Do People Still Play Board Games?
Read more articles on Board Games and Let Me Share With You.February 5, 2007
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
February 5, 2007
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
1,153 Views
Today is a day off from school in our city due to the extreme cold, and already several schools have declared tomorrow the same. If my daughter was still young, we may have spent the day playing some board games, but now she would scoff at such a suggestion. As I worked a crossword puzzle, (when else do I ever have time for such pursuits?) I was musing about puzzles and games in general. As far as I know, they don’t seem to be a popular past time any longer.
I grew up loving puzzles and board games of all sorts. (I still love Monopoly and Chess, but have no one ever wants to play.) Throughout the years, we’ve bought some of the highly advertised games, but they’ve been rarely used. It seems that if there is a night of socializing, time is spent catching up on conversation. The idea of spending a couple of hours on a game seemingly wastes that opportunity of getting together.
Probably if one is fortunate enough to live near a best friend and see them often, a game is a pleasant way to pass an evening, but it just doesn’t seem to happen that way in our life. We last played Scategories when an out of town pal was here for a visit-when not playing poker (he’s a game buff, too). Before that, it was years. It’s such a shame, because most games are genuinely wholesome entertainment-and perhaps that’s why kids are no longer that interested.
Knowing my daughter and her friends, the only games worth acknowledging are on the computer; Sims is a favorite. There was an occasion 3 years ago when a neighboring family had us over and we played a game, but that was a common occurrence in their household. They were from Europe, with a much different way of looking at family time than I’m used to seeing; in fact, their children did not even have a computer, spending time watching movies in their native language. It was a fun time for everyone, and I wished we had more of that. Just like with jigsaw puzzles, board games for adults and families seem to be on the wane. Is it lack of time, more choices on Cable, or the computer? Group activities like Karaoke are seen more often, so perhaps we still have the need for some kind of structured party activity. I guess we just continue to move through the fashions; just like parlor games served their purpose, we will continue to find ways to amuse ourselves-anyone for a stab at Yahtzee?
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Karen,
Why not ask the over 100,000 people registered on http://www.boardgamegeek.com, or over a million that visit the site each month? Or the hundreds of online blogs, podcasts, videocasts, and game stores that sell new board games?
If by “board games” you mean games that are thirty or a hundred years old, then, aside from the really good ones like Go, Bridge, Chess, and Scrabble, the answer is “not too much”.
But if you mean games played socially around a table top, then check out BGG for what board games mean today. Like computer games, they have advanced in the last twenty years. People don’t play he old ones because the new ones are so much better.
Start with games like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, and Puerto Rico, and welcome to a whole new world of board gaming.
Yehuda
(P.S. I am not affiliated with BGG.)