“Do you know what I mean?” Is the conversational equivalent of sending up a flare or broadcasting an SOS when you feel that you’re just not quite connecting with the person you’re talking to. So much of life is like this – everyone getting along, but no one really understanding what anyone else actually means. Wavelength, by Alex Hague and Justin Vickers (creators of Monkiers – a twist of the ‘folk game’ Celebrity), with Wolfgang Warsch (Quacks of Quedlinburg, The Mind, and Ganz schön clever amongst many other), is a kind of neurotic icebreaker game best played with people you know really well.
In our age of Zoom calls and distancing and thinning of social fabric, games that we can play with others that offer us the casualness of life that we’ve been missing have been vital. Wavelength may have been one of those you’ve regularly met up with people online to play. While there’s plenty of copycat versions of the game online to aid you in this, it’s worth looking at the real deal to remind ourselves what we’re missing.
WHAT IS IT?
First and foremost, Wavelength is a big old bit of plastic in a really brightly designed box. The physical object that goes into making up most of the game is a large plastic dial which offers a rotating face and something akin to a modesty screen for a clock. The main face of the Wavelength dial is turned by using the cog on the outer side of the face while the blue screen is closed so as to achieve a random position.