In this world where, according to one site, nearly 50% of all people have a smartphone which people have access to applications galore. Mobile gaming has taken over app stores which daily new games are available; This includes the digitizing of board games.
I admit that I have paid the fees to download some of the games that I really love so that I could play whenever I have some downtime away from home. Digital board games are also found via various programs such as Tabletopia and Tabletop Simulator and various websites offer excellent digital versions of games as well (Boardgamearena.com and even DaysofWonder.com).
Board games have also made it gaming consoles with titles like the Hasbro Family Fun Pack / Family Game Night series. Sometimes it can be fun to play these if you have the right group with you and want to play games from yester-year.
The guys at ThunderGryph Games in their most recent Twitch broadcast had talked about how if the games are done right and does not take away from the beauty and the actual gameplay that they are for having all their games digitized. I do have to say that if all the games from them go to Board Game Arena and plays (meaning how user-friendly it is) like Iwari does on there, I am all for it too.
The big question for me, does playing games online take away from physical game playing? When I have a few moments and I want to play with others across the globe, I will log on and play a game or two. I do not count these towards our daily game play because the whole point of playing physical games is the face-to-face human interaction. Do I have a preference between the two? Heck yeah, pull up a chair and set up the board; time to play some cards, tiles, and/or throw some dice.
The news agency, Deutsche Welle, reported earlier this year that 2020 revenue from board games and puzzles had increased by 22% and 20% respectively over 2019 for the company Ravensburger. One of the reasons was that people wanted to do a “digital detox” and remove themselves from technology.
The article also stated that “evergreen” (older games that are still in print) sales increased dramatically as well because older generations were going back to things that are familiar to them. About the younger generations, Hermann Hutter stated that “Previously, children played board games till the age of 12; now more of them are going digital when they're about 8 years old. They come back to board games, though, at around 15.”
I was told once that across the street from a local high school there is a café or coffee shop that also has a board game collection in which the students would patronize and sit to play games after school or during their lunch breaks. I am glad to see that the younger generations are enjoying the things that we did in the pre-digital/mass media era.
As I have stated numerous times before, one of my biggest enjoyment with playing board games is the social human face-to-face interactions. Being able to “digital detox” for a few hours is quite refreshing.
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