Looking for quality family time? Try playing a board game
Quietly, stealthily, board games have undergone subtle and significant changes.
The games many baby boomers grew up on, the megalomaniac bankruptcy of Monopoly and the world domination of Risk, are still around — popular as ever with new generations.
But a raft of newer games, many with open-ended play strategies that emphasize negotiation and cooperation, have emerged in the last decade, especially in the last three years, board game enthusiasts say.
“It used to be that board games were for little kids,’ said Lesa Smith, who has doubled the game inventory at her San Luis Obispo toy store, Whiz Kids, in the last two years. “Now they’re for all ages.”
Jay Fernbaugh, manager of Captain Nemo Comics & Games in San Luis Obispo, attributes the increased interest in part to the hours folks spend at computers every day. “I read a study that says basically people spend eight hours detached from humanity,” he said. “Board games are a quick and easy way to socialize with people.”
Board games are also more accessible, Fernbaugh noted — they’re easier to find, and the rules have been streamlined so that they’re easier to understand and play.
And they’re a great holiday gift, said Neal Smith, manager of Tom’s Toys in downtown San Luis Obispo, which stocks a majority of the classics. “You have a lot of family members getting together looking for something other than to watch TV or be on their phones.”
Captain Nemo’s, which sells comics and games, hosts gaming nights during the week, as well as open gaming on Saturday. On any given Tuesday night, 10 to 20 people show up to play traditional board games, Fernbaugh said.
Popular board games include classics like Dungeons and Dragons, Monopoly and Scrabble, as well as games that focus on strategy, war, memory and role-playing, according to the local toy experts. Some “can help your kids with problem solving and math skills,” Smith said.
Many of the most popular games were first developed in Europe — Germany, in particular — and then exported to the United States. As a consequence, gamers refer to them as Euro-style or Eurogames, even if they were developed in the United States.
The variety of the new games is remarkable. Some are designed for two players, others for eight or more. Some can take 40 minutes to play, others run for hours.
Players of Settlers of Catan, one of the most popular of this new generation of board games, establish plantations on an island and can take a number of paths toward accumulating points. They can grow agricultural products and ship them to other lands; they can establish villages and towns, or they can do a combination of both strategies. As with many of the newer games, there is no single, agreed-upon way of accumulating points. In more direct games, such as Monopoly, the goal is always to accumulate the most money and bankrupt the opposition, for example. The newer games are much more complex and nuanced.
For Ticket to Ride, players embark on a cross-country train adventure where they collect and play matching train cards to claim railway routes connecting cities throughout North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. There are many variations of this German-style card game — for Europe, Asia, India, Africa, Nordic countries and the United Kingdom, for example.
The open-ended nature of the games appeals to players, many of whom also play console or computer games, says Karl Kemmerer, who owns Game Keeps LLC, a gaming store in West Chester, Pa.
“The biggest difference between playing a computer and playing an actual person is that with an actual person, you can only guess what they might do. With a computer AI (artificial intelligence), obviously there are patterns. Human players are more adaptable.”
Recommended games
Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride are two games recommended by local toy experts. Here are other games:
- Forbidden Island: A cooperative board game where players take turns moving their pawns around the “island,” which is built by arranging the many beautifully screen-printed tiles before play begins. As the game progresses, more and more island tiles sink, becoming unavailable, and the pace increases. Players use strategies to keep the island from sinking, while trying to collect treasures and items. As the water level rises, it gets more difficult; sacrifices must be made. (ages 10 and up)
- Small World: Players vie for conquest and control of a world that’s too small to accommodate them all. (ages 8 and up)
- Betrayal at House on the Hill: Players build a haunted house room by room, tile by tile, creating a new game board every time. Secretly, one of the characters betrays the rest of the party, and the others must defeat the traitor before it’s too late. (ages 12 and up)
- Slapzi: Players draw a clue card — “something you can eat” — and vie to be the first to play one of their double-sided picture/word cards to win the round. First player to play all her cards wins the game. (ages 8 and up)
- Top That: 72 cards are divided into three bands of color. Each player tries to play a card that matches and covers two of the colors on the card that’s face up on the table. First player to empty his hand wins. (ages 6 and up)
- Dr. Eureka: Players try to solve Dr. Eureka’s scientific formulas by mixing the molecules from tube to tube without touching them with their bare hands. First player to transfer her molecules is the smartest scientist in the lab. (ages 8 and up)
This story was originally published December 12, 2016 at 7:28 AM with the headline "Looking for quality family time? Try playing a board game."