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Millenials turning off video games for board games.

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24 Apr 2014 11:09 #176456 by Black Barney
All data seems to be supporting the exact opposite. I'm sure there are pockets of people going for board games over video games just like there are people that purposely set out for brick and mortar book stores instead of buying online. But the shift is moving digital big time, that's where the growth is, that's where society is going (right now).

great book on this movement called Life is Br0ken.

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24 Apr 2014 11:35 #176460 by VonTush
What I find interesting are the games that you see in the report, on the table, and getting played.

Escape, The Resistance, Rampage, Zombies!, Dominion, Zombie Dice, Skyline, Say Anything...And Age of Conan (which feels like the odd man out of that group). And Firefly was shown but not in the cafe which was the center of the report but in a house.

Another interesting aspect is that many clips shown showed people reading or referencing the rules.

My point? It seemed like the people playing weren't your die hard BGG gamers, and I just find it interesting what gets played by people not entrenched in the hobby.

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24 Apr 2014 11:45 #176461 by OldHippy
I'm seeing this a lot personally. Certainly video games will continue to be much more popular but there is a small contingent of people starting to play more boardgames (which I'm not convinced is a good thing). We have cafe's dedicated to it, I see hipsters on my facebook wall talking about Dominion and Arkham Horror... there is something happening for sure. People don't seem to be as put off as they were in the past, they realize that games have changed a lot in the last 50 years and many of them are worth playing and can be played quickly.

Thing is I really, really don't care. I like the level of popularity boardgames have, I like the games I own already, I like just enough new releases to keep me vaguely interested in the hobby. More players will probably mean more games, I guess... more games that I don't need. I feel that the hobby has been in a great place the last few years and if it grows (or doesn't) I don't really give a shit. It could get more pop focused, we could see more licensed games, we might even see a higher caliber of games criticism... which some people want. But none of this has any effect on me personally.

That's my entirely selfish take on it. Besides, the whole thing might just be a hipster fad.
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24 Apr 2014 11:47 #176462 by RobertB
Here in Columbus, this opened back in January:

kingmakerscolumbus.com/

On the one hand, I think they should be smacked for 'Board Game Parlour' and 'Board Game Sommelier'. On the other hand, though, I keep meaning to go down there and throw them a $5 to help them fight the good fight. The owners thought that board games were now big enough to emulate the older chess/backgammon bar model, or Snakes and Lattes. The next Dominion expansion isn't going to bury Call of Duty anytime soon, but I think that's a sign that it's getting more popular.

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24 Apr 2014 11:48 #176463 by Michael Barnes
Eh, this news story pops up at least once a year. I've been personally interviewed twice for articles just like this, going back to 2004.

"Hey, wacky board games! Some people are having fun 'unplugged' ha ha! Oh, these modern times!"
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24 Apr 2014 11:49 #176464 by san il defanso
One thing I've noticed from a lot of more prominent figures in the hobby is this relentless desire to "promote" board gaming. I'm not sure, but is this something that other hobbies do? Do stamp collectors and golfers feel the need to tell everyone they know about how great stamp collecting and golfing is?

Is it just about finding more people to play with? Because otherwise it has a distinctly cult-like vibe, and mostly it just feels like a need for validation from more and more people.
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24 Apr 2014 11:50 - 24 Apr 2014 11:51 #176465 by Michael Barnes
Wait, "board game sommelier"? That sounds all classy but then you get there and it's a tubby middle-aged guy with a grease-stained Punisher shirt and asthma.
Last edit: 24 Apr 2014 11:51 by Michael Barnes.

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24 Apr 2014 12:06 #176466 by DukeofChutney

San Il Defanso wrote: One thing I've noticed from a lot of more prominent figures in the hobby is this relentless desire to "promote" board gaming. I'm not sure, but is this something that other hobbies do? Do stamp collectors and golfers feel the need to tell everyone they know about how great stamp collecting and golfing is?

Is it just about finding more people to play with? Because otherwise it has a distinctly cult-like vibe, and mostly it just feels like a need for validation from more and more people.


they are closely related but you do get this in RPGs, and War Games, and to a lesser extent minis games. Sports do it to an extent too. Professional Badmington has revised its rules a few times to make it more TV friendly. Cricket as seen increasingly shorter formats of the game with the aim of making it more accessible and trying to promote the sport. All these things are hobbies with a cash investment that need more customers and have hobbyists that want to see them succeed.

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24 Apr 2014 12:22 #176469 by SuperflyPete
@Robert: Dude! You're in Columbus? That's like 2 hours from me. Why have we never gamed?

@San: Promotion? Why? Because they get paid to promote. Free games, money, fame...etc.

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24 Apr 2014 12:55 #176473 by OldHippy

San Il Defanso wrote: One thing I've noticed from a lot of more prominent figures in the hobby is this relentless desire to "promote" board gaming. I'm not sure, but is this something that other hobbies do? Do stamp collectors and golfers feel the need to tell everyone they know about how great stamp collecting and golfing is?


I've complained about and hated board game proselytizing for years. It's fucking obnoxious at best. But yes, other hobbies do it, almost all of them in fact. There is no shortage of people telling me what shows I should watch, what kind of music I should listen to, how great football (or even worse, soccer) is, in the small towns I grew up in people were constantly being pushed into fishing or hunting (even fly fishing).

People love to sell their hobbies to others.
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24 Apr 2014 12:59 #176476 by RobertB
@Superfly: My daughter's travel volleyball is taking all the travel air out of the room for the next couple of weeks, but I'll rattle your cage for gaming sometime.

@San: I'm not running around trying to get everyone I see to try out boardgaming, but I think I see where the folks that are selling it are coming from. I've had conversations, more than once, with my mom, in-laws, etc, where I've tried to explain the local board gaming club meeting or M:tG tournament. If it was a remote-controlled airplane club, or a chess club, or a quilting bee, I wouldn't have to explain it.*


*Yes, I know, I'm a big boy and don't have to explain jack shit about what I do in my spare time to anybody but my wife. But I like being on speaking terms with my relatives, however goofus they may be.

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24 Apr 2014 14:55 #176495 by Erik Twice
When I first got into this wide umbrella we call "geekdom" and went to anime conventions and played DDR and Smash Bros, I was introduced to Jungle Speed and Munchkin. Boardgames being sold was something rare and my exposure ended there.

Now there are always shops selling Settlers, Dominion and every FFG title at cons and the local boardgame shop went from having three or four boxes to having a full wall of games. Most of the geeks my age may not have heard of Martin Wallace or Caylus but they play Smallworld, Chaos in the Old World or Citadels. Basically the demographic that could only play Warhammer 40K or Magic: The Gathering now plays more and more different games.

I think boardgames are mainly consumed by two demographics:

- Geeky young people (16-29)
- Couples, people on their 30s and geeks with a career and a stable job (The BGG crowd).

I don't think there's any basis on the idea that anyone is "turning off video games for board games" though. That's as true and as false as "people are turning off their Xboxes to play NES games".
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24 Apr 2014 15:08 #176497 by ThirstyMan
I can see you haven't been to WBC where you will see people from 8 to 80 enjoying board games.

I think the main demographic is disposable income, like most hobbies.
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24 Apr 2014 20:00 - 24 Apr 2014 20:07 #176517 by KingPut
The interesting thing here isn't whether or not board gaming is growing with Millenials. I can careless about that.

I find it really interesting that places around the world are figuring out a new way to make money in the board game industry. Places like Snakes and Lattes and The Windup Space in Baltimore have figured out that gamers want cool places to meet friends and play games so let's charge admission and sell so food and drinks to gamers. In the future the bar or cafe that runs game nights and sells a few games on the side will probably make more money than the game store owner who store is filled with Magic players who aren't buy much. The game store owner may start selling sodas and chips for $1.00 on the side to pay their rent while the gaming cafe is packing them in selling $4.00 fancy coffee drinks. Also, check out the male-female ratio at a Magic or RPG night at a game store vs. gaming cafe. The game store is missing out 50% of the population because the game store isn't hip and smells like teenage funk.
Last edit: 24 Apr 2014 20:07 by KingPut.
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