Beyond Roll and Move

Board gaming has experienced somewhat of a renaissance amongst myself and my friends, if not globally.

To understand this, you need to understand two things.

Firstly, most of the childrens games you remember from your youth are bullshit. They in no way represent the quality of gaming that is available to an adult board gamer, circa 2011.

Secondly, most of the allegedly mature video games that are available are also bullshit. Video game publishers are currently experiencing a serious shortage of innovation and risk and gamers are suffering.

So I've led the charge amongst my gaming group towards the table, and the wonderful innovations available there. Currently my collection includes only a few choice selections. Carcassonne, Dominon, Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Battlestar Galactica. These are all recent games in board terms, even though none of them are any older than 10 years. And yet these titles represent many many hours of quality social gaming the likes of which are seemingly impossible with controller in hand. The spread of theme and mechanic that those five boxes encompass simply doesn't exist in any five top tier games coming out for the game gadgets.

It seems to me like the video game publishers have painted themselves into a corner. They've promoted the top genres so heavily that were they to deviate they'd find themselves out of pocket. Meanwhile mid-level games have to follow the leader or find themselves losing out too. There's a hive of exciting activity at the small scale of the pool, but the production values can leave something to be desired. For the most part, innovation means rethinking RPG style progression or a different art style.

Whereas the board game ecosystem seems to be much more vibrant and interesting. Good mechanics come out of the blue, and are cross pollinated through other themes and genres to produce incredible results. Tile laying, card drafting, role selection, worker placement, so many new ways to play and new strategies and concepts to go with them.

I find the rarity of a good board game shop lends to the appeal as well. I can buy games online on a whim, and sadly often do, whereas I need to make a special effort to get to a store and buy a game box. And unboxing! What a joy to unwrap components and organise and examine them. Fantastic.

If you're reading this and you're sick of COD and Battlefield and haven't played anything new at a table since Monopoly or Battleship, you owe it to yourself to have a look around at what's available and play something of genuine quality.

We've come way beyond rolling and moving, my friend.