Then it went out of favor, and people joked about it as the spinach of in-game sports because there was so little interest. In the 1930s, it had this boom when it got attached to gambling.
It’s still very popular in the Middle East, and always has been, but it’s had stages where it was really popular in North America too. But you also address chess and backgammon and some of those earlier games.ĭonovan: Yes. Everyone’s focused on that game, playing together, seeing the whites of each other’s You talk about a wide range of games in this book, and obviously when people think games, they think about Monopoly, the Game of Life, etcetera. There’s something about board games bringing us together around one table, everyone focused on that task, not distracted by what’s happening on social media or on their phone. They connect people online, but you don’t get the body language, you don’t get the eye contact, you lose a lot of the communication. I think board games do have that social side, that face-to-face, bringing-people-together aspect that is fairly unique. Obviously, that was something that companies with Monopoly and the Game of Life were very successful in doing for many years, and they still are today.ĭonovan: And the new wave of games hasn’t cast aside any of the old favorites. Board games have very much been a part of human culture since the days of ancient Egypt at the very When you think about the marketing of games in the modern era – say, starting from Monopoly’s time in the 1930s - the marketing ideas behind them were that they bring the family together to have a shared experience. And we have things like chess, which goes back hundreds of years backgammon, which also goes back hundreds of years. We don’t even know when the first board game was or when it began, it’s so old. We were playing board games before we had the written word. We’re talking hundreds of years of board games impacting people’s lives.ĭonovan: Thousands of years. So it’s actually been quite helpful in reviving interest in board games by letting people know about what’s new, and also providing new funding streams for This genre of entertainment has such a long and storied history. And then also on Kickstarter now - there’s more funding for board games on Kickstarter than there is video games. It was the internet that helped spread word of them to North America and the rest of Europe. People weren’t aware of the games that were being made in Germany, like Catan. The new games that are becoming really popular, word first spread about them through the Internet. And the internet has also helped board games. We don’t even know when the first board game was or when it began, it’s so old.”ĭonovan: Yes. “We were playing board games before we had the written word. So there has been an impact, but to a degree, it has been taken away a bit?
It’s really bringing in that new generation to board games after a few years where it looked like they were going to be cast aside in favor of video The internet has obviously had such an important role in our society. Board game cafes are opening in cities all across the world. But it’s led to much bigger sales of board games. These have really grown out of a slightly different design philosophy for board games that originated in Germany. At the moment, there is a new wave of games coming through like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride and Pandemic. So it was very much a part of my What’s the status of board games today?ĭonovan: They’re having a big revival. We’d have dinner, and then we’ll sit down and play games like Monopoly or the Game of Life. Our family played board games every Sunday.
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