What's new: Today: 'Great Games' — 175 fun ideas

Accuse Matthew Toone of playing games and he'll thank you for it.

As the fourth child of eight youngsters growing up in a large Mormon family, Toone learned early how to have fun in simple, inexpensive ways: playing freeze tag in the backyard, "Murder" in the family room, "War" and "Spoons" on the dining room table.

Now he's collected 175 games from those years and put them into a resource book that can help out the family reunion planner, the ward party leader, the mom trying to chase boredom from her home and the college crowd trying to have fun on no money.

He's published the rules to them in a book titled "Great Games, 175 games and activities for families, groups and children" that's available from www.GreatGamesBook.com for $25.95. Inside, Toone has easy-to-read, easy-to-follow instructions for classics like "Red Rover, Red Rover" and "Kick the Can," as well as all kinds of variations for the "oldies but goodies" and ideas for lesser known games.

The games can come in handy for road trips, long lazy summer days and parties.

They can be adapted to any size group or situation.

"I'm known as the Game Guy," Toone said. "As my family and friends can attest, I developed a great love and gift for creating new games, thinking of different or better variations of the most common and classic games, and simply collecting any fun game I could."

He came up with some of the games listed in the book and remodeled others. Some are outdoor games, some require simple accessories like a timer or a ball but none require purchasing anything expensive.

"Some of my most favorite games in the book include 'The Noun Game,' 'Four on the Couch' and Intellectually Rambunctious,' " he said.

He's already sold several hundred copies of his book, he said. If the demand is there, he stands ready to produce a "Great Games 2."

"There are incredibly positive social, physical, intellectual, and especially moral benefits that result from simply playing games," Toone said. "It is not so much about having fun or playing a game as it is about being with family more, turning off the immoral media influences of the world, and participating in wholesome entertainment."

Toone is concerned that today's kids and teenagers have become idle physically and mentally as a result of the bombardment of video games, Internet surfing and movie watching.

"We as individuals, families and as a society must spend more time with our family," he said.

Sharon Haddock

haddoc@desnews.com