Millenials turning off video games for board games.

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.

@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.

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".

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.

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.

KingPut wrote: 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.

Two of the game stores I visit are explicitly forbidden from selling food or drink by their landlord so that they don't step on the toes of their neighboring food stores. I've never heard of one store telling another to stop cutting into their business by selling board games.

Their hours are also explicitly specified in the rental agreement, forcing them to be open at 9am when no one is buying board games and closing at 9pm when customers with money are in a position to sit down and play.

I think articles like this are far from true. I occasionally attend the largest boardgame meetup in my city and it ranges from 15-30 people. Typically the youngest person in attendance is in their lower 20's, with most being late 20's to mid 30's and also a significant number of 40-60 year olds.

The only young people I see gaming are playing Magic.

Still, I feel like the hobby is misunderstood and scrutinized in the general public. I've actively avoided discussing gaming in public my entire life due to others not getting it. When buddies would talk about our RPG campaigns in the high school hallway I'd kind of just give them a "yeah..." and kind of brush it off not wanting anyone else to hear. I'm still in this mindset as I don't tell anyone at work I game or talk about it with my wife's family even (they know I'm a gamer and don't get it).

I don't buy any of this gaming going mainstream talk that seems to pop up every once in awhile.

KingPut wrote:

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.

Along with our town's 'Board Game Parlour', there's a cafe that will rent you a table for boardgaming, for $20/table for two hours. You'll also get 20% off of meals and drinks. I don't know how that's working out, and I know that it costs the owner next to nothing to do it, but it's interesting that the owner thought there was enough of a demand to bring it up.

When I hear the word millenials I reach for my Twitter account

boardgaming as a hobby is growing quite rapidly in the UK. I live in what is probably the fourth biggest city in the UK and it has at least 4 gaming groups that I am aware of with 30+ attendees. Thats not major, but given that ten years ago it would have had maybe one it is growth. Secondly the number of people i know who are either aware of or have played boardgames has increased quite a bit over the past 3 years. Most people i know who are properly into PC games, or any form of nerdery know boardgames.