Games: Console vs. Cardboard

When I was growing up, I never had a console, but our family had a computer, and that was enough for me to spend many hours playing electronic games. Now that I'm an adult, I'm only mildly surprised that it is acceptable for adults to play video games, too. I have moved on from video games, but not from games in general; instead, I've become a player (and collector) of modern board games.



It looks like a bit of a step backward in some ways. The current level of technology is far superior to what I was playing with as a teenager, and the latest consoles create worlds that get closer each year to the level of detail found in the real world.

By contrast, the cards and wooden pieces found inside many modern games like Carcassonne, Ticket To Ride, Puerto Rico and Agricola will not ever fool you that you are really a medieval builder, rail planner, Spanish trader or farmer. But that's where imagination comes into play, and I think that's a good thing because the requirement to imagine usually makes playtime more fun, not less.

Another aspect of modern console games is that they connect players together over the internet. Players are usually conversing through their headsets at the same time as using the controllers in their hands. You can play a live game with a team where everyone is from a different continent on the planet.

But the apparently old fashion board and card games were there first. It has been normal to play cardboard based games with other players for as long as they have existed. Solitaire games do exist, but these are an exception, or sometimes just an additional function of a game that is designed to be played co-operatively. Personally, I prefer the face-to-face time spent over a board game to the telephone system re-invented over the internet.

There are several other reasons I now prefer board and card games to electronic ones:

• I spend all day in an office looking at a screen, so it's nice to not just stare at another screen when I come home in the evening.
• Cardboard is cheaper than hundreds of software writers.
• Cardboard won't develop glitches, I will be able to take the game out of the box in 50 years and it will be just as playable as today.
• Seeing how the game mechanisms work is part of what I appreciate about my favourite games.

The board game industry is currently doing quite well in Europe and North America. I hope it continues to grow, not because I dislike console games, but because I think board games are a charming and innocent way of having fun with others.