6 ms·

German here. Board games were never gone so I'm not sure what the article headline is trying to say. I guess this is an American perspective? Most of the "innov

by pluma 9y ago

German here. Board games were never gone so I'm not sure what the article headline is trying to say. I guess this is an American perspective? Most of the "innovations" the article mentioned sound mostly like they're responsible for Americans developing a new interest in board games. "Legacy" games, while somewhat innovative, sound like they're borrowing from pen and paper games (where characters might come back for new campaigns) rather than computer games (although CRPGs were heavily influenced by pen and paper from the start).

JoeAltmaier 9y ago
I think that's right. The OP is on an English site written in American English; the audience is likely that.
- pluma 9y ago
  > English site written in American English; the audience is likely that Does the term "lingua franca" mean anything to you? Considering most sites with an international audience use English and most of those use American English specifically, this does not seem like a foregone conclusion. HN is an English site mostly written in American English, do you therefore reckon its content is intended for an American audience?
  - falsedan 9y ago
    > HN is an English site mostly written in American English, do you therefore reckon its content is intended for an American audience? Yes. The coverage and topics are heavily weighted towards companies in the Bay Area + local US events.
b0rsuk 9y ago
While boardgames experience a revival in Poland, at the start of the millenium they were looked down upon as childish waste of time.
- Erwin 9y ago
  In 1980s Encore Games copied all the American SPI games and published them on the cheap. I had the feeling they were quite successful, publishing 20 games: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/5018/encore-boardgames https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/5018/encore-boa...
bunderbunder 9y ago
American here. I don't think board games were even gone in the USA. For a while they had a relative lull in popularity, but all along there were decent games being made by good designers. Many of the best ones from the '70s and '80s are even being re-issued for a new audience. I'm not even entirely sure that there's been all that much of an increase in the number of friends I have who like to play board games. What's really changed is that the mass market retailers have started carrying these games, and the Lifestyle section of the local newspaper is suddenly talking about them as if they just appeared from out of the mists.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > I'm not even entirely sure that there's been an increase in the number of friends I have who like to play board games. What's really changed is that the mass market retailers have started carrying these games, and the Lifestyle section of the local newspaper is talking about them. That's because their popularity has increased with the overall public, whether or not that is true of your immediate circle of friends.
cthalupa 9y ago
Board games were gone in most of the world outside of Europe - it's not just America. Asia, the Oceanic regions, etc, all had a huge lull in their popularity. This has only changed over the past 10 years or so. But popularity has increased even in Europe over the past decade. Just look at Essen Spiel - the 2000s were much bigger than the 90s in attendees, and they've had a nearly 30% increase in attendance in the past 5 years. I was not saying Legacy games are borrowing from computer games - I disagree with the article on that, and my apologies if that was not clear throughout my comment. The only place where I think they have really done any borrowing is in the "AI" components that are more modeled after another player making decisions than static objectives you are playing against.
ajanuary 9y ago
I don't know how true this is, but the theory I heard from somewhere is that post-WW2 Germany didn't have quite the same appetite for the Avalon Hill style wargames that were certainly popular in the UK and US. That created a divergence in design lineage. For a long time in the UK and US board games were for children while wargames were for grown ups. It wasn't until fairly recently that board games have become popular here for adults.

by pluma 9y ago

JoeAltmaier 9y ago

I think that's right. The OP is on an English site written in American English; the audience is likely that.

pluma 9y ago
> English site written in American English; the audience is likely that Does the term "lingua franca" mean anything to you? Considering most sites with an international audience use English and most of those use American English specifically, this does not seem like a foregone conclusion. HN is an English site mostly written in American English, do you therefore reckon its content is intended for an American audience?
- falsedan 9y ago
  > HN is an English site mostly written in American English, do you therefore reckon its content is intended for an American audience? Yes. The coverage and topics are heavily weighted towards companies in the Bay Area + local US events.

b0rsuk 9y ago

While boardgames experience a revival in Poland, at the start of the millenium they were looked down upon as childish waste of time.

Erwin 9y ago
In 1980s Encore Games copied all the American SPI games and published them on the cheap. I had the feeling they were quite successful, publishing 20 games: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/5018/encore-boardgames https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/5018/encore-boa...

bunderbunder 9y ago

American here. I don't think board games were even gone in the USA. For a while they had a relative lull in popularity, but all along there were decent games being made by good designers. Many of the best ones from the '70s and '80s are even being re-issued for a new audience. I'm not even entirely sure that there's been all that much of an increase in the number of friends I have who like to play board games. What's really changed is that the mass market retailers have started carrying these games, and the Lifestyle section of the local newspaper is suddenly talking about them as if they just appeared from out of the mists.

dragonwriter 9y ago
> I'm not even entirely sure that there's been an increase in the number of friends I have who like to play board games. What's really changed is that the mass market retailers have started carrying these games, and the Lifestyle section of the local newspaper is talking about them. That's because their popularity has increased with the overall public, whether or not that is true of your immediate circle of friends.

cthalupa 9y ago

Board games were gone in most of the world outside of Europe - it's not just America. Asia, the Oceanic regions, etc, all had a huge lull in their popularity. This has only changed over the past 10 years or so. But popularity has increased even in Europe over the past decade. Just look at Essen Spiel - the 2000s were much bigger than the 90s in attendees, and they've had a nearly 30% increase in attendance in the past 5 years. I was not saying Legacy games are borrowing from computer games - I disagree with the article on that, and my apologies if that was not clear throughout my comment. The only place where I think they have really done any borrowing is in the "AI" components that are more modeled after another player making decisions than static objectives you are playing against.

ajanuary 9y ago

I don't know how true this is, but the theory I heard from somewhere is that post-WW2 Germany didn't have quite the same appetite for the Avalon Hill style wargames that were certainly popular in the UK and US. That created a divergence in design lineage. For a long time in the UK and US board games were for children while wargames were for grown ups. It wasn't until fairly recently that board games have become popular here for adults.