We've all played them, at one level or another.
For some, board games are reserved for the trip to grandma's house when she breaks out the Scrabble board and thoroughly trounces you with her mastery of two-letter words or bankrupts you at Monopoly.
For others, it's a fiercely competitive affair in a formal league or at marathon sessions with friends where participants immerse themselves for 12 hours recreating the Second World War or creating an epic fantasy space battle.
For most modern board game enthusiasts, it probably lies somewhere in the middle.
Popular games
These days, the people who spend their time and money pushing little plastic pieces around a big piece of cardboard have an astounding array of options to choose from.
The website boardgamegeek.com has one of the most comprehensive lists of available board games available and lists more than 76,000 published games that are out there, including everything from the classics like Risk and Clue to obscure, little-known titles that haven't yet even had printings in English.
John Engel, who owns and operates Mission: Fun & Games on St. Albert Trail, said there are far too many games out there to carry them all in a single store, but he nonetheless carries thousands of titles.
Some of the more popular ones these days include games originating in Europe that spurred a boom in board gaming's popularity over the past couple of decades, including Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne.
"Those are games that tend to be referred to as gateway games – games that people would play and it would open up their eyes to what was really out there and that they hadn't seen at their mass-market stores," he said.
These days the offerings range from quick, simple games that appeal to the more casual gamer, all the way through to incredibly complicated games with rulebooks thicker than a newspaper that need a multi-day time commitment.
And for those who are looking to ensure everyone stays friends at the end of the gaming session, there are now several games available that are co-operative in nature – players work together against parameters set out in the game rather than against each other. A popular example of this is Pandemic, where players work together to prevent the global spread of a fatal infection.
Other types of games that have been growing in popularity are customizable card games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon. So much has their popularity grown that the majority of the events at Engel's store are for those types of games. They don't rely on a board, per se, but rather on players putting their deck of specialized cards to the test one-on-one or in a group.
Yet despite the huge range of games available, there are many, many customers who still come in looking for the old classics.
"Every day there's somebody in here for a crokinole board, or a cribbage board, or the older hard-to-find out-of-print game," Engel said.
Educational component
While the basic purpose of a board game is much the same as it has always been, to have fun with your friends and family, the St. Albert Library has seized upon gaming's popularity as a way to promote literacy in the community. It offers a variety of regular board-gaming events geared toward seniors and youth.
Librarian Michelle Papineau-Couture, also a self-proclaimed board game enthusiast, said the trend to increase access to board games in the library is not unique to St. Albert, but is a trend in libraries across the world.
On top of the regular events, there is also the annual International Games Day, which many libraries take part in as a way to bring people together in the library.
"The idea is that games have a place in the library for connecting people and there's a certain level of literacy that's involved in games, like storytelling and imagination," she said.
She said the teens have responded well to the monthly programming, in that the different teen gaming sessions are usually oversubscribed, and added she sees the educational benefit even in playing simple games like Candyland with her own children.
Engel said he has seen a lot of interest in games for youth at the store, as well, with families looking to pick up good social games to play together.
"We've also seen a large increase in the number of younger gamers, of parents coming in for games for their younger kids trying to avoid video games entirely from the get-go and keeping them involved in the realm of board games," he said.
Some of the popular titles for children include Camel Up and Qwirkle, which are recommended for children as young as eight and six, respectively, both of which have received international critical acclaim.
The appeal
For both Engel and Papineau-Couture the appeal of board games is primarily a social one, as a way of connecting with each other around a table instead of in front of a screen, but both also recognize the benefit of an immersive, imaginative experience.
"The face-to-face indulgence is a big aspect of the appeal of board games," Engel said. "Hopefully you're sitting down at a game and completely involving yourself in the whole interaction, the mechanics, and connecting socially with people."
He likened the experience of playing a good board game with reading a good book – you can lose yourself in the experience, becoming immersed in the mechanics of the game and the story as it unfolds.
Papineau-Couture said she also appreciates the way board games engage one's imagination, and appreciates that it's not all about rolling dice any more, but rather about storytelling, decision-making, and in some cases appreciating the art of the board game itself.
"There are some beautiful board games out there."
