The Economist acknowledges board gaming renaissance

Started by bayonetbrant, October 04, 2015, 07:08:51 AM

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bayonetbrant

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21669930-table-top-games-are-booming-video-game-age-not-twilight-sunrise

QuoteESSEN 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.
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

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bbmike

I know I've started contributing to the renaissance in the last year.  :)
"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplace of existence."
-Sherlock Holmes

"You know, just once I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets."
-Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart

"There's a horror movie called Alien? That's really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you!"
-The Doctor

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Nefaro

Quote from: bbmike on October 04, 2015, 07:39:31 AM
I know I've started contributing to the renaissance in the last year.  :)

My collection has grown at an insane rate over the past two or three years.  It has only recently slowed, partly due to running low on space to store all of them.

Silent Disapproval Robot

I got back into it as well after a 20 year hiatus.  Still running into the same problems though.  I can never find a willing opponent for the games I want to play and too often get pulled into games I don't really care for all that much.

Nefaro

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on October 04, 2015, 05:49:52 PM
I can never find a willing opponent for the games I want to play and too often get pulled into games I don't really care for all that much.

Indeed.  I think that is a large part of the reason Co-Op games have become so popular in recent years, since you can play them solitaire and don't have to worry about finding takers or working around everybody's schedules.  And Solitaire-only ones too, of course, although they're not as widespread.

Wes

The funny thing is that wargaming is in a huge growth spurt and nobody seems to know. Think of the 'Golden Age' of wargames. We had two magazines that covered the hobby on a pro level, one of which had a game included. Now DG puts out S&T and two other titles, I believe if I counted correctly the other day we have 4 new magazines debuted just within the last year or so, all with games. There are new publishers starting all the time.

It's just a great time to be a tabletop gamer. And the solitaire thing is blowing up in wargaming as well. DG will have published at least 4 solitaire only titles in a 6 month period of time by January. GMT provides a separate page for solo games.

I don't know about anybody else but I am freakin' loving this :)
"I must not fear.
    Fear is the mind-killer.
    Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
    I will face my fear.
    I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
    And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
    Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."  - Frank Herbert