http://www.wigan-wargames.co.uk
This has been long overdue.. Lets face it I am someone who LOVES board games but who hardly every plays them because, well, we just don't in the UK do we?
I am lead to believe that things are different on the continent, that board games are not considered to be childish things and that are perfectly reasonable things to use to while away the hours with friends. I do think that in the UK the general consensus is that Games are just for kids, but if you look at the complexity of most games (even those that on the surface might not seem to be that complex) it quickly becomes apparent that the last thing that they are is childish.
I will illustrate this point by showing you this image...
This is the cover of a game (not the original cover but very similar) It was bought for me and my friends when it first came out in 1979... because well, it's a game, it has monsters in it and they will enjoy playing it... I was eight... I was the oldest one in the group and I really did try to understand what you had to do but it was far to complex we ended up playing tiddlywinks with the monster tokens I think.
I replayed the game in my twenties and I seem to remember it as a quite good strategy game with a good level of humour but far too sophisticated for kids... but look at the art again...
It looks like it should be a great kids game with all those funny people and further to that, it doesn't look like a sophisticated game that adults could play. This however does...
...mmm how classy! The latest edition of the 1980's smash hit game... In fact the game that made it ok for adults to play boardgames again. Even though it's had a bit of a makeover it still very much aimed at the adult dinner party market. This edition even puts its playing age as 16+! I'm assuming that implies that the questions are too hard for kids, not that all the questions are post-watershed stuff, but you never know.
At the time people were heralding a new dawn for the board game and that a tide of wonderful followers were going to sweep in the wake of Trivial Pursuit's thundering advance... but... it ... didn't.
...and once the box of questions had been gone through a couple of times even Trivial Pursuit went back into the cupboard...
That's not quite fair TBH it was an uphill battle for boardgames at the time, home computers were the new thing and were taking off like wild fire. A lot of the leisure money that once would have gone on physical games were now going there... but now there is a trend back towards boardgames... on social networks, on portable multi-devices such as iPhone and iPad and in online games networks like x-box, steam and PlayStation. All have electronic versions of games... and not just the obvious old favorites, Scrabble, Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, but things like Carcassone, Settlers of Catan and multi-various Reiner Knizia creations.
This can only be a good thing for board games in general, if you play the electronic version you may well wish to play the real life version too... so how long until you get the iPad version of Marooned?
...a little while yet I should think.
... but I'm not ruling it out!
So back to the first part of this post... I'm off out! to meet new people and play new games, and find out what sort of people real gamers are!
You see I don't know that many real gamers, certainly not people who are so wild as to go out on a Friday night to a scout hut just to play board games (They play table top war games too but I don't think I will be doing that)
And it looks GREAT! in pictures of the last meet people were playing all kinds of interesting board games... Power Grid, Boom Town and Cosmic Encounter! All stuff I've never played... I'm gonna spend my night being taught new games and drinking tea... how lovely!
IH OUT
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