Has anyone seen any statistics on the number of board games Americans actually own and play on a yearly basis? I know I have about 20 in the house,and we play 15 of those at least once a year. Most actively played is Risk, maybe 2x a month.
Also, do you think people that regularly play board games are more open to card games, or are these two catagories unrelated (at least to the degree boardgames are unrelated to computer games)?
Also, do you think people that regularly play board games are more open to card games, or are these two catagories unrelated (at least to the degree boardgames are unrelated to computer games)?
Personally, as a game player, I find making a distinction between card games and board games a bit silly. I really don't care whether a game is a card game or a board game, as long as it is fun to play. A lot of games fall in between those two categories anyway. Is Lost Cities a board game, because it has a board for the discard piles? What about Citadels? There's no board, so is it a card game then? What about Taj Mahal? Verrater?
However, a lot of people do make a clear distinction between the two. Card games are often thought of as short, light and easy. Board games are long and complicated. This is, of course, not always true, but it's a perception a lot of people have, so it's something to keep in mind when introducing people to new games.
As a game designer, I don't specifically make a distinction between the two either. I do care about having a compact set of components, and therefore I sometimes try to design a game with just a set of cards. I find that setting restrictions for yourself is a good way to spawn creativity. However, sometimes a certain game idea just needs a board, or extra components, and the game is better off as a board game.
I am a gamer and have been for a long time. Even with a few games being lost destroyed or given away I have managed to amass 160 if expansions are counted. This leaves out RPGs, electromic games and most of my own designs. I was thinking of going to pick up a new game today and have my eye on a couple more that I am waiting to become available in the US.
My collection includes a wide variety of game types; Board, Card, Dice, Flip Book. I do think there are some people who like card games better than board games and visa versa. I am a little more partial to board games but won’t shy away from a good card game and presently some of my most promising projects are card games although some do require some extra components.
I currently have around 15-20 board and card games, excluding collectible games. I currently play around 10-12 of these games each year. I probably had a dozen more when I was young.
Board and card games fit in the same category. The only thing that could split the board game categories are the collectible games, or games like the war hammer miniature game. They are still board games, but not from the main board game category accessible to all people.
I currently own about 50-60 games. Most of them are in the collective Library of my game group which is around 400-500 games. I play 40 or so on a regular basis (2 or more times a year.)
~Ben
It's almost impossible to make sensible distinctions between game categories really. As someone noted, "Ticket to Ride" is actually just a nicely-tuned Rummy variant with an unusual melding device in the shape of a board.
It's more of a definition thing really imo: a cardgame that requires a specialist deck (and I'd exclude something like Uno from this) should probably be counted as a boardgame for the purposes of this forum. And there are more than a few games that can be played with regular decks of cards that would qualify here too (games that stand outside the traditional cardgame families.)
As for how many games people own and play - I suspect this is about as useful as the one about how many books there are in an "average" house. The statistic comes out at around 100, but some of us know that we skew those stats seriously badly (SF fans are the worst offenders here; I know more than a few people with collections of 20,000+. Each. ;-))
IOW, for those of us who count boardgaming as their main (or a major) hobby, which means that we spend serious money on it, then we are likely to have fairly hefty collections (I'd guess I've got 200+) Most people, otoh, will have probably 5 (and I'd be willing to guess that they'd be: Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, Uno and perhaps Clue.)
I have at least 60 board games, including a few non-collectible card games (I also have substantial numbers of cards from 8 or 9 CCGs). Unfortunately, quite a few of them (probably about a quarter) I've never played, and there are only a few I play more than once a year. Hopefully this will change when my kids get older... I have my 5-year-old playing Heroscape, so it's looking promising.
I think it's more useful to distinguish between games based on their complexity/accessibility (with games like Trivial Pursuit on one end and Third Reich on the other) rather than their format. I suspect that people whose only experience of gaming is Monopoly are less likely to play any other games, board or card, whereas people with broader experience are likely to be more open to a new game of any sort, board or card.
IOW, for those of us who count boardgaming as their main (or a major) hobby, which means that we spend serious money on it, then we are likely to have fairly hefty collections (I'd guess I've got 200+) Most people, otoh, will have probably 5 (and I'd be willing to guess that they'd be: Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, Uno and perhaps Clue.)
I think you're being optimistic; I suspect the 5 are Monopoly (a copy played a few times, but not for years), Trivial Pursuit, another copy of Monopoly (with their hometown, favorite team, or some other interest; never played), Candyland (the kids are now teenagers, but held onto in case there's a rainy day), and Monopoly (might be the same edition as the second copy, might not, but it's also unplayed regardless). Risk was sold in a yard sale years ago, and Scrabble & Clue are too hard.
Aside: We've contributed games to our sons' classrooms each year since they started, and this year gave a copy of Sorry to our 4th grader's classroom. It wasn't particularly well received, I understand, because the kids don't like strategy games. Even my wife, not really a gamer, was upset at the notion that Sorry would require too much thinking for 4th graders.
FWLIW, I own around 350 published games. And I don't differentiate card games from board games. The largest collection I've seen was just shy of 10,000 at the time...
Most people, otoh, will have probably 5 (and I'd be willing to guess that they'd be: Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, Uno and perhaps Clue.)
I happened to be watching an old episode of Sex and the City, and there's a shot of Carrie's stack of 6 old board games on top of a dresser or something. She has Life, Monopoly, Parcheesi, Sorry, Clue, and Twister (which she plays later in the show). Of course, this only reflects the screenwriter's idea of what board games a thirtyish Manhattanite might own, as opposed to the actual population.
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L: "Board and card games fit in the same category."
Thanks, I think that was something that was on my mind. I have never owned a card game (besides normal playing cards). When I go to Toys R US I see mostly board games and only a few card games; and these seem targetted toward kids not adults (except for the poker style games). Are there adult card games in specialty stores?