Table-top games are booming in the video-game age

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Neill Cooper
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Table-top games are booming in the video-game age

Post by Neill Cooper » Thu Oct 08, 2015 10:13 pm

Interesting Economist article about the growth in board games.

Not twilight, but sunrise
"ESSEN is not one of Germany’s better-known cities. But for the world’s growing band of board-game devotees, it is paradise. Each October it plays host to Internationale Spieltage, or Spiel, a board-game convention that is half fan-club gathering, half trade show—and, alongside America’s Gen Con, one of the biggest gaming festivals in the world.

This year the organisers expect more than 160,000 visits over the festival’s four days. Attenders will be able to watch and play more than 850 board, card and role-playing games, including a much-anticipated board-game version of “Magic: The Gathering”, a highly popular card game launched in 1993 in which players take on the role of duelling wizards. The whole thing will be capped off with the largest contest yet seen of “The Settlers of Catan”, in which 1,000 people will compete to colonise a fictional wilderness.

The market for such “hobby games” is booming. ICv2, a consulting firm, reckons it is worth $880m a year in America and Canada alone. “We’ve seen double-digit annual growth for the past half-decade,” says Milton Griepp, ICv2’s boss. Some of the games at Spiel will be aimed at children, but grown-ups are doing most of the buying. There is something for every taste, from “Fluxx”, a lighthearted card game whose rules change with every card played, to “Power Grid”, a fiendishly tricky business game featuring aspiring electricity tycoons, to all-day chin-scratchers such as “Twilight Imperium” (pictured), a game of galactic civilisation-building.

Steve Buckmaster of Esdevium Games, a British distributor, says that far from diverting people, video games—especially ones on smartphones—have brought gaming to a larger audience. App versions of popular games often boost sales of their physical counterparts. The internet has helped fans organise get-togethers, tournaments and the like, while crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter have made life easier for aspiring designers. They, in turn, are integrating computers into their games. “X-COM”, a board-game tie-in to a popular video-game series, uses a smartphone app that takes the role of the incoming aliens which players must battle on the table top.

Meanwhile bricks-and-mortar game stores have adapted, running tournaments and providing the face-to-face sociability that online gaming lacks. And with “Game of Thrones” on TVs everywhere and cinemas packed with superhero films, the general triumph of what used to be mocked as “nerd culture” has made the fantasy and sci-fi themes featured in many games less of a turn-off. Not every analogue pastime is suffering in the digital age."
http://www.economist.com/news/business/ ... ht-sunrise

MartinCarpenter
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Re: Table-top games are booming in the video-game age

Post by MartinCarpenter » Thu Oct 08, 2015 10:52 pm

Its good to see :) Worth noting that the best of these are seriously well designed multi player games. Fully recommendable to anyone who likes chess, especially if you get a bit tired of the absolute rigour of competition.

A lot of them do take skill to play well, but some randomness from multiple players involved and typically forgiving that a few mistakes can't destroy your day (so families/mixed groups can sanely play them.).

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Table-top games are booming in the video-game age

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Fri Oct 09, 2015 9:29 am

"Its good to see :) Worth noting that the best of these are seriously well designed multi player games. Fully recommendable to anyone who likes chess, especially if you get a bit tired of the absolute rigour of competition.

A lot of them do take skill to play well, but some randomness from multiple players involved and typically forgiving that a few mistakes can't destroy your day (so families/mixed groups can sanely play them.)."

Agreed - if everyone picks on you in Settlers of Catan, it can be annoying!

But Magic the Gathering is best played as a two-player game and is really good. The "Magic" board game sounds intriguing.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Table-top games are booming in the video-game age

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Tue Oct 13, 2015 5:14 pm

I have been spending most of the past few weeks playing these sorts of games. My girlfriend and I have been playing Agricola, Arkham Horror, Carcassonne, Dominion, Love Letter, Miskatonic School For Girls, Sid Meier's Civilization, Through The Ages: A Story of Civilization, and Twilight Struggle.

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Michael Farthing
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Re: Table-top games are booming in the video-game age

Post by Michael Farthing » Tue Oct 13, 2015 5:16 pm

But can you say the alphabet backwards as well as forwards?

Simon Rogers
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Re: Table-top games are booming in the video-game age

Post by Simon Rogers » Fri Jul 02, 2021 6:04 pm

I saw an article in the The Times or Sunday Times magazine a few months ago about the Conservative candidate for the London mayoral elections.
Apparently he enjoyed playing the board game Catan with his family.
Can anyone tell me more about Catan?
Not heard of it before but sounds good.
Many thanks.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Table-top games are booming in the video-game age

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Fri Jul 02, 2021 7:04 pm

Full title "Settlers of Catan" - with various variants. It is good.

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