Spinning the wheel for game night

We were all a bit scattered at the start of the stream, everyone just sort of floating in their own little video boxes. I’d mentioned we’d figure out what to play together, but the energy was a little flat, like we were waiting for something to click.

The moment the wheel started to spin

I pulled up the wheel on my screen and shared it. It was just a simple list of games we all knew, nothing fancy. But something shifted when I clicked to spin it.There was this collective lean-in, you could see it on everyone’s faces. My cousin’s kid, who’d been quiet, suddenly perked up and shouted a guess. It wasn’t about the game anymore, it was about the shared suspense.

That collective groan-turned-laugh

When the pointer slowed and landed on ‘Charades’, the chat filled with a wave of playful complaints. ‘Oh no,’ ‘not my acting skills,’ that kind of thing. But it was all in good fun.The mood had completely lightened. The groans weren’t real disappointment; they were part of the game now. We were already playing, just by reacting to the wheel’s choice together.

Why it worked

It took the pressure off anyone to be the decider. The wheel became the neutral party, and we could all just react to its silly authority.

The real game

The real game started long before anyone had to act out a movie. It started in that moment of shared anticipation, watching that little pointer dance.