:)

imnohbody

When I read the article I had to laugh. Their first session was in January and their next is in March? Amateurs! We've been doing that for 3 years now.

We got out idea from the manager of a games store who was doing it for a couple years prior to us starting it. We've become such a success we've branched out into other programs including a craft night and a Manga/Anime appreciation night (a la Genshiken). At some point in the evening the conversation turns to video games, most of the kids and all of the adults are gamers. But no one complains while they are getting the longest road or have the sheriff down to one bullet.

Smashaga

ConstantCupcake

And, besides, that $10 I spent on XBLA Carcassonne was a lot less than the $30 or so I'd pay for the physical version, and even then I wouldn't have gotten the river expansion without paying even more. :)

(Granted, the river expansion is hardly anything to write home about...)

imnohbody

I think that playing with people face to face is a different experience. It can be more rewarding and personal if you have a good group to play with, but can be a nightmare if you play with the wrong people as well. Online play just makes the process far more impersonal, reducing the risk but also reducing the overall interaction.

I'm in favour of both video games and boardgames as separate mediums, and for more complex games having a program handle micromanagement can be convenient, but other than that I prefer the tangible experience in most cases.

hikaizer

SupaPhly

ThisCharmingMan

Only thing I'd want more on there is Carcassonne, and it's already on there. ;P

DarkHogosha

One is not better than the other, but for youngin's, board games are far superior. Why? It teaches interaction and strategy, not cursing like Halo on live does.

vongarr

The other good thing is that you don't have to buy another $50+ game because someone lost one gamepiece.

RvLeshrac

Decent videogame ports of boardgames, with good AI opponents, are better. You can't *always* get several people together to play a game of, say, Monopoly that will last hours. If you can get one or two people together and a couple of AIs, you're gold.

Another problem with "initiatives" such as this is that the board games they choose are always *crap* like Snakes & Ladders. WTF is the point of a game where all you do is roll the dice, relying purely on luck to get from Point A to Point B? You're better off teaching the kids to play Poker - at least then they're learning math and diplomacy skills.

RvLeshrac

Kamakazie

Leathersoup

The downside with board games is that an excitable dog can cause it to erupt into pandemonium. This is from personal experience. Can't say it wasn't fun though.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

Oh, and Dos Rios for a more cutthroat Catan-style experience for 2-4 players.

Done!

Squeegoth

With a PC / console game that is multiplayer, I can find someone to play against / with at any hour of the day / night.

I need to plan a date, time, and place to meet with 3-4 other friends in order to get a good board game session going.

MaxSteele

Heroscape is awesome if you like miniature battles, but hate painting them or paying lots of money or remembering overly complex battles systems. Its build the arena, draft a squad, & roll some skulls. Granted it can get a little complicated with special moves etc, but Ive had everyone wanting to play this game, people I thought would have hated a miniature based games.

Days of Wonder games are all round awesome too. Pirates Cove, Shadows over Camelot & Mystery of the Abbey are 3 games that'll give you an insight as to how far we've come from monopoly. SoC is easily the most interactive game I've played in a long time (Sharing moans of displeasure when another despair card comes out etc). Being huge Monty Python fans its easy to get carried away in SoC, & the game somewhat encourages it.

I could talk all day & I do, but anyone interested needs to goto www.boardgamegeek.com & just start anywhere. I started with Heroquest (Fav game of my youth) Which lead to Heroscape, my fav game as a young man. Anyone who is bored by boardgames must not have played one that came out after 2000. Its fair to make the observation, but I haven't encountered boredom by anyone in my diverse gaming group yet.

Dr Terror

PS I was refering to Queen's English, but that doesn't matter. I still think grammar is important, whatever the day.

MaxS

[www.gameshark.com]

In particular, the Original Trilogy Star Wars Risk is AMAZING. Shorter than normal Risk, and different enough that it feels like a different game.

The Starcraft boardgame is also worth a serious look. 2-3 hours, and it does feel like Starcraft.

moofrank

I find that most 'board gamers' tend to drift towards the popular Carcassonne, Catan, and Risk. Sticking to these games is like getting an Xbox and limiting yourself to Halo, Grand Theft Auto, and Tetris -- they're good games, but there's a wealth of others out there.

Two suggestions based on numerous shout outs in the comments -

If you like Risk - do yourself a favor and try Shogun [boardgamegeek.com] It's like Risk on 'roids. Instead of dice, you actually throw 'units' [tiny wooden cubes] into a 'battle tower' that quickly shows you who won (some units get caught in the tower only to rain out as reinforcements during later battles). And that's just the battles - the real game is complex and huge.

Also, Catan is fun, but also quite open to (in my experience) foul play and unfair trading between players. I've enjoyed Princes of Florence [boardgamegeek.com] far more than Catan. Princes charges you to produce great works via artists and scholars. The value of the works go up when you province has certain attributes that the professions desire: freedoms, buildings, and landscape styles. Landscapes and Buildings must be carefully placed in your province Tetris-style. Certain items (buildings, new professions) can be purchased, BUT others must be won during an auction phase at the beginning of every round.

Anyone have any other suggestions? As much as I like Risk and Catan, it's always nice to find fun new boardgames.

Klaymen

"What're you kids doing?"
"Getting into troubleeee!"

MetaKz

This is especially true of German board games like Carcassonne and Catan, where a big part of the game's appeal comes from seeing the beautiful tiles laid out at the centre of the table.

The only good thing about computerised board games is that there is no chance of the rules and scoring being argued over. Hoewever, this can be a problem if you prefer different rules to those that the computer offers. For example, XBLA Carcassonne uses a set of rules that differ from any that I've ever seen used with the real board game.

However, when video games go beyond what can be offered by a board game, then that's a different kettle of fish. Even when I invite a group of people over to play board games, we will almost certainly end up playing Mario Kart or a sports game at some point. They offer something totally different, but are just as great for multi-player gaming as any board game.

Marlor

t3hye11owdart

I'd say the big problem here is he's trying tos et up a city-wide 'family board game night!' kind of thing which has even less appeal, considering any family that seriously wants to play board games can buy a copy and not have to leave the comfort of their homes.

ChrowX

So there is no illusion for me, because the interaction is real. It's not an illusion when we have several people in the same room trash talking while playing SC2, and that experience is to me - better than board gameplay. Instead of moving pieces, we're moving food and drink into us and passing controllers (in the meantime also providing commentary on current players / general chatter) - which in a way to me can be just as strong of a mechanism to form bonds as any great board game.

Although, if you're reffering to interaction and thinking video game online mp play - then yeah - that is an illusion. When I'm playing alone online - I in no way think that I'm *interacting or playing* with others - they are just the same as bots to me, although a bit more erratic.

:)

sadkermit - soon to be banned for standing up to the ummm nazi.

cynopt

cynopt

And leave poor Mr. De'M alone on the Lord's day, he can take a break from American standard english if he wants ;)

cynopt

Amazingly simple, amazingly offensive to your pal when you support another person invading his country.

Quine

Squeegoth

PS Flynn, please pay more attention to grammar, I expect Kotaku to be a bit more professional.

MaxS

djkaurii

cynopt

Wookiee1

Each have their pros and cons but its hard to beat the interactivity, portability and cost of board games.

FanDam

I find the mp aspect of games to provide just as much, if not more, fun than any board game. It's all about interaction, and video games can provide in spades. Board games are a bit more static IMO.

sadkermit - soon to be banned for standing up to the ummm nazi.

i think thats strong enough evidence to base a new lifelong prejudice on. risk players are certified crackpots. thanks for opening my eyes!

red

And skeptics, remember there's more out there than the three roll and move games your grandmother had in her closet when you were growing up.

RigorMortis

@cynopt: It's the lawyering over rules that's half the fun ;)

Also, you can adapt rules... in monopoly, I quite often play with the bank extending loans at 10% interest, trading of streets instead of paying for them, etc. Can't see a digital version of the game offer the same flexibility for inventing addon rules.

I'm a great fan of board games, though there are few that I really, really like. Most of them would be duller in a digital version, while I can't see many video games surviving the transition to board games.

Interestingly enough, Wii party games that devolve into drunkenly waving about your controller have a similar sort of feel to them as board games.

unwesen

ThisCharmingMan

Turael

When I get friends around a video game it becomes more about the video games than about conversation. The only notable exception is probably the Mario Party series which is nothing more than a board game on the TV.

HMTKSteve

If you chose to play perhaps a couple more games of Carcassonne, you'd love it for it's simplicity yet tough to master gameplay. To be absolutely honest, it's easily one of the best board games I've personally played in recent years. Anyone can pick it up and play it and you don't have to sit through 1-2 hours of rules. Simple and insanely addictive. It certainly is better played on a table with 4 or so players. The Xbox version is awesome for a quick fix that doesn't need to be packed back into the box when you're done!

Keeko_ca

The implementation of Settlers is much better.

I have a pretty big boardgame collection, filled with good stuff: no monopoly, risk or anything like that. I find boardgaming more fun than random multiplayer on Live. It's jsut unfortunate that most people's only exposure to boardgames is through children's games that are too simple to be engaging and can end up taking forever.

Go to boardgamegeek, and read on real boardgames.

hibikir

The Dark Defender

the only time ive played board games since i started playing videogames in the 80's is when forced to by family or when some fool insists at parties. in my experience, anything longer or more complex than ludo or checkers ends up boring everyone to tears, or else causes a scene and ends up thrown across the room. in fact a new year 1997 game of monopoly is legendary in my social circle for causing such a catastrophic physical rift that it led to a three way family feud which continues to this day and has caused several emigrations out of the country.

ludos pretty fun though.

red

Seestoff

cynopt

Wookiee1

I wouldn't say they're better or worse than video games, but they certainly are fun when you're playing the right ones with the right people. Not unlike video games, really.

Rubiximus

Bakeroo is running from the zombie horde and screaming like a little girl

Anyway I do think that games are better than boardgames because often the sort of person you play with can annoy you. But online its a quick Mute button away, and if the person virtually tips the board over in anger and quits, most games will punish them for doing so.

Plus how else can I play my cousin who lives in Texas whilst I'm in the UK? Over the phone?

Also a videogame is more intelligent. For example, play Trivial Pursuit and theres a high chance that someone will get a load of easy cards and the others hard cards (the questions arent balanced IMHO). But a computer can do random AND sort out the cards, etc. do w.e. it has been programmed to do.

TBH the board game genre SHOULD be dead. There will be something eventually that will beat the videogames but for now it is a worth winner.

Communist_Gamer

KirbyMorph

Unless, of course, you're talking about games like Oblivion, Sim City, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., or any other game with an open-ended or user-created environment. The only board game I've ever liked was Monopoly.

Strangelove

walrusbrown

Needless to say, i won.

hamandcheese

boopadoo

Nothing wrong with a group of buddies cussing and swearing over some intense MarioKart, Ghost Recon, or some Halo. Many a good times.

However, I am currently re-experiencing just how fun some board games really are. A really good company named Fantasy Flight makes some insanely crazy board games, especially for those that are fans of video games. Warcraft the Board Game, Tannhauser, Starcraft the Board Game, and Descent are just a few of my favorites printed by them.

If you have taken a long hiatus from board gaming, it's time to go to your local nerd store and try out some of the newer games out there. The experience is quite different from video gaming all night, however have the same mechanics of some of your video game favs.

Keeko_ca

Although I find that board games based on computer games tend to invariably be bad. Doom and WoW were equally terribly board games.

Although Starcraft seems to be the exception to this rule.

CyRevenant

Deathproof

Smash_Bro

Gekyo

When the hell are we going to see some Steve Jackson games go digital?

When, God?

WHEEEEEEEEEN???

cynopt

Then we played Risk for 6 hours with another friend.

Then another time, we had a 4-player Risk battle. It ended in two hours after one of us threw the board at the wall.

I love when that happens. :D

RPharazonius

Digital versions are nice (Carcassone being a damn fine example) but there's no substitute for a half dozen gamers drunkenly lawyering over the rules.

cynopt

I must say that I can't entirely agree on the static nature of video games. Sure they say it's "always the same," but it really depends on the multiplayer nature of a game. Take, for instance, a sports game like the Madden series. Playing against players online provides a different experience every time you play.

Of course, it is limited, and in the end board games can be more dynamic like Go. I love Go.

What gets me is the piss-poor board game to video game adaptations. I just played Clue/Mouse Trap/Perfection/Nutsuck on DS, huge disappointment. I expected better note taking capabilities for Clue, but no dice.

And it's sad, because I'm finding the only good portable card/board game adaptations are clubhouse games for ds and ultimate card games for gba. You'd think that a developer would come along and actually spend some time making a QUALITY adaptation. Fuck you, Hasbro. Uggh.

indiemike

choirovwolves

eponym

Name Sign 「Metadae's Screen Name」

So yeah, beer + board game + friends == great time.

eponym

t3hye11owdart

Interestingly, I've introduced my friends to AoE III: the board game. Most of them like it better than the actual game, if that says something.

antialias02

Zolbrod

Ive nothing against boardgames..just cant see why "X must > Y".

Some of my best childhood memories consists of endless nights of monopoly.

Krellie

Follow me to the promised land.

Board Game Geek dot Com

You can see what games I have in my collection and how I rank them, my user name there is the same as here.

The fact that the public at large know not the joy that is Power Grid is a damn tragedy.

Infernarl

MasterOfPastures

Video game board games are awesome.

Anticipation for the win.

OneManFreakShow

What's wrong with me?

OneManFreakShow

I don't know what it is, but my strategy is so much more on the ball when I have the actual cards in my hands and I'm facing a flesh and blood opponent.

In computer versions of the same card games, I have trouble getting my head "into the game" so to speack.

brent_w

FyroniK