Which competitive family games are fun to play noncompetively?

Radical suggestion: Have you looked into modern board games? Cooperative board games have become a popular genre in the past few years. Pandemic is probably a bit complex for an 8 year old, but you might want to look at Forbidden Island, and I'm sure there are a ton more I don't know about.

When my brother and I were teenagers, we sometimes used to play chess with the board on a turntable. We'd set a timer and whenever it went off we'd spin the turntable (gently) and each person would play the side they ended up with. If you were losing you didn't have to stress about it, because before long you'd probably find you were playing the other side and winning. You could do the same thing with checkers. We also used to play Scrabble with made up words. You had to define your word as you played it. I can't remember if we kept score, but even if we did, the score wasn't the point. You could easily play Pictionary without competing. You can also use the Pictionary clues to play a non-competitive Pictionary/telephone thing that's really fun for kids and adults. (It's better with more than 3 people, though.) Each person takes a clue and draws it, then passes the picture on to the person next to them, while receiving a picture from the person on the other side. Each person guesses what the picture is and writes down the word for it and passes that on to the next person, who draws it and passes the picture on. You keep on like that, alternating pictures and words, until you've gone all the way around the table. Then everyone compares the starting pictures with the ending ones. I suppose for Yahtzee you could play against your own past scores. Each person could try to improve his/her average score over time. Yahtzee is already good math practice and graphing scores or calculating averages would make it even better.

http://www.atlas-games.com/ouat3/index.php has semi-competitive rules; while the point is to get rid of all your cards first and play your ending card, you could easily adapt the rules to just telling a story based on the cards people hold. Maybe you can change turns every 2-3 minutes instead of "stealing" or passing as in the official game. Maybe set a time limit for the story instead of basing it on number of cards people hold. But, as terilou said about Fluxx, the competition is so light and casual that it's really not even the focus of the game.

A cooperative game that still requires puzzle-solving and creative thinking is Forbidden Island. You should check that one out if you haven't.

Clue: you could make this more like those hide and seek games where everyone stuffs into the hiding place together. So, you figure out that the crime happened in the drawing room, then you find a creative way to let everyone else know that is the place to hurry to. Someone else knows about the weapon, and they find a creative way to convey that info. Or, make it so everyone has to be in the room before anyone can reveal any other clues, like those old detective movies where they all gather around to hear the results. Let everyone participate in the results. Or, at the beginning of the game, assign each person to figure out just one specific category. Put all the cards in the middle instead of passing them out at the beginning. Each turn you draw a card. If you are the Room person, and the other player draws a room card, they give it to you. If you have a hand of cards, you give them a card from your hand at that same time for the Weapon if they are the Weapon person. Yatzee: do it cooperative, like dual solitaire. Anyone can use their turn to put points on someone else's board. Make rules about whether you need to ask permission or can you force your points on someone's board. Or, make the competition about the total score for everyone that round, then keep that page and try to beat it as a team the next time you play. Or, keeping competition but making it easier, have 5 or 10 "Do-over" rounds. Anyone can replace any of their sucky scores with a new value if they can roll it. Game of Life: figure out some way to offer charity or loans to other players. Or put out a deck of cards, everyone picks a card each turn and then make some rules about counting how far apart are the farthest and slowest players, then use the value of the card in some sort of algorithm where the farthest goes backward and the slowest goes forward. Make the winning be about the group, not the individual. Call it Socialist Life or something. Another game: we always bring Trivial Pursuit cards on car trips. No board, no keeping track, just ask each other questions and see if we can answer them.

I had thought before that Hanabi sounded fun, but was worried about the cooperative game losing aspect. Thanks, LobsterMitten, for letting me know you don't really lose. It was a lot of fun to play with my in-laws (though my eight-year-old found it a bit frustrating -- maybe she'll like it more when she's older). Apples to Apples has been fun as a family, and when my daughter has a friend over. And yes, I do love jigsaw puzzles. I am far more enthusiastic than the rest of my family, though, so it's usually a solo thing for me. More or less the same with I Spy books. (Sometimes my daughter will look at them a bit with me.) I have tried Blokus, but wasn't that into it. My spouse and daughter love Jenga, but I find it too stressful to play myself. It is fun watching. I will definitely keep working through these suggestions. Thanks, everyone!

I'll chime in with recommendations of Fluxx, Quiddler. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/147151/concept is an interesting sort of charades game, but possibly a bit too advanced for an eight year old. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/339/quiddler is a bit like a cross between Scrabble and gin rummy. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/136280/la-boca is a semi-competitive team pattern/dexterity game. But it does not have to be competitive, nor timed.

Balderdash, 100%.

You could play Clue with you acting as a dungeon master (so to speak). Your child player would act as part of a team to solve the mystery using their own hand of cards, and then you would control the hand of cards of the other "players". Pass them cards when you need to from the dummy players, and then let them know when they've hit on the solution. The dummy players wouldn't take turns, and would just exist as card-holders. You could also play Jenga cooperatively, although that's going to necessarily have a fail state. You could still make a game of working together to see how many blocks you could pull before it topples. The I Spy books, while not a board game, were also a favorite of mine around that age, and my mom and I would spend hours working our way through a book. In addition to spotting the hidden stuff, there're also puzzles and hints that are necessary to solve as you move from chapter to chapter.