Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Woolworths Domino Stars doesn't make sense as a game of dominoes.

When I saw a collection of the Woolworths Domino Star tiles I thought that's neat. I used to like playing dominoes when I was younger and I can see how the next generation would find them fun. However I picked up a couple of the tiles and to my surprise the picture on the front was the same, but on the reverse the value or number of spots differed. Huh, I thought to myself. What's going on?



That made me start thinking, how many tiles are actually in a dominoes set? It turns out there's two standards, but the one I'm played had 28 tiles and there's another with 55. The Woolworths Domino Stars has 44 tiles so it doesn't match either set. Based on the numbers on the tiles it would make sense to have 28 tiles.



Then it occurred to me the Woolworths Domino Stars really makes no sense at all as a playing set of dominoes. First the number of tiles don't match, but more importantly, the pictures on the other side would let a child with a good memory know what the other person had. That makes the game pointless.

I think Woolworths should have thought this one through better. It really just is a marketing exercise. The word domino is used so we relate to the game, but really there's no useful relationship. The number of tiles don't match and if someone has a better memory, then they have an unfair advantage and that's not what dominoes is about.

On the plus side they do make a good set of tiles, and one of the things I had fun with as a child was lining the tiles up in patterns and then knocking the first one over to watch them all fall. Not really dominoes, but still a fun activity.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

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