High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again • Hacker News Board

Re: High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again

#31

Post by VLM » Tue, May 06, 2014, 7:21 PM UTC

thomaslangston wrote: post #22

I would posit that Meetup.com and other public social networking sites are also a significant factor in the recent board game boom. Finding and playing games with 3 to 6 adults is much easier when you can quickly find multiple free events each week in any major U.S. metro area.

That is insightful and correct, also advise hitting google to keep track of "fellow travelers" like the paper/dice RPG crowd and of course local cons. Most cons have a boardgamer presence even if they're supposedly for RPG folks or card gamers. Somebody who plays Pathfinder Society probably is up for a board (or card) game, and unless you're truly in the hinterland there's probably a PFS group "nearby".

From observation, it seems most cons, not just gaming cons, have some kind of board / card / rp gamer meetup.

Re: High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again

#32

Post by VLM » Tue, May 06, 2014, 7:31 PM UTC

replicatorblog wrote: post #29

Boardgames are quietly one of the most lucrative categories on Kickstarter. Multiple miniature-based boardgames have out earned Oculus Rift and up until the end of 2013 5 of the top 20 projects were board games. There are a couple companies that are approaching $10MM in revenue by running multiple campaigns. There are also lone artists who have raised millions. It's fascinating on a number of levels, from the individ…

Kickstarter seems to be turning into a market research technology.

Ask the internet, "Would anyone like a Lovecraftian Cthulhu themed card game?"

The internet says, "Sure, here's $30K".

According to the blog, my copy is in the mail...

Re: High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again

#33

Post by sentenza » Tue, May 06, 2014, 7:32 PM UTC

gault8121 wrote: post #5

Board games can connect people in ways video games cannot. There is a level of rapid interaction, brought about by being at a shared table, which cannot be mimicked digitally. If you like Settles of Catan, and you are looking for something more advanced, I'd highly suggest Eclipse, Twilight Imperium, and Puerto Rico. These are challenging games that require careful resource management, political negotiations, and lon…

As a frequent player of Twilight Imperium I want to add a caveat to your comment: _DO_ play Twilight Imperium, but please be aware that you need a place to set it up where it can remain for a week or so in order to finish the game in multiple sittings.

Many players prematurely give up on this game when they notice that it takes about 8-12 hours to play through.

If you are prepared to play a game of TI in 2-3 sittings, you'll notice that it is rich, deep, non-repetitive and highly addictive.

Re: High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again

#34

Post by tannerc » Tue, May 06, 2014, 7:34 PM UTC

webmaven wrote: post #26

tannerc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, and I think a lot of it has to do with the physical presence of the board, pieces, cards, etc. as well. Something video games can't offer players is that tangible appeal, where you have to feel the weight of a card or game piece lifted from the table or board and then slamming it back down. The innate psychology of being able to feel even the tiniest of texture and weight of an object is something we may neve…

A few years ago some students built a D&D prototype for the MS Surface Table computer that looked pretty awesome: http://vimeo.com/surfacescapes The use of actual figurines with fiducial markers to control the UI was particularly interesting.

This is excellent, thanks for sharing. Do you know of any similar developments for smaller tablets?

Re: High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again

#35

Post by VLM » Tue, May 06, 2014, 7:37 PM UTC

batmansbelt wrote: post #4

Were board game sales ever suffering? You wouldn't know it after dealing with some of my insufferable board game aficionado friends.

You've gotten massively downvoted (why?) but before the eurogame invasion around the turn of the century, sales were not as good.

There's a pretty good documentary called "Going Cardboard" focused around the early years of the eurogame invasion, mid to late 00s products, tells the story fairly well in an hour or so.

Re: High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again

#36

Post by theg2 » Tue, May 06, 2014, 7:44 PM UTC

silverlight wrote: post #24

Shameless plug for our product which lets you play RPGs and board games online with others for free: http://roll20.net

Looks like a great product, just haven't had the chance to actually give it a full spin yet.

Re: High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again

#37

Post by rubinelli » Tue, May 06, 2014, 7:47 PM UTC

craigching wrote: post #20

karlb wrote: post #13

The BoardGameGeek Gift Guide opened up a whole new world for me: http://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Board_Game_Gift_Guide_201... I now own about half of the games on it. I discovered early on to buy only games that are either suitable for my two young kids (like Carcassonne, King of Tokyo, Blokus and Labyrinth) or are suitable for two players (my wife and me; Dominion, Pandemic and Ticket to Ride Europe). We seldom g…

> I discovered early on to buy only games that are either suitable for my two young kids (like Carcassonne, King of Tokyo, Blokus and Labyrinth) How old are your kids? I would love to add more board games, but my kids are pretty young. I have a five year old daughter with whom I started playing Forbidden Island about a year ago. She loves the game, though she has her own way of playing, she just loves collecting the…

With a five year old, you can try playing Carcassonne without farmers, or pick up Catan Junior. Cockroach Poker is a fun and simple bluffing game -- and kids love bluffing. Other card games, like Coloretto, may also work. Takenoko is more complex, but it's colorful, and comes with a lovely panda.

Re: High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again

#38

Post by anigbrowl » Tue, May 06, 2014, 8:18 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #28

pessimizer wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think board games on table touchscreens would already be common if there were an open platform/framework to program them on, and they took advantage of additional phones/tablets over IP. The manufacturing cost on big touchscreens is already pretty low.

The term you need to google for is "vassal engine" Note the engine might be open but there's all kinds of schemes WRT the data files ranging from "we don't care" to DMCA takedowns to the max. Also some people are simply tactile and really want meeples and feelies in their games, so an ipad is going to be a very rough sell to them simply because they very explicitly don't want a screen experience. Also the resolution…

Most interesting, thanks! I don't expect board games on touch screens to take over and your points about allowing games to spread out is well made. But it will be interesting to see how they continue to evolve in parallel.

Re: High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again

#39

Post by scrumper » Tue, May 06, 2014, 8:20 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #28

pessimizer wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think board games on table touchscreens would already be common if there were an open platform/framework to program them on, and they took advantage of additional phones/tablets over IP. The manufacturing cost on big touchscreens is already pretty low.

The term you need to google for is "vassal engine" Note the engine might be open but there's all kinds of schemes WRT the data files ranging from "we don't care" to DMCA takedowns to the max. Also some people are simply tactile and really want meeples and feelies in their games, so an ipad is going to be a very rough sell to them simply because they very explicitly don't want a screen experience. Also the resolution…

Thanks for this! I'd started creating a spreadsheet to hold state for Twilight Struggle so my wife and I could enjoy a game over a week without our toddler destroying the board. This looks much better.

Re: High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again

#40

Post by r00fus » Tue, May 06, 2014, 8:26 PM UTC

anigbrowl wrote: post #12

gault8121 wrote: post #5

Board games can connect people in ways video games cannot. There is a level of rapid interaction, brought about by being at a shared table, which cannot be mimicked digitally. If you like Settles of Catan, and you are looking for something more advanced, I'd highly suggest Eclipse, Twilight Imperium, and Puerto Rico. These are challenging games that require careful resource management, political negotiations, and lon…

a shared table, which cannot be mimicked digitally Not to dispute your point (I like tactility too), but I am very interested to see where the next wave of 'coffee tble computers' go, eg Panasonic's 4k toughpad ( http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughpad/us/windows-4k-tab... ) when they reach commodity rather than vanity pricing (they're $5-6k now, aimed at medical/media professionals).

This - even back in 2010, I remember many fun days of playing Multi-pong (which has changed it's name more times than I could count) and Wurdle - both were really fun 3-4 player games that a 10" made sharable.

Something a bit larger would be great for simpler board games and maybe 4-6 players. Combined with an ability to sense external pieces/cards, the computer could handle the rule processing and drudgery while the humans could interact closely.