I think the overall reaction went over surprisingly well.

Usually, last class of the semester, I try and do something that doesn't involve learning material, but still emphasizes economic theory, even if its a small little tidbit. I've played the movie "A Beautiful Mind" a few times, others just played Game theory games, you get the picture.

I had gotten into board games this past winter, and Power Grid was one of the first buys after TTR and Settlers. I loved it, and automatically saw the potential to exemplify things like strategic behavior, profit maximization, oligopolies, scarcity, etc that comes up in first year Micro. So I brought it in, and we played a 6-team game for an hour and a half.

It was a blast. By the second turn, I could see gears turning in people's heads, and how everything had some application from the past 12 weeks of study. Everyone started playing really competitively. We only got to the start of Phase 2 by class end, but I think I had 4 requests on where I bought the game, so they could get a copy themselves. No one wanted to leave either, but sadly, time was of the essence to get to other duties for the day, so I had to pack it up and head off.

Might not be the normal type of post in here, but I'd thought I'd share how one of my favorite games helped me teach my course. Plus I may have made a few tabletop converts in the process. Overall successful day I think!

Edit: Whoo cakeday post and it makes top of the page! Thanks guys! Made my day to know others thought this was cool as well!