THINK Gaming

Rise of the Ancients David Chircop

David Chircop writes a really brief history of modern board gaming

ver the last two decades a been popular long before Settlers of relatively new sort of board broke the monopoly of Monopo- gaming has emerged which ly in the US. Board games go back much Two different you might not have heard further. In 2200 bc, in China, Go had cultures produce about. ‘Hobby’ or ‘mod- already been invented. Oern’ board gaming is sweeping across German-style games, or , a product, which the world. are generally regarded as one half of In 1995 The Settlers of Catan by the two over-arching mega-genres in is meant to fill changed everything. This modern board gaming. These sort of is the game that made many Ameri- games generally feature less luck, a more the same void, cans realise that there is more to board direct strategy, and less direct player in- but because games than Cluedo and Scrabble. It was teraction. Winning conditions involve family friendly, easy to get into, had a collecting victory points and the design of the cultural lovely trading mechanic and modular favours symbols over text. board which changed every time you The other half is the American-style, circumstances played it. sometimes referred to as ‘Ameritrash’. Isn’t 1995 late? The ‘Spiel des Jahres’ These are generally the opposite style. of the time, they award (basically the Oscars of Board War, fighting, killing, rolling piles and develop very Games) was founded in 1978. In Ger- piles of dice (therefore luck), and player many this genre of board games had elimination. » differently

17 Gaming

Common themes and styles in Amer- played in one sitting. RPGs and war- creating games that combine many dif- ican-style games include dungeon gaming do not follow these rules. ferent influences from past games. The crawling (Descent, Claustrophobia), the Interestingly, American and Ger- lines are being blurred. More experi- American Civil War (Battle Cry), and man-style games developed in more mental games and publishers are start- World War II (Memoir 44). or less the same period of time in two ing to pop up thanks to crowd-fund- German-style games, on the other completely different cultures. This is ing, and virtually anyone can publish hand, tend to have more ‘European’ comparable to the development of the a game. cultural influences. For example, col- Japanese RPG and the Western RPG in In Malta, one of the first locally de- onisation of the Americas or medieval video games. veloped modern boardgames will be farming are common themes (Archi- published internationally next year — pelago, Puerto Rico), as are diplomacy And today? watch this magazine — and others are and intrigue at the time of the Inquisi- in development. Exciting times. tion or gaining the King’s favour (Il Vec- Board games are experiencing a golden • chio, Caylus). age. If you had come into the hobby a David Chircop (and Yannick Massa) American-style games sound simi- mere five years ago, the picture was simple. topped the Geek Hotness lar to miniature wargaming and tab- But the worldwide Indie revolution and List for a week and won Best Board Game letop role-playing games (RPGs), and crowd-funding has also hit board games. award at Malta’s first Global Game Jam are definitely inspired by these earlier Until a few years ago a few recognisa- held on January 24–26, 2014 at the games. However, board games are dif- ble, high profile game publishers dom- Institute of Digital Games, UoM. See ferent. A board game generally comes inated the market. Euro and American http://maltagamejam.com for next in a box which contains everything you style games were easily separated. Now, year’s Game Jam or take a course at the need to play with a number of players board games are becoming less and less Institute http://game.edu.mt to learn and most of the time is meant to be of a niche hobby. New designers are how to make your own game.

18