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 be

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.