Huang says her parents gave her a game forChristmas that strikes closer tohome--Harvardopoly--but that she hasn't yet hadtime to play it.

According to one clerk at the Coop,Harvardopoly is a success among Harvard students.

"It sells very well," says Sotiria Karavitis,sales clerk in the stationery department. "We sellit primarily to Harvard students. They want toknow what it's all about."

Marc E. Saint-Pierre, assistant manager atKay*Bee Toy in the Cambridgeside Galleria, saysthat college students are a significant but notoverwhelming percentage of the board game marketat his store.

"Board games, as far as we are concerned, fallinto two categories--adult board games andchildren's board games," says Saint-Pierre, whoestimates that college students are responsible atmost for 15 percent of his board game sales.

Not everyone, however, has chosen the cardboardover the microchip.

"I used to play Monopoly a lot [in highschool], but now computerzied games have come out,so board games have been eliminated from my life,"says Amy B. Erenrich '97.

Good, Clean Fun

The board game may be emerging as analternative to drinking, which pleases at leastone proctor.

"I think there should be more of them--moreboard games and less drinking," says Thayerproctor Gregory M. Duhl.

The playing of board games is not limited tothe confines of the Yard, however. One room ofsophomores in De Wolfe lists Scrabble among itsfavorites.

"My roommate plays Scrabble a lot more than Ido," says Allan S. Piper '96. "But my favoritegame is not a board game but a card game [namedBali], where you can build up words over a longperiod of time and you can make words like'fusillarian' and 'metaphysical.'