What's the Deal With Board Games

What’s The Deal With Board Games?

So are you here wondering why there is a group that is dedicated to board games? Well the simple answer is that board games are fun and participating in a shared interest with others is enjoyable. But the long answer is far more revealing and interesting.

Like many other adults, I grew up playing games like Monopoly, Risk, Uno, Life, Trivial Pursuit, Connect Four, Chutes & Ladders, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Chess, Checkers, Dominoes and many more. However, many of those games have less than stellar memories for many adults that played games in their younger days myself included. On top of those memories the games themselves lacked a level of stimulation and engagement except for a handful of them, which leads people to walk away and think why would there be such an interest in games later in life.

Well the games that you may encounter in a gaming group such as ours, you won’t necessarily find on the shelf of everyday retail stores. That is because most board game companies can’t get access to those big retail stores because the retail stores requirements. So people that do discover games that aren’t found in retail stores find that it can be quite a different experience in a good way when you sit around a table with 4-5 others.

Now you might be thinking what is the difference between what the retail stores offer and what you can find elsewhere. It all comes down to 1 question, do you want to play the game again? To clarify I’ve played all the above games more times than my memory can recall nowadays. But 1 thing I do recall about each of them, I don’t recall completing one of them and wanting to play it again right away. When it comes to games that you can find today if you look many are created with that thought in mind, do you want to play it again immediately. They also take into consideration is time constraints, the majority of games you will find play in a 1-2 hour time period. So if you are familiar with it you can play it again in an afternoon.

One of the biggest things though that differentiates the games of what you remember and the games you could find is the amount choices that will control your winning and losing in the game. The games we grew up on and what most people remember playing only had 1 or 2 things that ultimately had any great impact on whether you won or not. Much of the time it didn’t actually involve much engagement on the player’s behalf. Many of the games that you will find in groups such as ours will have 3-4 things to engage with that can have subtle impacts on your outcome in the game rather than just one.

At the end of the day though the most important factor for me is sitting around a table and engaging with others of all age groups and backgrounds with friendly quips, competition, and celebration of a well played game. Which much of today’s entertainment media can separate us from that friendly human interaction. There’s also a game for everybody because if you have an interest in a particular topic or theme so do others. As a closing example there is a game about competing weather forecasters.

So if you’re interested in finding a game for you or seeing what the deal is with board games and not sure where to start come join us on a game night.