Fun Freetime - The Great Debate Game

Award-winning author and publisher Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D has released The Great Debate Game, a new interactive discussion game designed to bring people together through conversation, critical thinking, and friendly competition. 

Created for players ages 12 and up, The Great Debate Game challenges participants to debate a wide range of engaging topics—from technology and education to sports, relationships, business, and today's biggest social issues. Players compete in teams, defend their viewpoints, and earn points based on the strength of their arguments, while surprise event cards add unexpected twists throughout the game. The game can also be played as a collaborative discussion activity, making it ideal for families, classrooms, youth groups, and game nights.

 

"The Great Debate Game is designed to encourage conversation, respectful discussion, and critical thinking while making learning fun," said Scott. "Whether you're playing with family, friends, students, or coworkers, every round creates new opportunities to share ideas and see different perspectives."

I had a chance to learn more in this interview.

What was the inspiration behind The Great Debate Game?

This was actually inspired by the reaction of games testing group I belong to not want to test the Ukraine game, which involves debating issues involving the Ukraine and Russia since they thought it would be too controversial. So I didn't take it to the upcoming Protospeil room at a game conference since the leader of this local group led that room.  So I took the basic play of two teams and the debate about Ukraine and Russia and the game mechanism of winning and turned it into a debate game about general interest topics.

Why is it important for people to learn how to share different ideas respectfully? 

I think it is important to share ideas respectfully, because there can be wisdom and truth on both sides, and in graduate school for law school I actually participated in debates, and we had to take different positions regardless of our own views on a topic. 

How can games teach or improve dialogue skills, even in adults? 

I think a game can teach or improve dialogue skills for any age group by getting people to think about a topic, formulate their ideas on either side of the issue, and express them verbally to another person or a group.

Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D., is an author, publisher, speaker, consultant, and filmmaker based in San Ramon, California. She has written more than 50 traditionally published books and over 200 additional titles through Changemakers Publishing, with work spanning business, psychology, social trends, self-development, and current events.