So what’s this about ‘modern’ board games?

For most of us, when we think of board games, what comes to mind are those old games that we all grew up with – things like Scrabble, Checkers, Monopoly and so on. Some of them hold a special place in our hearts; I have fond memories of playing Rummikub with my Oma for hours when I was a youngster. These so-called ‘traditional’ games have been around for decades (in some cases centuries), and they tend to fall into two broad categories.

Firstly there are the abstract strategy games – games like Chess, Backgammon or Othello. The draw of these types of games is the battle of wits involved. While they don’t typically look very exciting with their bland, checkered grids, black and white discs and no illustrations or artwork to speak of, the gameplay can be very engaging as you try to out-think and out-manoeuvre your opponent.

The second broad category are what I like to call ‘narrative’ games. Games like Monopoly, the Game of Life and even Snakes and Ladders to an extent fit the description. In these games, the strategic decision making is at a minimum and the fun is instead found in the story that unfolds as you play. You get to ruffle great wads of play money and cheer when your opponents roll just the right number to land on your hotels, or throw your hands up in dismay as you watch your piece slide all the way down the snake back to square 1. The outcome of these games is largely in the hands of the dice or a spinner, and although we have little real agency in the game, we get invested in our little irons, or our yellow pawns. We’re enthralled as we watch the ups and downs of the game unfold, much like the different acts of a movie.

Modern game design is about combining the best of both worlds: providing players with meaningful strategic choices that are wrapped up in an engaging narrative. A great illustration of this is the much-loved game Ticket to Ride. The gameplay involves collecting sets of cards of the same colour, not unlike rummy, and playing them in order to place miniature train cars on the board to create a rail network. Clever placement of your trains can block other players and prevent them from completing their own networks. The rules are very simple but lead to several interesting strategic decisions, and the narrative of building a rail network that spans the North American continent is a lot of fun.

In an abstract strategy game, players who are losing often don’t feel much enthusiasm for the game, and often people shy away from them, thinking they’re not ‘smart enough’ to have a chance. In a modern game, because the theme or narrative can be so engaging, even losing can be a lot of fun.

In games like Monopoly or Ludo, players can become frustrated by the luck of the dice, which can cause them to lose the game through no fault of their own. Modern games give players agency, allowing them to make their own decisions and have control over how they compete with the other players, rather than having their moves dictated by a die roll or a spinner.

As a result, many people have found modern table top games to be a very rewarding hobby. Every year, over 60,000 people attend Gencon in the US; a convention dedicated to table top games. And in 2017 over 180,000 people attended the Essen game fair in Germany, which had some 11 hectares of exhibition space! On the popular crowdfunding website Kickstarter, board games now out-sell video games by a large margin, and they continue to grow in popularity every year.

In our current age of being almost constantly plugged in to our devices, not to mention our growing concerns with our children having too much ‘screen time’, table top games offer a fantastic opportunity to disconnect from cyberspace and sit down to spend quality time, face-to-face with friends or family.