I’m a huge fan of tabletop games. I’ve counted, and back home, I have 106 tabletop games, of all different genres and types. Board games, card games, roleplaying games; games about strategy, chance, adventure, story, and combat; games about Vikings, terraforming mars, or even taking over the Russian Politburo. You name it. And now, more than ever, is it a great time to be a tabletop gamer.
For we are living in a tabletop renaissance.
A prime example of this resurgence of gaming goodness is none other than D&D. Dungeons and Dragons, a game which started out as being the stuff of “geeks” back in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, now boasts over 13.7 million players annually (dungeonvault.com). Every Friday, the tabletop gaming club here at State hosts at least two, usually three, simultaneous games of D&D, each game filled to maximum capacity. Wizards of the Coast, D&D’s owner and publisher (and a subsidiary of Hasbro), also owns Magic: The Gathering, an immensely popular tabletop card game which has led Hasbro’s sales this year (Forbes). Wizards, however, isn’t the only gaming company which has seen massive growth in recent years. Asmodee, a French board game publisher (the second largest in the world after Hasbro) which owns the publishing rights to games such as Catan, Ticket to Ride, Dead of Winter, Pandemic, Spot-It!, and Carcassonne, saw 39.5% growth in 2016 (BoLS).
But why all this growth? Why are board games just now coming into their own? What’s the secret? I believe, as do many others, that technology is to thank.
Technology has driven many to a love of board games in recent years in two ways: attractively and repulsively. The main attractive cause of the tabletop craze has been (no surprise) the internet. Social media has helped increase awareness of all the different kinds of tabletop games, which has helped many to find new games they might be interested in playing. Sites like Kickstarter allow fledgling and experienced game designers alike pitch game ideas to be crowdfunded, many of which easily bring in the money necessary to take the game from inspiration to manufacturing. Additionally, many internet shows like Critical Role (a show where famous voice actors play Dungeons and Dragons together on livestream) or Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop (a show were Wil Wheaton weekly brings in celebrities and plays a game of the week with them) have helped push tabletop games into the public eye by giving games a popular celebrity as support. Now, once someone finds a game they’ve seen on the internet they NEED to play, sites like Amazon make purchasing the game no more than a click away. It has never been easier to be a tabletop gamer thanks to technology.
As for the repulsive force of technology, one needs only to look on the current public view of cell phones. I’ve yet to meet someone who says that prolonged cell phone use is a good thing. So, (allow me to geek out on Lord of the Rings) like the city of Gondor rising as the last safe place for humanity, tabletop games have been perceived as the great mediator for face-to-face community and entertainment. There are no screens involved in a tabletop game (at least not for most), making it an ideal candidate for entertainment for those seeking to escape from technology.
These two very different driving forces for tabletop’s success are really two sides of the same coin: the rapid advancement of technology. So for those who have been gaming for years (like myself) or those who may be viewing a page on BoardGameGeek.com for the first time, take some time to appreciate the technological advancements of the last decade and how they’ve led us to this glorious revolution.
For those interested:
- Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop
- Critical Role:
- BoardGameGeek (a forum site for all things board games)
Sources in order of appearance: