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The Future Of Boardgames (And Are They Headed Anywhere)

5 replies [Last post]
Tue, 02/01/2005 - 18:11
DSfan
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Joined: 12/31/1969

Everything is growing up and becoming more "techy" to me. Video games are becoming more movie like, newer objects use more technology. Almost life-like Robots are more than a figment of our imagination (Honda's Robot). Everything is growing up (to me) except boardgames.

Don't get me wrong boardgames have progressed in many different ways (even in my 13 year life) They have become more fun, and complex, more real (War games).

All right, after all that rambling, here's my 1st question.

Do you think, Boardgames will ever "grow-up" or progress in to a time of technology?

Now to answer my question, I think Yes they will. Not in my life-time, but maybe my kids. I think they will be more video-game like, because that's what the consumers want.

I believe there will still be "boards" but people will control a moving character, maybe seeing it's view in a small T.V screen. Now my second.

Do you want them to "grow-up" and become more life-like/"techy"?

I myself, do not want them to. I think Boardgames (like real-sports) are the only thing we humans can do that doesn't involve technology (and is fun).

Thanks for listening,
-Justin

P.S. That thing about the moving the board game character, and seeing it's view, sounds kinda cool.

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Tue, 02/01/2005 - 20:54
#1
Brykovian
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Re: The Future Of Boardgames (And Are They Headed Anywhere)

DSfan wrote:
I think Boardgames (like real-sports) are the only thing we humans can do that doesn't involve technology (and is fun).

I think my wife would get a chuckle reading that line. ;) :p

What about books? Can't knock a good book for entertainment value, portability, longevity of the medium, etc.

Personally, I think that board-like games will remain forever, perhaps using different media for deliver ... there are already board games playable over cellphones. As technology advances, there will be adjustments and ways to deliver new experiences ... but I wouldn't be very surprised to see a chess set sitting on a coffee table 1000 years from now.

-Bryk

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Tue, 02/01/2005 - 21:40
#2
Scurra
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The Future Of Boardgames (And Are They Headed Anywhere)

I've got a great PDA. I carry it round in my jacket pocket and so far the batteries have yet to run out. OK, so the lead wears down on the pencil every so often, but the sharpener seems to work just fine :-) And the best bit is that whenever the memory gets full, I can get a replacement model for pennies...

Every technological innovation has been proclaimed as spelling doom for the one perceived as "inferior" to it. I am a huge radio fan (here in the UK we have some of the most vibrant and innovative radio stations in the world) and they are doing things today that are still pushing the boundaries of what you can achieve in ways that television can barely dream of. The VCR and the DVD were both predicted to kill off cinema; and downloaded songs were going to spell the end for the music industry.

None of this has happened, and I'd be willing to put money on it not happening with board games either.

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Thu, 02/10/2005 - 21:46
#3
Hedge-o-Matic
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The Future Of Boardgames (And Are They Headed Anywhere)

Well, I think the questions are good ones. How much change can a medium endure before it is transformed into something else? How much technology can a boardgame handle and still be a boardgame?

Chess will endure forever, i think, simply because, to the human mind it is one of the deepest and most varied abstract game. I would be surprised if I couldn't find a chess set in a thousand years. Assuming I'll be around to even look, of course. Technology will never change the experience of chess.

But other boardgames can incorporate technology in new ways. LCD boards can allow for dynamic playing fields beyond what any useable physical system could manage. "Smart" pieces can potentially alter the solitaire experience of any abstract game, and radically change wargaming and miniature gaming. Wargames and miniature games as we know them are, I fear, a dying breed, as what they do is more suited to the computer, I think.

But puzzles with physical components could benefit immensely from a jolt of technology, and making them interactive (read: into a game) will only be a matter of creativity.

But part of the gaming experience is the fact that the players themselves run the game, and aren't relying on anything else. So, as technology advances, there will always be a core of game, board and otherwise, that have not a single chip or battery to be found.

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Fri, 02/11/2005 - 08:44
#4
OrlandoPat
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Joined: 10/16/2008
Technology vs. not.

There's no question in my mind that games will survive the relentless march of technology. "Games" is just too broad a category to be eliminated. From poker to chess to Sands of Time to backgammon to Trivial Pursuit... each of these games is played in a completely different setting, not all of which are suited to LCD panels or electronics. My wife and I, for example, like to play backgammon while watching TV. We wouldn't do that with a board that bleeped and blooped.

DVD games are great, but socially awkward. For many people, it's much more fun to sit around a living room and play then it is to sit around a TV and play.

This isn't to say that technology doesn't have a place in games.

About 25 years ago, there was a great game out there called "electronic Dungeons and Dragons". It was actually a very fun boardgame, where the board was essentially a computer. Each square was a button, and you didn't know what was in that square until you pressed it and the board made a noise.

Similarly, there was a fun abstract strategy game called "Shogun" (yes, I know there have been other games with that name). In this one, the board was a series of magnets, and the pieces had differently calibrated magnets in them as well. When you put a piece down, a dial on the top spun, letting you know how many moves the piece would be able to take on its next step.

And I'm sure anyone over 30 remembers Dark Tower...

This trip down memory lane is somewhat relevant. All those games are a lot of fun, but I don't see how they eliminated any others in the marketplace. They added to the field. They didn't replace it.

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Fri, 02/11/2005 - 11:32
#5
Anonymous
The Future Of Boardgames (And Are They Headed Anywhere)

There have been games infused with technology for most of the past 100 years. The earliest one in the BGG database is the Electronic Base Ball Game from 1928. From there, electronic games have been created to take advantage of the leading technology of the time.

Electronic games, however, are more of an oddity in the gaming world, and not a staple. Even the release of Knizia's electronic King Arthur didn't usher in a new age of electronic games and proved to be only mildly sucessful.

There's a great article on Discover Games that talks about the increased sales of traditional board and card games in the era of video and computer games. Despite the flash and appeal of video games, non-electronic games continue to grow and do well.

There's something about a game that doesn't need batteries or any electricity to provide hours of entertainment and challenge. I have played a variety of the electronically enhanced games and have never seen one that would make me want to play it again and again. It's not the electronics that provides the experience that I look for in a game. It's the game itself.

I think the electronic games will continue to get better and better with LCD panels providing ever changing game states and proximity sensing devices in the board and the figures providing better and more accurate game state information to the computer, but in the end they will continue to be the exception to the appeal of gaming and not the rule.

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