the fate of board games
Most people in America, and likely across the world, owns a tabletop game. From cards to Dominos and every conceivable piece of decorative cardboard imaginable, society seems to tend to find recreation where available. Not surprising, games often reflect or encourage aspects of real life that get used in improving life, the say way other social species use play to practice useful life skills. Has this always been the case, though? There must be a starting point where board games came from and a history to them, just as there has to be a future for board games. In fact, there is a rich history behind tabletop games and using the information about the history of board games we can get a glimpse at where games are now and where they are going.
There was an article by Listverse which is titled "10 Most Important Board Games in History," and gives a quick glimpse of what has impacted society as small recreation throughout documented history. This list included Tafl, The Landlords Game, Vaikuntapaali, Nine Men's Morris, The Mansion of Happiness, Senet, Mancala, Chaupat, Chaturanga, and The Royal Game of Ur. (Boyle) These games come from around the world and many of them are the predecessors to games known well today, Chutes and Ladders, Monopoly, and Chess to name a few.
The earliest evidence of board games comes with no design or rules, but the existence of the pieces used: dice.(Attia) Dice are commonly used today for games that require a chance element, making them great for gambling type games seen in casinos, but these are not the dice used in ancient games. The dice commonly known of today, the six sided die, weren't in existence until around the time of the roman empire. Instead they were tokens with multiple sides that were hand carved often out of small knuckle bones. While there is no consensus on what game the most ancient dice were used for, the evidence shows that the earliest games involved a degree of chance to the rules in order to win. Looking at the bible there is reason to believe that it was seen more as a faith or divine based win that random chance, seen in various points of scripture such as Psalm 22:18 "They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment." (NIV, Psalm 22:18) While the scripture can be interpreted many ways and is irrelevant to this topic, it shows evidence that casting lots, or using dice, was a common quick game used to decide a winner. History shows that much of early games had some aspect of religion tied to them, such as the earliest game in recorded history: Senet.
From Ancient Egypt the game of Senet came about and is mentioned many times in the hieroglyphic texts found across the many archaeological sites. While there is no consensus of the actual rules to the game, much of the core of the game has been found. Through the writings on tombs and its mentioning in various texts such as The Book of the Dead, the game is believed to be based on the religious concepts around the afterlife for the ancient Egyptian people. (Attia) Because the sources of information on gameplay are so sparse and span over the course of a thousand years, it is hard for historians to piece together its exact rules, but the shapes of the board and pieces are known through preservation in tombs and matching sets from other regions such as Cyprus, which made its games out of stone due to local practice. (Dolan)
Games have been played across the world, often spreading and evolving as they cross social, economical, and religious boundaries. Much of this happens through trade routes, such as the game of Senet spreading around the Mediterranean. Another great example of trade routes encouraging the spread of games is the development of Chess, which got its origin from the Indian game Chatarung. While the game of chess can often lead someone to think about the western civilizations, an article in gamnesia points to a source that shows the game was spread by Persian traders. Even older than this is the game of Go, originated from China and while may not be the most popular game, the American Go Association's website indicates that it is "the oldest game still played in its original form." (qtd in Beem) Without having to change its rules or design, Go became a strategic game so commonly popular it is written of by ancient scholars such as Confucius. Spread mostly through Eastern Asia through trade, it is suspected that it was not until Chinese migrant workers brought the game with them to the United States did it really cross regional boundaries and eventually was noticed by westerners in the early 1900s. Another eastern game that spread to westerners with success is Vaikuntapaali which is now popularly known of as Chutes and Ladders. While the original intent of the game was to teach morality and promote enlightenment, the game was changed by westerners to become a game where the goal was simply to reach the end to be successful. (Boyle)
Many games we know of today are the result of evolution in games. As mentioned, Chutes and Ladders is a basic race to the finish game that came from a game that taught morality and the virtue of enlightment, and Chess was the descended version of Chaturanga which has since lost some of its original rules to time. A common game played by children with a piece of paper and little to do is Tick-Tack-Toe, which is an evolved and simplified result of the once popular game Nine Men's Morris, and spurred for the eventual game of Connect Four. While some games were evolved for a simplification of rules and ease of adaptability, it can be shown that some games were changed to mute the religious or moral lessons or social commentary, as is the case with the game of Monopoly. Three decades before Charles Darrow presented the game to Parker Brothers and became incredibly wealthy for it, The Landlord's Game was created by Lizzie Magie. In an article from listverse it is shown that "The Landlord's Game - later known as Prosperity - was intended to illustrate the social injustice created by land ownership and 'rent poverty.'" (Boyle) The socialist solutions, while may be more popular now, did not make its way to the stolen version of Darrow's Monopoly which instead causes players to try to bankrupt the other players. This kind of change in a game reflects both how society was when the game was popular as well as helped ingrain aspects of society.
Many games reflect society in that way, the race to the finish games such as Senet and Vaikuntapaali were reflections of one of the most important features of society at the time: religion. Games like Monopoly and the more modern types reflected what was important then: income and dominance. But as seen with Chutes and Ladders games started to become popular without even the need for morals and lessons. They still reflected society, though, simply by their existence. The industrial age brought about an availability of games and a decrease in quality products/materials allowed for more games that offered only mindless distraction. Cardboard surfaces and pieces became the norm and board games became something stored away in a bookshelf or closet that took no effort to set up and little strategy to play. While this would seem a negative reflection on society it actually is a positive: we see a rise in productivity and efficiency. Complex rulesets and decades of practice weren't necessary, simply play a game that is quick and to the point and allows for social interaction.
Board games took a big leap with the industrial age, with manufacturing processes reducing the time it took to make a game as well as the resources became different. Wood and stone sets with ivory and bone pieces became replaced with cardboard surfaces with glass and plastic pieces. Companies devoted to games came forth becoming their own section of the toy industry. Game design became a business where anyone could pitch an idea and show a single example and then the product could be made for widespread consumption in little time. All tabletop games became popular, playing card decks and dice had existed for a long time by the industrial age but the capacity for generating decks expanded and allowed for people of all statuses to have a set of cards and pick up a game with anyone, anywhere. This availability of materials led to card games outside the traditional suited decks and led to games such as battle decks, which vary in rules and often have the rules written on each card. Games like these became known as tabletop games, giving a wide definition to allow board games under its umbrella. Among these new types of games came a storytelling game of Dungeons and Dragons, which changed tabletop gaming and the board game industry in very noticeable ways.
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, along with friends, began writing a series of books modeled after and complimenting a previous book, Chainmail, that gave a mechanical ruleset to playing a new kind of game. (Appelcline) In this game there were player characters known as PCs and a dungeon master known as the DM. The game would be a fictional story that the DM sets the groundwork for and the PCs are each responsible for their own individual characters' actions in this story. Through combat, wit, luck, and a playful attitude the PCs would face a series of dilemmas until the end of the game which was a simple agreed upon conclusion of the story. Dungeons and Dragons, or D&D, was a game that got its initial following with a subculture that was often the bullied and rejected youth in society. The people who did enjoy this game, however, served as an ever-growing cult-like following of people dedicated to creating stories and playing games and socializing in small groups. These traits all happen to be ideal for people to market board games to, and so games began changing to fit into a world altered by D&D.
Dungeons and Dragons changed the landscape of gaming in a few ways. The game is based on people working together rather than competing, and at the heart of the game it is based entirely in fantasy without allusion to religion other than the one created for the game. The game had no purpose at its core, it was designed so that players created the purpose. Much of the game works functionally as a business meeting would, and the collaborative efforts of players is a change from how board games have been. The game grew in popularity as books and movies played more to fantasy crowds and media began showing people who play such games as culturally normal rather than potentially devil worshiping troublemakers. The game of D&D led to live action role play, which separates from board games entirely by being more of a group improve acting performance with the same rules as the tabletop version, just requiring that players act out their actions. (Shepley) Popular shows began to have loveable characters who played the game habitually and the representation opened the door for the once social pariah of a game to become very acceptable. Now D&D is commonplace and a core part of what is referred to as nerd culture, with conventions dedicated to the practice of this game. Since then games have tended towards this party setting, where players work together and/or are meant to be allowed to play until the end. This is a key part of what has taken place in modern gaming, a style of games referred to as Eurogames which owes a lot of its success to the groundwork of this nerd culture and to internet based crowd sourcing sites such as kickstarter.
Kickstarter is a website that allows people to fund projects with small donations, often with a reward based on the contribution amount. This and the many sites like it have allowed a vast majority of projects to succeed, from movies to small businesses to covering personal medical costs. One of the biggest successes has been that of tabletop gaming. Since production cost for prototype games is very low, gaining funds for starting the projects can be very lucrative and allow for designers to pitch directly to the people they intend to market the product to. According to ICO Partners' analysis, the kickstarter category of tabletop games has received over $100 million in successful funding, which is reaching at minimum the goal fundraising needs. This is just one of many websites used for crowdfunding and shows a huge interest from people to see more tabletop games made available and small businesses designing them grow.
Many of these new designs of games take twists on what has been made before or look into what is trending currently in games. The biggest of these trends is towards Eurogaming, which is games designed for all players to play through the entirety of the game. This includes games like Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan, both of which all players are competing and trading with each other, negotiating what will help themselves most until the conclusion of the game. Most of these games remain competitive but without elimination as the goal. The elements of chance are diminished and strategy becomes very important, even in games where you draw from a deck each play requires more strategy than luck. Additionally games now are focused on reducing rules and storytelling prior to the game. The exchange most games found is to have the story built as you play or have the rules written on each piece as it is played. The game We Didn't Playtest This At All has this set up where the deck creates the game rules as they are played, and there is no way of knowing what the game will look like until it is played.
Party games also grow in popularity as games that reduce elimination and create a social atmosphere. Cards Against Humanity is a game with the purpose of making each other laugh or perhaps start heated conversations when someone in the group doesn't find something funny, which is why the game advertises itself with the subtitle "A party game for horrible people." The game of Concept encourages creativity by having one person try to convey a message using only the pictures available on the game board. While Dixit is a game of creative storytelling using cards of conceptual art. These games are created with the intend of the owners inviting people to play as a group, with competition being secondary to a positive social setting.
The question now, after seeing the evolution of gaming from Senet to the wide variety of offerings available today, is what will the future of gaming look like? To understand an answer to this we look at what has been most successful and what society is like. Games like Senet and Mancala and Chutes and Ladders have been long standing games because at the core the mechanical goal of the game is simple, race the opponent(s) to the finish. Chess and Go are labeled for a different subculture that has major tournaments and history making events, such as when the computer Deep Blue defeated Kasparov who was a global champion, is because these games are based on strategy and the elimination of chance. The growing trend in games now is the simplicity of rules, the longer it takes a game to explain the more discouraging it is to play with people who are new to it. Additionally the market shows a desire for all players to remain in the game for the duration of it, seemingly a response to the games like Monopoly or Risk where a player could be removed from the game 3-4 hours before its actual conclusion. So, what about the societal reflections that would indicate the future of games?
War has become a smaller and smaller detail to games and much of that can be attributed more to the popularity of war in video games more than a distaste for war in society. Religious games have lost their edge as the inclusion of any religion in entertainment tends to segregate the intended audience, while many games have enjoyed altering religious mythos to create fictional worlds for a game to take place in, such as how D&D games have their own deism. With the generation of children who grew up in environments meant to let everyone get a chance to play and reduce the feeling of being a loser, the commonly created games now are ones that let everyone play the entire duration. Board games and all other types of tabletop games are blending together, some board games even mix with high tech games like smartphone app games and console/computer video games. (Liu) This growth in technology is letting a burst of board game evolution take place, where the goals and themes are spreading to cover realistic events to fictional worlds and even just become the basis for social gatherings.
Competition in games is always going to be present, people crave being able to feel superior or have a chance to overcome obstacles. Similarly, the growth of games that limits competition shows that people aren't simply looking for ways to become the best by way of eliminating opponents but by seeing others as kindred folk with similar goals. The future of games will continue to reflect and instill these principles into society by focusing on being social tools and giving new ways to make players work together to achieve all they can. The game of Monopoly will be a classic for a long time to come, but it looks like the original it was based on, The Landlord's Game, would be more successful now than the popularly known game of elimination.
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