game. End result, we didn't play risk for the remainder of our enlistment.

And an ex girlfriend dumped a scrabble board over my head when there were 2 tiles left in the bag and I exchanged my 'Q' and 'J'.

I guess I'm a huge dick when it come to winning

I fucking hate Risk. My brother and his friends always wanted to hang out, drink a few beers, and play that fucking game. I have never won a single game in my life. How can you have a game built on strategy rely so much on the luck of the roll of dice?

Fortunately, I started playing D&D at 21, so I learned the importance of rolling all the ones out of your dice. Maybe it's time for a rematch.....

I'd put monopoly a little higher on the list. I really want to stab my bestfriend whenever we place this game. He becomes a huge dick.

I submit the not-a-boardgame disaster: Jenga. Have you ever had a Jenga piece thrown at your head? Even broke the skin.

Monopoly is top of the list. Other games destroy friendships through the fragile nature of human relationships; Monopoly was designed to ravage human souls. See 10 Boardgames You Need to Play Right Now, You Stupid Monopoly Monkey.

Sorry. Link: http://prolixwag.blogspot.com/2009/07/10-boardgames-you-need-to-play-right.html

I thought Risk would be #1 but then I realized the list wasn't titled 8 Classic Board Games That Destroy Sexual Activity.

I recently realized I was too smart for Monopoly. My strategy today involves NOT trading to my closest competitor, steadfastly refusing to make a deal, especially when it means certain monopolies go unfulfilled. Which pisses off my competition even more. And makes me gleeful.

I have played monopoly with my finace twice: Each time we don't speak for about 24 hours or so.

Also, you should have Stratego on there. I haven't played an amicable game of Stratego ever. "FUCK YOUR SPY!"

Monopoly & Cluedo, they don't just destroy friendships, they also create enemies.

BATTLESHIP! That game makes me RAGE everytime I play. I'm not even a competitive person except for when it comes to video games.
Them: "Haha, I sank your battleship!"
Me: "Oh, yeah! I sank your FACE with your screen. muahaha!"
Seriously... Battleship is the worst game ever to exist.
I do agree with Monopoly though. That game sure inspires some crazy antics.

How come Global Thermal Nuclear War isn't on the list?

RISK is for sure a frienship ending game. At 25 a friend of mine invited me to play for the 1st time. We played he won because he has palyed his whole life.

We decided to play a gain a few weeks later. I decided I was going to ask around and get tips on how to play. I did and it was apparent that I was going to win 3/4th of the way through. At that point my friend (who I used to think was one of the most patient guys I have ever met) threw the gameboard against the wall stormed out of the room. To my shock moments later he returned and told me that "I should leave now!" Shocking how this game pulls out human emotion

He was so angry and diassapointed with himself I thought he was going to go commit suicide in a bunker somewhere. Needless to say I have never played risk with this individual again.

Monopoly should be be Number 1 (if not 0 or even -1) the fights that I have personally witnessed this game create are too numerous to count! It has left an indelible scar across my family due to accusations (true and false) of cheating.

Risk should be right behind Monopoly in the listing because of the torturous damage it does to friends and family as pacts are made and broken. Nevermind the ballistic nature of dice that repeatedly roll 1s...

I would also add 'Escape from Colditiz' to the list as a board game I remember from my childhood. For those who don't know the game 2-4 players (i think) have to escape their counters from the prison using a number of ingenious means via collected cards, whilst 1 poor person has to be the Nazi Prison guard who's sole purpose is to stop the escape of everyone.... I can't think of any game that sets one player against all the rest AND gives him the label of being a Nazi at the same time....

Good stuff!

I once punched my step brother in the neck while playing Trivial Pursuit, which is the perfect game to break up friendships and family.

S'okay tho, he got back at me later that year by stealing a bunch of shit from me and selling it for weed. Ass. THANKS TR!!!!! You always know how to bring up the bad shit.... *sniff*

Risk is awesome though!

Has anyone ever finished a game of Monopoly? Fucking propaganda. Or so I'm told by my communist friends (who are all idiots for thinking communism is the answer).

Battleships has always been frindly in our household, but generally, we just did whatever the fuck we wanted. Hell, we added a nuke (3x3 square) that you can lay out once in the game while your 4 ship is still active.

It's a newish game, but what about Settlers of Catan? The screwage that ensues is every bit as epic as Monopoly. The new Battlestar Galactica game also teaches you an awful lot about your friends in a pretty short period of time.

PM is right on both of those games. I'd add one more, Twilight Imperium. If Risk kills friendships, T.I. makes you kill friends.

Settlers of Catan is a frustrating game as those I play with insist on writing down each territory they control rather than using their brains. Then they throw fits when I won't give them my sheep.

Good times, good times.

When you play BSG (or its precursor Shadows Over Camelot) you KNOW someone is going to try and kill/screw you so there isn't the anxiety of wondering if an axe is going to fall in-game and dissolve a real-life friendship.

Two words: Strip. Scrabble. My husband and I used to play this when we first started dating. It was a win-win situation...even when you lost ;)

Great list. I think you need to put SORRY on here though. There is nothing more maddening then having your friend give you that fucking annoying "Soorrryyy" right after taking your guy off the board.

Ha settlers hits a nerve. We lost the thief pawn, so in place of that, we play with a small rubber ducky covered in hearts instead. So you can imagine the contempt we have whenever a 7 is rolled.

Now, they have newer games to destroy friendships like Settlers of Catan. My friends always find ways to block my chain of settlements through proximity.

You just need to add one more game to the list: The Farming Game. This game takes longer than Monopoly or Risk - several lifetimes at least! I played it once with my extended family on New Years' Eve, and it took ALL NIGHT!

Also, I laughed when I saw Checkers at the top of the list! The only time I've hear my mother swear is when I jumped over four of her pieces and asked her to "king me."

For me it was Dark Tower. Listening to how awesome my friends were doing with those damn happy beeps, and not getting to see how they actually were doing? Torture to the point of throwing shit, namely the tower itself.

When we were kids, the original Axis & Allies caused us a lot of insanity. It wasn't long after about 4 hours of straight playing that someone would get pissed off and flip the board. And once it was flipped, there was no setting it back up again, if you could even find any the little military pieces anywhere.

The only other game that caused that much insanity was D&D. Yes, I know it's a pen & paper game. But we would start a game session every Saturday night at about 6:00pm and play until about 3:00am or until the module was finished. But usually by that time, we were all over-tired and just plain getting pissy and someone was bound to whip a handful of dice at someone's head when they didn't make the proper throw or save. Sudden death coming at about 1:00am for your level 6 magic-user while playing Spelljammer was not a happy scene for some players. On that time, a player got so pissed off, he ripped up everyone's character sheets, ripped up his player manual, ripped up the DM's screen, whipped every dice he could get his hands in any direction, kicked over the side table in the family room and left slamming the door and peeled down the street. Never heard from him again after that. We almost called the police on him that night, and were scared shitless he'd show up again with a gun or something. Back then it was a bit scary, but looking back on it today almost 20 years later, it's kinda funny since no one got seriously injured.

Ahhh, the good 'ol days!

On a side note, I just got the new World of Warcraft: The Board Game by Fantasy Flight Games, which is a strategy game. I'm hoping this game brings back the good old days of board flipping as well. Fucking game has literally over 1000 pieces to it. Should be more fun picking the pieces up than playing the actual game. According to reviews, the game is fun as hell, mimics the actual computer game as close as a board game possibly can and takes hours on up to days to complete.

WHOO-HOO! Axis & Allies all over again!!!

i would have had put Monopoly at the top of the list for the other games are suppose to bring out the creaitivity and war like behavor of the players though all belong on the list. and also surprised clue did not make the cut

This list is dea-on and excellent. Checkers is absolutely evil.

I once had to play two games of Monopoly in one week with the same people. That was also the week I bought my own copy of Settlers of Catan and refused to play Monopoly ever again. If I'm going to destroy my friendships, at least Settlers isn't anywhere near as boring as Monopoly.

I'd also say Settlers of Catan deserves a place on this list. Sessions of Settlers usually involve words so foul it would make Bob Saget blush, thrown pieces, mild injuries and ruined relationships.

I'll never forget watching my friend toss her engagement ring across the room after getting ore-blocked by a thief.

Monopoly should definitely be higher. I've gotten in so many fights because people think their long-standing family rules are real rules. One of my friends actually sat there and POUTED with his arms crossed and his face scrunched up because we wouldn't play with his rules.

I also made a different friend really mad with Settlers of Catan when I, who had never played before, beat him soundly and he got pissed off.

This same friend is no longer speaking to me because I outrolled him on a World of Warcraft item.

Monopoly should be #1 for sure. Anyone remember the Simpsons episode.... "another case of Monopoly-related violence." Yeah totally spot-on there, you can't really play that game with people you like. Then again if you want to end a friendship and don't have the guts to do it to their face, you can just fire up a game of Monopoly.

Also I distinctly remember and incident with Battleship in my youth that left a valuable glass vase broken, my brother with a gash on his arm and my ass grounded for a month. Evil, evil Battleship

And Scrabble is only fun if you are playing with someone significantly less intelligent than you are.

The Game of Life, I am absolutely convinced, led to the divorce of my parents. This was a favorite "Friday night family time" game, and it immediately became hostile for reasons I never understood. Dad would always go after a career without going to school, and my mom would blow a gasket that this wasn't a good example for the children. To get back at him, she'd make me and my siblings all go through college first. If we didn't, she wouldn't speak to us for the rest of the game. God help the person who won the game without having gone through college. That was a murdering offense as far as mom was concerned.

Perhaps the fault lay with those playing the game and not so much the game itself.

Risk is the penultimate "screw you" game. My friend Mark got such jubilation out of winning once that the rest of my friends and I vowed that he would be first to be destroyed every time--and we've kept our promise for over 15 years now.

Evan has it. Diplomacy has to be one of the top three. part of the game actually demands backstabbing. Plus, there's the fact that your offer of mutual defense is the incredibly rational, mutually beneficial strategic move, which France would be stupid to reject, but the idiot goes with Russia's plan, because she's the only one at the table willing to offer him a blowjob for the treaty.

Second would probably be Cosmic Encounter. It's a very simple game, tactically. the attraction is that each player gets a race that's allowed to cheat in one form or another.

Of the games you have listed I have own/played 1-6. Of the six I have had only disagreement over two of this games, Monopoly and Risk. The Monopoly disagreements was usually quickly forgotten and a new game began, but the Risk disagreement went on for a whole weekend.

My brother-in-law, whose game it was, was attacking my sister/his wife and when he decided he had no more paths of attack was about to give up his turn when it was pointed out he could still attack across Alaska to Asia, which was one of my sister's position. She was pissed! She flipped the game and walked out of the room.

I also think you could have included Trivial Pursuit as I remember several fight/disagreements while playing that game as pairs of players.

Oh god... I remember getting really pissed off during a game of Risk... I was such a dick...

I agree with the entire list. Candyland usually ends with myself or my opponent chucking pieces and cards, checkers always ends up with someone or another throwing the entire gameboard at someones head, and monopoly.... satans game. Did the creators make the game solely for the purpose of watching angry friends impale their equally angry friends with tiny pewter game pieces?

Clue should be on this list. Me and a couple of friends found an old, unopened set in the back of the closet and decided to play. We were all really excited about it at first... then after playing for a while we discovered most of the bad things about each other's personalities (Friend A is too competitive and gets REALLY mad when she loses, Friend B has the attention span of a two year old...) and the rest of the evening was ruined. We quit after a single round having decided that we would come to blows if we played for much longer.

I completely agree with checkers. You feel like such a moron when you lose for the thousanth time. Monopoly should be higher (lower?) though.

Monopoly definitely should be number 1. I used to play with my family frequently and I was the one that new all of the official rules. My family wanted to play household rules where money lost to community chest and chance magically found its way under free parking and the first one to land on it collected the money. My mom and my brother would always team up against me and try to make me lose. I would always win either by forfeit or total domination. I made everyone hate to play monopoly. :-)

Risk is the all time champion. Many a teenage night sleeping at my friends house and four of us playing Risk. Someone would invariably be beaten back to Great Britain and would make the island their stronghold. Could never wipe them from the game because whoever ran Western Europe could never bring themselves to powerhouse France.

Everyone wanted Kamchatka (probably because we just liked saying it) and kid who's house we were at always scooped it up first.

Entire game would last about 5 hours until the kid who lived there would spaz out, would flip the board up into the air and his older brother (who always loaded up Great Britain) would then chase him around the house with an aerosol can and a lit match.

Ahhh. Fun times.

The reason Monopoly should be number one is deceptive and involves a rule most people don't play by. If you think Monopoly disagreements usually end amicably, then you've probably been substituting other items when you run out of houses.

Monopoly must be played with a strict limit on the number of houses available. The name of the game derives from obtaining a corner on the green houses so that the red hotels cannot be built by anyone.

For most players, the whole fun of the game is getting hotels. They all see you as the person preventing the game form being any fun. "Come on, sell your goddamn houses motherf---". Absolutely not. I play to win. It only takes two color groups plus one other player buying houses to completely ruin the game for all the other players.

Yeah, I played Monopoly a couple weeks ago, and it got pretty tense in there. Really the only part that makes people freak out on eachother is the part where you trade properties, because there is always that asshole who refuses to trade anything because it'll give someone else a Monopoly. Because I'm spiteful, I usually end up just admitting to myself that I'm going to lose the game and basically just make it my mission to make sure that that person loses.

Oh, and I've been to a Pictionary game that has ended some friendships because of someone's inability to draw.

And as someone who's lost Checkers to a 10 year old many times over, I agree that it can seriously damage your self-image.

Trivial Pursuit!!! There is no greater game to repeatedly tell your friends how F'ing stupid you think they are! "pffffft, you did know that?" "ooo, ooo, ooo, I know, I know!" "What?!? Didn't you go to 5th grade?" "der"

I do believe that "Sorry" should be on this list. My sister-in-law and her little brother are verry competitive and playing this game with them made me want to throw the board across the room and punch the little guy in the face. I wasn't even close to winning and they just kept f***ing me over for no reason.

why the fucking hell is sorry not on here or even #1 for that matter

With Battleship, the moment you feel you are loosing, you KNOW the other guy is somehow looking over at your board...

Chutes and Ladders for on-the-surface-fun-but-I-am-going-to-flip-out-at-you-for-not-hitting-that-chute-and-I-am-back-to-square-1

I think Clue needs to be on the list. My family was playing and I lost because my Dad didn't show me the weapon I had guessed, that he held in his hand. I lost, he broke the rules. That was 3 years ago, and I still give him crap about it.

I definitely agree with all these games, especially after that one memorable incident which ended with me throwing not only the little scrabble tiles, but the whole game board at my brother. Also, I am pretty sure that things with my ex really started to go sour after one terrible night of Settlers.

However, I can't believe the Game of LIFE didn't make it on the top 8. I have cheated more often and ruined more family time playing that than all the other games combined. Trying to spin the dial to get a 10? Picking up a second car for all your unwanted children?

these are all excellent picks for family horror, but there are 2 lightweight contenders that if anyone is familiar with they will surely attest to the demonic nature they reveal in your loved ones: Sorry/Trouble and Parcheesi

Sorry is mindless popping of a bubble to run around a hamster track getting yourself to a goal. play this with children if you truly hate yourself

Parcheesi is similar but with a layer of strategy and extended rules that allow you to block opponents and trample over them in astounding feats of asshattery. relationship foundations must be sturdy to weather these assaults

Diplomacy is by no means a "classic" board game; it may end friendships, but it's fairly obscure.

Anyone play with people who use that BS rule about putting lottery money under the Free Parking space? THAT might be reason to put Monopoly higher -- as it totally destroys what little strategy there is involved with the game.

But I still think checkers is the worst and correctly rated at #1.

What game allows illiterate, toothless old coots sitting in rocking chairs in front of country stores their dellusions of grandeur? Checkers.

It's a stupid game and yet stupid people consistently clobbler smart people at it. Yes, this does mean I totally suck at it. It wastes half of a perfectly good chess board (a game at which I do not suck and shuts toothless coots right the f#ck up).

My point is stupid people are bad people. And checkers is like liquor to them.

"Diplomacy" should be on this list. I've seen Diplomacy destroy *marriages*.

Settlers should definitely be on this list. It is a cold, cruel, calculating game on a board where it is impossible to co-exist with your fellow players to the point of mutual benefit....and I love it :) I have wanted to flip the board upside down or throw something across the room at some point in nearly every game (and occasionally have), and no-one in my circle of friends will even dare to play the game as a 2-player with their significant other, because that's a recipe for a certain end to the relationship.

what about Settlers of Catan?

What about Settlers of Catan?

"Captain Flunky said:

And an ex girlfriend dumped a scrabble board over my head when there were 2 tiles left in the bag and I exchanged my 'Q' and 'J'.

I guess I'm a huge dick when it come to winning"

You know you can't exchange tiles if there are less than 7 in the bag lol

Anytime my wife and I play Risk or Monopoly, I am usually kicking her ass when she pulls the "Wanna have sex tonight?" card. Game over, she won.

After one painful evening of playing Risk with my family, I finally came to the conclusion that opening that box was the equivalent of opening the Ark of the Covenant. Following that idea, I have now sealed Risk inside a crate and hidden it in my garage, hopefully never to be seen again.

Seriously, there's so many boardgames why would you choose only crappy ones ?

you didn't even include the most famous destroyer of friendship: djambi a.k.a. "Machiavelli's chessboard". where's diplomacy ? junta ? Rette sich wer kann ?

this article is really lame.

Monopoly based on Star Trek :The Next Generation is really fun, for me anyways. I always make an alliance with the most expensive two on the board, one of which is Q. I place space stations on both of them and then watch happily as my opponent draws the "Encounter Q" card.

I really could not take Connect 4, that always ended in a fight between my sister and I...

I also think Monopoly should be higher, it always ended with me flipping over the board and going to my room...

Stupid Family fun night....

Oh man, Pictionary resulted in some vicious arguments in my family. It came down to the rules being taped to the fridge, as an attempt to mediate the inevitable screaming matches.

The one weird one I find on the list is Cranium. I dunno, I guess everyone I know is relatively skilled at it; I'd definitely take out Cranium and insert Clue or Settlers.

I agree with everyone's answer for the most part. During a game of Monopoly, my brother got so pissed that he jumped up and punched me so hard in the eye that my nose started to bleed. But has anyone here ever played Battle of the Sexes? It's the only game other than Monopoly that's made me visualize (and almost act upon) doing something utterly horrible to someone.

Very amusing and while I'm sure there are a lot of sore losers out there, I've never had anyone go so far as flipping a board or knocking anything over in 20+ years. Also I think it has very little to do with the actual game, it's all about the people playing.

The problem with Cranium is the "Skip-4-Spaces-at-a-Time" thing. It makes the die-rolling almost outweigh and of the other obstacles.

How about we just roll a die 4 times and whoever gets the high number 4 times in a row wins? It would be a much faster game.

Let's also not forget UNO. How many times can you get hit from both sides with Draw Four cards?! Then with 34 cards in your hand, the onslaught of Skip cards get lobbed.

Next thing you know, you're countint up into the 3 digits and wishing to Christ you knew how to play Pinochle instead.

I used to live in one of those apartments over a small corner bar in St. Louis. The owner lived down the street. In the winter, when snow was a** deep on the ground, I'd go down there and keep her company, and drink beer. 0 to 3 customers would come in over the course of the whole evening during the worst storms.

One night, out of boredom, I brought down a game of Monopoly, and we started playing right there on the bar. Bad mistake. We got into a loud arguement over the rule fnorgby pointed out about green houses. Me and some guy I didn't even know, who had just wandered in (and WASN'T EVEN PLAYING!) that happened to take my side got kicked out into the snow and banned for the weekend. We pelted the front of the bar with snowballs until she threatened to call the cops. All was forgiven (but not forgotten) in a few days, but "Monopoly" was a dirty word after that.

Oh Risk, the ultimate relationship breaker. I remember the first (and coincidentally last) time I played Risk. I was destroying my step-brother for the third time when he whipped the board up and broke it over my head. Maybe I shouldn't have been taunting him. Either way, we haven't talked since.

Battleship always ended up in peg throwing wars and hitting each other with the boxes because someone was always convinced that the other person was looking at their board because their strategy was too perfect to be defeated.

Mousetrap took 2 hours to set up and 4 minutes to play, it was a total bust of a game.

Anyone ever play Scotland Yard? That game sucked when a detective decides to defect over and help Mr X escape...

Where is Settlers of Catan on this list?! That game makes everyone shout, especially when you have to trade with tightwads!
Cranium and Candyland? I agree with most of these posters in saying Sorry, Trouble, Life or Chutes and Ladders bones everyone SIGNIFICANTLY more than those. Battleship never made me argue as a kid, unless I found out someone cheated (I usually caught them doing it) but I agree with most others on this list, Checkers, Monopoly, Risk- ALL EVIL! My friends made a similar pact to Flash III's comment. I haven't won a game against my friends in years, I only win if people don't know me. One time, I was playing a game of risk with friends and my girlfriend, and they immediately said "You two are obviously teaming up in an alliance!" Even though she attacked me every turn along with everyone else. Good times. And by that I mean Wanting to rip the face off the ones you love.

Anyone ever play Tales of the Arabian Nights? It's full of cards like "move another player on his turn" and "set another players objectives" so that players screw each other HARD in that one.

My best friend and I have come to blows in both Settlers and Muchkins. We get into a serious shouting match over the rules everytime we play!

Okay, why is Diplomacy not here? That and Intrigue are both the world's worst, nastiest games because the entire point of those games is to screw people over.

Nearly as bad is White Wolf's 'Vampire Prince of the City' but that's really not a classic game.

I got into a alcohol fueled argument with my best friend over a game of Cranium one night. It was her & I against her two roommates + margaritas. It was one of those pantomime cards. She proceeds to stand on a chair, take a half a step and jump off. I'm thinking "diving board", "olympic swimming" everything in the f-in book. Finally time runs out and she yells at me "It was 'walk the plank!'" Well if she had actually walked the plank instead of jumping off the plank like Greg Louganis I might have had a shot.

My revenge for this was a month later we were at a bar and playing darts and I refused to be on her team - she would actually miss the board by two feet, while sober!

"Trouble" should be on here. And "Sorry." And, in some cases, "Uno." I've been hit with various pieces of all of these games, lol.

I have to point out that the inspiration for Monopoly was a game designed to teach young children during the great depression about the evils of captialism and direct them to the works of Marx. So, yes, at its beginning the game was intended to make you feel lousy and cheated.

DarrenG, the rules Nazi in me implores me to point out the draw 2 cards in Uno are not cumulative. That rule sucks as bad as "$500 and Community Chest/Chance cash for landing on Free Parking"

I came here looking for Undergrads references. You disappoint me, Topless Roboteers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNdTLrM8HzA

KAMIKAZE!!!!

My friend just corrected my abysmal memory and demanded I edit myself. Monopoly's inspiration, The Landlord's Game, was a lesson in Georgism, not Marxism. Still, a game to make you feel aweful about owning stuff and making money.

With Risk my friends and I made the cards always give out the same number of armies. It is enraging to be winning and suddenly be overwhelmed by 75 troops coming in to destroy your continent because that person is pissed off from back at the beginning of the game when you attacked them once.

When we were kids my sister tore our Monopoly board in half in frustration. Just right down the center fold.

Absolute best to play with friends? Clooney, the Board Game. Everybody wins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8qwr3lF61I

CHESS! I hate everyone I've ever played Chess with.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Aggravation! The game would last for several hours and normally end in someone knocking all the marbles off the board to throw it across the room. I'm pretty sure my brother didn't speak to me for a month because of that game.

As a gamer I find this to be one of the best lists on TR.

Pictionary causes a lot of wars, moreso, than Cranium. Cranium has a lighthearted look to it relieving some pressure. Pictionary has a lot of "WHAT ARE YOU STUPID??? CATS DON'T PLAY WITH BALLS! THAT'S YARN! F***ing moron."

Scrabble is by far the worst, though. Whether playing with obsessors, who hate you when you put down "on" in the opening play, or with people who aren't gamers, who can't stand that you have words more than four letters and complain you should be able to put the words backward, you're gonna have a fight. If you want a good time with Scrabble, though, and have merely an above average intelligence, play with one of the obsessors and commit the whole game to trying to play "it" on triple word score. Seeing the reaction is better than sex.

#1 Risk/Axis & Allies
#2 Settlers of Catan

I do not know how ANYONE who's played those plus lots of other board games could disagree. Settlers was the game where my mom told her nephew the priest that she hoped he'd die.

What saddens me the most is that Illuminati is not on this list, nor mentioned in the comments. You folks are a disgrace! Go to your local nerd-store, and get the basic set. Rent 3-4 friends, pour some beers, and play the game. It doesn't make a lick of sense, everybody cheats, and half the game mechanics revolve around screwing the other players over. It is absolutely brutal.

In my experience checkers can't ruin or strengthen relationships. If the opponent has even a modicum of sense, nearly every game will end in a draw. It is the Sweden of board games.

Diplomacy definitely belongs as the #1 on this list and I'm surprised it's not even in the lineup. Seriously..

I love this list, I especially love that RISK made the list. However, for me Lord of the Rings RISK takes the cake for destroying friendships. Long story short we never really read the rules for the Ring cards and a card that is supposed to destroy 3 units during a seaborne invasion would destroy ALL invading armies due to that precedence being set in an early play through of the game. Any way a friend who had never played the game before launched a MASSIVE invasion from the seas to Gondor, the card was used, his armies destroyed and essentially knocked out of a six hour game, the table flipped, and noses broken.....I love RISK

Scrabble is one of my favourite games, and amazingly, I've never had a serious argument with someone over it. I've witnessed others have arguments during games, mind you, but none of the games I've been in have turned into one.

Monopoly, though... that's... I kinda refuse to play that anymore because no one ever plays that fairly when I've attempted a game. The banker always becomes a thief, people make underhanded alliances and stab each other in the back, it's like the real economy in miniature!

Best antithesis to this list: Apples to Apples.

Monopoly is pure evil. The last time I played was with my dad, my brother, and his girl friend. It ended with me and my brother's gf intentionally going bankrupt while my dad and brother proceeded to scream about who rightfully owned our abandoned properties.

I used to play Risk as a drinking game, but the last time we played my bf's friend was such a dick that I don't think any of us will ever play again.

Has anyone played Aggravation? Me and my cousins made my grandmother swear and through the little balls by teaming up against her. I was like 10 at the time.

You forgot Pictionary. If any game is going to find you coming out of a red haze with your hands round your game partners throat yelling "How could you not see that was a bird!!!" while bang their head against the coffee table, it's Pictionary - Game of Evil

Evan is right. Diplomacy destroys friendships seven at a time! Checkers doesn't belong on this list.

(Long time reader of TR, first time commenter)

I second Apples to Apples!

I have to say, the game that has the most chances of ruining friendships has to be Sorry.
'Cause let's be serious, your friend is not sorry when she bumps you right back to square one, instantly confirming her victory, as she mocks you with the forsaken phrase "Oh! Sorry!".

in the early 80s my girlfriend of that era and I played CLUE(NOT on your list) with another couple.
I had the first "guess". I guessed the murderer, room and weapon corretly on the first play. Game Over.

The other couple? The girl disappeared into the kitchen and then the bedroom and we were soon asked to leave by the guy.
Board Games do ruin friendships.

Dude... you missed Chutes and Ladders!

Chutes and Ladders!!!! Trouble!!! As much as I remember these games and the trouble caused by them - lol - when I got older and babysat or nanny-ed kids, I was the one who got really worked up! So hysterical!

Oh man I loved Risk because I'd always come in first or second thanks to my bestfriend in high school who'd I'd always form an alliance with waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay before hand. Every so often we'd decide to play "fair" without alliances and then we'd just piss each other off.

Okay, so well, I think Spoons and Dutch Blitz being that they can become already violent games, are much better choices. I did laugh a lot and enjoyed the list. Thanks.

p.s. I see we all agree that no matter how they sell it, the combination of "Game Night" and "Family Fun" are more likely to cause mayhem and maiming than joy and laughter!

I've had all day at work to think more on this. I've never had a dangerous game of Monopoly. The games we had to be careful with were Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, and Balderdash. Mix alcohol and Balderdash and you have an explosive game.

Candy Land is an evil, little-kid-cheating board game from hell.

I play Candyland with my 4 year old son all the time and it drives me INSANE when he routinely kicks my ass!

I played RISK when at University - one guy hated the fact that he'd formed "an alliance:" with germany (me) and then Germany secretly joined up with Russia to kick his ass that he didn't speak to any of us for 2 YEARS !!!

* sigh * Best 2 years of University...:-)

Maybe it's not quite a board game, but I can't believe that nobody's thrown in Mancala yet. It causes bitterness -before the game even begins-, since if you sit two people down who are familiar with the game but who don't regularly play together, there's about a two percent chance of them agreeing on all the rules. In places where it's played seriously, I'm sure the rules are well agreed upon, but in the States, where I've lived for the past few years, there are so many rules variants floating around that a pickup game will almost always devolve into a rules argument as soon as one person does something that diverges from the rules the other guy is used to.

What separates Candyland from similar no-decisions games for kids in my mind are those dang trap squares. Sure, chutes and ladders can mess you over, but at least on most of your turns you're moving forward. Friggin' Candyland gets you stuck in those dang traps forever. (Also, kids are horrific cheaters. I worked at a child care center for some time, and from Candyland to mancala to chess, most kids cheat constantly and relentlessly. Mancala is notable in my mind for being incredibly easy to cheat at.)

I agree that Diplomacy would have to be the worst (best?) game for destroying friendships. I know people who 10 years ago stopped talking to each other because of one game of Diplomacy.

Any game that *requires* you to back stab your fellow players deserves to be high on this list.

Exaggerated...I do not agree.

I have played Risk and Axis & Allies with very good and old friends and we still have a very good relationship. It seems that Shaun has nothing better to do with his life. Sorry.

Glad to see Candyland on the list. Indeed, anytime I play this game with my kids, a HUGE fight breaks out. Great fun!

I have officially been banned from cranium for putting a girl in a sleeper hold for accusing me of cheating, which I wasn't. I have also thrown the board even though I was winning because of a club cranium. I've also been banned from chutes and ladders after throwing the game at a 7 year old. The only game anybody will play with me anymore is scene it. And that's because I know all the answers....

None of these will destroy friendships faster than Battletech (or pretty much any tabletop RPG, come to think of it).

I'm adding my voice behind UNO. Christ. Battleship is the only one here I've ever seen a fight about (Scrabble and Cranium are usually just too funny.) Okay we never really fight about UNO, but there is much cursing and some bruised feelings and frustration by the end of it.

I actually bought mouse trap one time just to play with the trap part. I think that I have only seriously played the game with someone once.

Trouble caused much angst with my cousins and I.

I've always loved the game of Risk, but have only ever found one person to play half a game with me before he stormed off in defeat.

When I was in jail, my cellmates and I made a Monopoly board (we luckily had the hotels) and some dice and played every night for nearly two weeks. Almost every game ended with one or more of us having nothing to eat the following day due to being in food-debt.

Obscure, but has anyone ever heard of or played TRIOPOLY?
the same heart-shattering capitalism of Monopoly, but with the added confusion of the stock market and a three-tiered board. Leading the game and getting a stock card that lowers the value of every goddamned thing you own will make you realize why many stockbrokers in the great depression lept to their deaths.

On the topic of obscure games, Scrabble Up.
It's scrabble, but instead of carefully and thoughtfully placing your tiles, the game gives you roughly nine seconds to make a word before it's someone elses turn. The timer is a ball falling down a twisted slide, so essentialy, if you decide to play the game, you've already lost.

For a non rage-inducing game, play Mastermind and take turns on each side. Unless you or your oposition are legaly retarded, you will each win and lose an equal number of times.

Also, a final word:
Checkers will always suck.

Trouble caused much angst with my cousins and I.

I've always loved the game of Risk, but have only ever found one person to play half a game with me before storming off in defeat.

When I was in jail, my cellmates and I made a Monopoly board (we luckily had the hotels) and some dice and played every night for nearly two weeks. Almost every game ended with one or more of us having nothing to eat the following day due to being in food-debt.

Obscure, but has anyone ever heard of or played TRIOPOLY?
the same heart-shattering capitalism of Monopoly, but with the added confusion of the stock market and a three-tiered board. Leading the game and getting a stock card that lowers the value of every goddamned thing you own will make you realize why many stockbrokers in the great depression lept to their deaths.

On the topic of obscure games, Scrabble Up.
It's scrabble, but instead of carefully and thoughtfully placing your tiles, the game gives you roughly nine seconds to make a word before it's someone elses turn. The timer is a ball falling down a twisted slide, so essentialy, if you decide to play the game, you've already lost.

For a non rage-inducing game, play Mastermind and take turns on each side. Unless you or your oposition are legaly retarded, you will each win and lose an equal number of times.

Also, a final word:
Checkers will always suck.

There are a few which come to mind, none which has ever come to more blows than Twilight Imperium. There were 5 of us playing and 3 of us attacked our friends girlfriend and she got pissed and threw her beer bottle at my one friend. This almost ended up with the police being called. Needless to say she was never invited to come back and play games anymore. So ya Twilight Imperium is a blast to play even though you spend almost as much time setting it up as you do playing it.

I also remember a time when there was 4 of us playing Star Munchkin and my one friend becomes a rule dick when playing games. So two of us ganged up on him and never let up until our other buddy won. When the game was over he was -3 HP and he didn't have any weapons or equipment, due to us stealing it all from him. His only comment the whole game was "so and so is going to win" and our response back to him was "so" He won't ever play Munchkin again.

2 of my favorite classic games which caused fights between me and my friends were the Well Fare Game and Beat the Boarder. Not sure if anyone has played those games before.

The whole purpose of the Well Fare Game is to stay on Well Fare and have as many illegitimate children as you can.

Beat the Border was a game about buying and selling drugs.

I have to agree that Settlers should have been on this list as well.

What about Arkham Horror?

You folks need to lighten up and enjoy the game, not the win.

I've gotten irritated and bored over Monopoly, grouchy about Risk, and backstabbed in Diplomacy.

But *nothing* will make you hate your close friends like Illuminati. Not even Catan. If only it weren't such a fun game...

Life should at least have an honorable mention. due to the fact it allowed you to have waaay too many kids. Car 1 full get another one or drag them along. that and i can post this link
http://www.robotchicken.org/index.php?title=The_Game_of_Life

Also uno. Only when someone says lets put cards from another deck in. And everyone is putting draw 4 cards down and all you have is a draw two and get stuck drawing 40. then feel embarrassed when you have to reshuffle the deck so you can take your 40. or better yet when reverse happens so many times you can't even put a card down..

Two words
Electric Football

I have never finished a game of Risk. Ever.
My buddy Adrian, who is an evil strategic genius, made a custom set of Uno, which never failed to cause fights.

Yeah-Scrabble, that's the one. Had a few spats over that.

Me and my siblings were in a squabble over a game of Risk that was apparently so annoying, that my Dad (without a word) walked over and swiped the board so we'd stop... I think I might have been thirteen or fourteen.

I used to work in child care, and playing Trouble for 3 hours total a day in the summer was enough to make me want to stab myself in the eye with a pencil. I had to be profession, but I wanted to scream when I was stuck without ever getting a six.

But the clear winner is Trival Persuit. Why?

I took that game to my soon to be ex-girlfriend's place and we had a vindictive game knowing the whole time that this was the end, and we both had a shot at hurting each other. Even worse, she won.

I'm over it now, no hard feelings but it's just funny how it was used for evil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZpkAHguEeQ

reminds me of this

WHY IS NO ONE MENTIONING STRATEGO?!?! that game has cause so many mental breakdowns (I.E. moving your spy to take a general and watching in horror as it is taken by a scout) and screaming matches between my friends/parents...

Well, checkers has been mathematically solved, so there's little point in getting upset about it anymore:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1144079

As for Monopoly, I only ever finished one game, and by "finished" I mean "made my little brother quit in tears". It was a game played over two days. After the first day, we wrote down all our property and assets so we could pick up where we left off. My brother was feeling pretty confident at this point, because he had a ton of cash and both Boardwalk and Park Place, while I was down to a few hundred bucks and owned only cheaper properties. But those cheaper properties made up over half the board, including two complete sides. The next day, I wore him down with rent until he started crying and quit.

Even winning sucks in Monopoly.

HAHA!!! I love monopoly.

A quiet Thursday night playing Risk in college, ended with our white-trash neighbor downstairs calling me a homosexual because I wore earrings...and she wasn't even playing.

Risk-type games and Monopoly games ended with my dad throwing the board. Pictionary wasn't much better.

My nephew got mad when he lost at Candyland, which is purely a game of chance, mind you.

I still want to punch my stepmom over a comment she made 10 years ago for Taboo, where you try to get people to guess the word but can't say it or the 5 words most associated with it.

Monopoly should have been number one.
Why? Because while my brother and I read this list, it reignited our monopoly arguments.
We haven't played in 10 years.
Excuse me while we have to go apply steaks to our black eyes.

I have to say Monopoly was the worst. I used to play with my brothers and it invariably led to someone being accused of cheating. So much so that I would make it a point to cheat as much as I possibly could just to piss people off. Any newb can steal from the bank ( I always snagged an extra $100 - $400 when collecting my "you passed go" money), but some of my other tricks involved adding an extra house to my properties when nobody was looking (nobody EVER keeps track of those), flipping over mortgaged properties without ever paying them off, hell I had already cheated before the first roll of the dice - sometimes I would hide money in the bathroom before the game was even setup.

HAhhHAaa it's funny how it becomes a fun game when you accept the fact that the only thing it's good for is getting people really fired up.

Diplomacy would have to rank very high -- let's face it, you pretty much have to make alliances with other players, then ultimately back-stab them when they least expect it after manipulating them to leave your mutual border wide-open in order to win the game (unless you want to "share" a draw). With everyone moving at the same time (via written orders), the tension is high and once you've destroyed a fellow player, there is little chance of making future agreements when the game is pulled out of the box again.

Also, Poleconomy -- a vast improvement on Monopoly which includes the political side of the economy. The only thing that preserved those friendships was the fact that we were pretty much plastered from heavy drinking during late-night game play so that all of the details were fuzzy enough the next day that you could reset the next time you played. Imagine Monopoly with the buying/selling of companies but then add elections, with the players taking power then controlling things like government taxation, subsidies, interest rates, inflation and other aspects -- I still remember one "creative" player who would work the system to completely suit his situation, often reversing the usual order of things and more heavily tax those with less and provide subsidies to those with more (and would try to rob the government treasury by passing money under the table... too bad we were playing on a glass-topped table).

I know this isn't a classic game really, but Settlers of Catan destroys relationships. Each time I play with my boyfriend I get pissed off at him. And some friends refuse to play because it gets so intense.

Surprised no one mentioned Talisman. Given the regular game will take 2 to 3 hours to complete (with 3 people no less) and really getting anywhere in the game is down to so much die rolling that when you get slaughtered in an instant after an hour (or two) of dilly dallying with anything but killing a kill-able monster for any freaking experience is truthfully
an un-fun experience enough to cause great anger and angst.

This list is about why you sometimes have to move on to other activities or games.

My daughter used to love to play Jr. Monopoly. When ever she would get up to use the bathroom I used add more money to her and give her more property as well. This usually resulted in the game ending in about 30 minutes vs. 2 to 3 hours. She never caught on but I did confess to her when she got older I used to cheat for her to win so the game wouldn't last as long. Needless to say now when we play a game and she has to use the bathroom she takes all of her stuff with her so I can't cheat for her to win.
What can I say I hate Monopoly.

Ive gotten very upset and upset at in Uno... I guess that doesn't count though being a card game.

Monopoly is my fav game, Risk would probably be 2nd. Never had an altercation as a result of either of them, its been hot a couple times but nothing serious. Usually when the game was over and someone was pissed, we started another one right after just to get revenge. One summer we played every single day and it was one continuous game. we took that shit very seriously.

My buddy and I are banned from playing monopoly together. We use to fight forever over it until we realized we could just partner, "forget" to charge each other rent, acquire half the board and when it's just us two left we draw the game.

I will not play Risk.

Apples to Apples causes problems when half the players play literal. (I am of the half that does not)

I almost once punched my nephew and my sister in law over a game of Trouble... that game is insanely infuriating. If my kid ever asks for the game they will be grounded for three years.

I think I would like to add Chutes and Ladders to this list. Never could anyone be so upset when playing a single game. Especially if you keep getting the chutes and the other players all get ladders. Stupid game...

Great list, and these comments are hilarious.

Fucking Monopoly... I've refused to play that game since I was 11. I ending up chucking the board across the room, storming off in a rage, and hiding out in the garden for two hours.

Ahhhh Risk. I love that game and would generally pick black for my color and spread like the plague. Risk ruined the (shaky at best) relationship between my father and uncle (his brother in law) a war college graduate that used to train pilots in the Air Force. It was christmas eve in the late 80s early 90s. Us kids were getting ready for bed and the parents were drinking (a lot) and setting up a game of Risk. My mom and aunt were knocked out in an hour or so but my dad and uncle were both pretty well set up with lots of armies and territory. Over the course of the next few hours it was a bitter stalemate until my uncle the war college grad left one guy on siam or whatever asain country it is that can be attacked from alaska. My dad moved in for the kill and two turns later it was pretty obvious who would win and my uncle just got up tipped over his last remaining V and walked off and poured himself some scotch. They didn't speak more then hellos for over 5 years. To this day you can't mention risk around my uncle

This is not a joke or lie:
I have actually had a jackknife slammed on a table because of Monopoly.
It was the very first day of the college year with a new roommate. We had a disagreement over a house rule, started throwing dice at each other, and I jokingly reached for a book to throw. But out came the knife first. Game over!

I would say Parcheesi should definitely be on there! I remember at my own birthday party when I was just a little kid there was a blockade put 1 square in front of where my guys came out...so I couldn't move any of my pieces at all...that sucked bad!!!

I remember also one time playing Risk with a friend and his wife...she was very nervous (she had previously had some bad experiences with others)it was strange to see the tension in her face and internal conflict going on...I had some classical music on a soundtrack playing with some very dramatic parts and the combination of the tension and the music overwhelmed her... she was so stressed that she made me change the music!!! LOL

Пожалуй так оно и есть, на самом деле все очень просто :)

I'm just really shocked that with the mentions of Sorry, no one's linked this yet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmdfSXWVW1M

And I'd have to agree - my parents always used to play that, and always always fought over it.

You forgot Trivial Pursuit. I'm a bit of a nerd, but not so much that all my friends are nerds. I know this stuff. It starts with awkward glances after the first several correct answers and ends with getting stabbed by a broken off beer bottle by what was a girlfriend an hour ago. Then while your former best friend is rolling your bleeding carcass onto a dark road to run over it to make it look like an accident the last thing you hear is "if your so damn smart get out of this."

I think Scattergories should be on this list. It often leads to fight in my household over what is allowed (similar to Scrabble).

How could you forget "Sorry"? There have been lots of fights because of that game...

Sounds like we have more than just a handful of extremely spoiled and self-centered folks on here who hate to lose. THESE ARE JUST GAMES, PEOPLE. And yes, I have played ALL of these games and more ... as well as lost AND won. Apparently I must be the only sane SOB in the world who isn't inclined to violence or murder. JESUS.

Hi all...
I am playing games on pc and i like to more about gaming...
I like this article because it's about gaming...

SCATTERGORIES...

though it is not exactly a board game, but the fact that the people playing get to vote on questionable answers really turns it into a survivor style alliance game. and don't try ever playing against people in relationships... they will always always always side with each other

Hi
My name is Emma and I am new here, its been a hard first few weeks of college and I don't know anybody here.
I found this forum and wanted to see if I could find anybody to show me around on campus and getting me ready for the social life.

A little bit about me I am 22 years old and like the usual stuff hangout,parties, friends but since I come from another state
I don;t really have any friends here yet.
[img]http://www.cashuniversity.com/f_pics/8932.jpg[/img]

Picture of me

I am looking for some friends in this area, if you are student also or not does not matter to me as long as you know the area and are ready to have some fun. Send me an email and I will get back to you and we can set something up. emorykemplin348@gmail.com

Hello,
Can someone tell where I can find payday loan services that doesn't require faxing documents and accepts bad credit?

I need to get $1000 because my car has broken.

Thanks,
unpadeobberub

Clue might be good, defintly one of the YOU CHEATED ones since it is FREAKING IMPOSSIBLE TO GUESS 5 FREAKING TURNS INTO THE GAME!!!!