Board Games rolling strong

I was quite surprised this morning when I saw not 1, but 2 articles about board games in our local newspaper today!

The first headline that caught my eye on the front page of the Entertainment section was “We are living in a board game renaissance“. Which got a hearty “You bet!” from me.

People are realizing there are better board games out there.

Since we’ve been reviewing family board games for the last 4 years we’ve been very alert to what’s been happening with the growth of board games worldwide over the last decade. Because even before we started posting video and written reviews of board games our collection of games had been growing steadily.

As a family we started getting back into board games when our oldest was around 8 years old. Having enjoyed playing games growing up and playing occasional games since then, I’d never been a stranger to games. But it wasn’t until our children got to the ages where they could start putting more thought into their game play that our board game stacks started to grow.

I think it was a combination a few things. The first being that I could finally enjoy some thoughtful board games with my kids. Rather than solely playing luck-based games, we could enjoy more strategy in our games.

The second is just what was pointed out in the newspaper article this morning – that the quality and quantity of new board games hitting the market over the last decade has exploded. The influence of new game play styles from Europe started hitting America more heavily and game designers started finding new ways to make games interesting.

No longer were board games stuck in the basic “roll and move” mechanic. And many more themes started hitting the game stores. With thousands of new games being published every year, now it’s easy to find a board game on almost any theme.

And even in a time when so much retail activity is happening online, we’ve seen more physical board game stores pop up and large retailers start stocking a wider range of quality games on their store shelves.

It’s been fantastic to watch the growth in the popularity of board games because that means that even in today’s world of digital distractions, more people are enjoying face-to-face time playing with friends and family.

And that’s a great thing.

There’s a tremendous variety of games to choose from that are tons of fun. You can take a look at the almost 200 board game reviews we’ve posted or simply wander over to your local game store. Either way, we hope you find some great games that your family will enjoy together for years to come!

 

What were the 2 games that started our game closet expanding?

• Killer Bunnies
• Hey, That’s My Fish!