The Current Situation and Trend of Tabletop Game in China

Home , Board game, Game, Party game, Tabletop game, Tabletop game industry

Hao ZHAN1, Zhiwei HUANG2, Qiyu WANG2, Lingxiao TAO3, Ming BIAN2, Yixin FENG2 1Xiamen University 2Durham University 3University of Lincoln

Abstract：As an imported cultural product, tabletop game has not expanded rapidly since it entered China. We only learn Tabletop Game from several phenomenal products. The different historical evolution of tabletop game in different regions reveals that China’s Tabletop Game stay in Frontier of the times but lacking cultural foundations, having a huge market prospect but fewer products. The board game products with social main-attributes need to be combined with the Internet, variety, and entertainment to promote them, so that they can occupy a place in this era.

Keywords: Tabletop game; Tabletop game industry; Tabletop game history; Tabletop game market

DOI: 10.47297/taposatWSP2633-456905.20200105

Tabletop game, referred to as board game in Chinese, are named because people usually played them on the flat surface such as the tabletop. As an unplugged game, tabletop game is different from computer games, video game consoles and other electronic game and players always gather face to face in the same space, using cards, graphics, cards and other props to play.

Although tabletop game have become the chief way for young people in first-tier or second- tier cities of China to entertain, compared to the strong foreign tabletop atmosphere, we are not matured enough in the cultural research and market exploration of tabletop game. If we expect

About the author: Hao ZHAN (1997-04), male, Han, Luzhou Students Master, MA - Philosophy of Science. Zhiwei HUANG (1998-11), male, Han, Jilin, Master, Research on Scientific Computing and Data Analytics in Durham University. Yixin FENG (1998-08), female,Hui, Yinchuan,Master,Research on Scientific Computing and Data Analytics in Durham University. Qiyu WANG (1997-08), female,Menggu, Yaan, Master,Social Research method（sociology ）. Lingxiao TAO (1994-06), Male,Han,hubei wuhan,Experimenter,Master,Financial science research. Ming BIAN (1997-01), male, Hui, NANJING, Master, MA - Social Research Methods (Social Policy).

26 The Current Situation and Trend of Tabletop Game in China tabletop game to become a new generation of social entertainment and even develop tabletop activities (such as table game bar) into the third largest social space for young people, it is necessary to clearly define the current situation and future development trend of China’s current tabletop game.

1. The Historical Evolution of Tabletop Game

(1) The Historical Evolution of Foreign Tabletop Game 1) Initial Tabletop Game Period The majority of the culture and societies in history have recorded broad-based tabletop game. As early as 5,000 years ago, in the Middle East, it appeared a new tabletop game called Backgam- mon, which was investigated to be the oldest tabletop game ever. Well the chess that we widely knew is originated from the 3rd to 5th centuries A.D. in the eastern part of India and gradually developed into the most successful chess game.

This kind of ancient chess game is merely a branch of the concept of contemporary tabletop game, and because the counters and pieces should be moved or set in the same board, it is also called broad game. Compared to contemporary tabletop game, the broad game that is born out of war simulations stresses more on strategies and game, requiring a lot of brainpower to calculate.

2) Modern Tabletop Game Period From the early time of last century to the period of the Great Depression was the first high- speed development period for tabletop game. With the rise of the middle class in Western countries, more and more well-educated people have plenty of time and money to try out the new form of entertainment. The emergence of The Landlord’s Game and its improved version, MONOPOLY (also translated as real estate tycoon, monogamy) represents the modern tabletop game have offi- cially entered the public eyes. The original purpose of the game was to teach the public about the shortcomings of the monopoly of the rich and protest against the riches at that time (one of them was Carnegie). After being unexpectedly popular, the Company Parker Brothers of the United States published the Monopoly board game on November 5, 1935, and successfully sell it all over the world till now. There are countless monopoly types games invented based on its core rule, which is indeed a successful case in history.

3) Contemporary Tabletop Game Period The second fast developing period for tabletop game is from the World War II to the beginning of the 21st century, during which long-term peace and the recovery of the world economy and soaring created the golden age of table game. With a good industrial form, many excellent board game design talents have emerged, and the table game have been greatly enriched and developed. The German-style strategy game (Brettspiel) which plays the most important role in table game and the first Tabletop Role Playing Game, Dungeons & Dragons (known as the running group previ- ously) appeared in this period, and it eventually became two important branches of contemporary tabletop game.

27 Theory and Practice of Science and Technology

The other branch of contemporary tabletop game--the exchange card, was created at the end of the 20th century. At the time, Richard Garfield, a combined mathematics doctor at the University of Pennsylvania, designed the first mature offline trading card game: Magic: The Gathering after comparing the competitive game in video games. The release of Magic has attracted a large number of players in Dungeons and Dungeons, and due to its competitive game mechanics, it has gradually become popular, and even the official-led large-scale competitive event was held, which is called Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. As the world’s first commercial TRPG, Magic still maintains a sufficient number of core players until today.

4) Recent tabletop period The third high-speed development of table game is from the beginning of the 21st century to the present. At the beginning of the new century, with the popularity of video games and bottlenecks in the creative design of table game, players gradually turned to emerging video game, and the growing rate of the tabletop game market began to slow down, and even experience a certain degree of shrinkage and decline.

(2) The Historical Evolution of Tabletop Game in China 1) Initial Tabletop Game Period The earliest record of tabletop game in China appeared in the Warring States Period. Recorded about Liubo as early as 922 BCE, and there are some descriptions about Go in Zuo Zhuan.

Unlike the situation abroad, Chinese tabletop game lack a corresponding historical evolution. Although board game such as Go, Chess and Mahjong have a long history and a broad public base in China, contemporary board game merely have become popular in China for nearly a decade.

If you want to evaluate the milestone game of Chinese contemporary tabletop game, it is none other than the Three Kingdoms. On January 1, 2008, the three founders of the card game boarded out 50,000 yuan to release their first printed version, which was also the first batch of official products of the Three Kingdoms. In the next few years, the Three Kingdoms Kill has become a phenomenal board game product with its strong cultural heritage and relatively reasonable game mechanics. Apart from that, the popularity of the Three Kingdoms has also spurred people’s love for tabletop game. At one time, a large number of tabletop shops were set up in various places, and began to form a unique tabletop culture circle in China, which is a gathering place for table game bars.

The development of the werewolf killing game led to the second round of climax of our tabletop game. The Werewolf Killing Game, which was designed during the Cold War by Dimitri Davydov, a professor of psychology at Moscow University, was originated from a European tabletop game called Mafia. The players play the role of a policeman or a killer, they hide their identi- ties and distinguish between each other through the language exchange in the game. The Werewolf game we mentioned now is a revision of the Mafia game, whose original name is The Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow. The game is based on the rules of the Mafia game, adding a variety of roles and rich skills.

28 The Current Situation and Trend of Tabletop Game in China

The Werewolf Killing Game games inspired the gamers’ enthusiasm for pushing the puzzle. Thus at the end of 2017, along with the popular variety show “Star Detective”, a class of games that were collectively called the murder mystery showed up at the chinese table. The Murder mystery game is a party decryption game called the jury box that originated in the first half of the 19th century. In the game, the player will play the role of a jury member. Before the game begins, the role of the regional prosecutor (game administrator) will read a case, the players can request to re- read any part of the story, and based on the clues provided, the players should judge whether the defendant is guilty. Later, the jury game and the mafia game were integrated in the game mechanics. The player could not only serve as a jury, but also act as one or more players even play the murderer and conceal his crimes in various ways. The blessing of variety shows, the rich playability and interactivity made the mystery of murder quickly popular in our tabletop game, and quickly became the most popular tabletop game.

After the original period of tabletop game in China, because we directly went to the contemporary tabletop game period by bringing the foreign tabletop game, this large-scale leap made China’s tabletop game products and tabletop game culture seriously poor, which also made it difficult for us to understand and agree with the tabletop game without external force. Therefore, several fashionable tabletop games in China are all recognized in combination with Internet products and mass media products, having an essential place in the market. We would rather believe the status of these tabletop game is brought about by the Internet and the mass media than the quality itself. Therefore, China’s table game is in a state of being at the forefront of the times but lacking a cultural foundation, a huge market prospect, and a sparse number of products.

2. The Portrait of Tabletop Game Target User

Before the advent of video games, tabletop game was one of the most important forms of entertainment for people. After the advent of video games, the entertainment of table game also gave people the freedom to get rid of the control of electronic devices in the information age, and the possibility of face-to-face communication in reality. The realism of this kind of face-to-face communication could never be exceeded by any electronic or virtual thing.

Therefore, the analysis of the target user image of the tabletop game will help us understand why tabletop game are popular and predict the future development trend of tabletop game.

(1) Portrait of International User The Guardian’s 2016 study on tabletop game mentioned that more and more Britons are beginning to accept and love board game. Both the game’s core players (Serious Gamers) and family members are passionate about this socially-oriented game, and even consider it to be “the most original social network.” The pursuit of sociality is also a common attribute for tabletop game en- thusiasts. Fernand Gobet, a professor of psychology at the University of Liverpool, said that the culture of tabletop culture is part of the regional culture. The most important benefit of tabletop game is to provide a common game opportunity for friends. In a sense, the most important part is

29 Theory and Practice of Science and Technology the process that players play together, but not the details of the game.

In 2018, the Guardian published another study on the future form of tabletop games. The research mentioned that tabletop game have been loved by more young people, especially millennials.

In spite of this, the strange and unique challenges encountered during the game will make some people who are pursuing strategic and intellectual challenges passionate about table game. In fact, some studies have shown that tabletop game do benefit people’s cognitive abilities. A study by the New England Journal of Medicine will reduce board odds for Alzheimer’s and Alzheimer’s; another study shows that playing chess can improve a student’s standard test scores.

Thus, the pursuit of social and strategic challenges are common features of tabletop game players, while the low entry barriers and non-electronic product dependence of tabletop game make tabletop game popular among young people. It is also well accepted by older people.

(2) Portrait of Domestic user For board game players, face-to-face interactions occupy a large part of the fun of the game, and the sociality implicit in the game is an important consideration when people choose tabletop game. Some people even use tabletop game as an entry point for parent-child communication. Through certain investigations, it is found that parents are more likely to communicate with children about the content inside and outside the game during the process of playing tabletop game.

The appropriate tabletop game can also help parents communicate and play with their children. This is the best entry point for parent-child communication. In addition, as a short-lived social entertainment game, the user groups of contemporary tabletop game are mainly concentrated in first- and second-tier cities (or first- and second-tier cities are more likely to generate and cultivate gamers), they usually have a stable study or work mission and play tabletop game for entertainment on weekends or evenings.

(3) Summary The characteristics of tabletop game lovers chineseally and abroad are basically the same. The unique social elements of tabletop game are important reasons why they choose table game as new types of social entertainment. At the same time, due to the development of contemporary tabletop game in China and the lack of corresponding tabletop game culture accumulation, people know more about tabletop game through Internet and media platforms, so compared with the foreign crowds, the chinese related crowds are younger with lower loyal level.

3. The Current Situation of The Tabletop Game Market

As an imported cultural product, the tabletop game market has not expanded rapidly after en- tering China, and the tabletop game market is small. Fred, CEO of tabletop publisher Asmodee Greater China, said that “the global tabletop market is about $10 billion, and China is only about $100 million.” in an interview in 2017.

30 The Current Situation and Trend of Tabletop Game in China

However, the potential of the Chinese market cannot be underestimated. Renier Knizia, a Ph.D. in mathematics and a master of tabletop game at the University of Ulm, said in an interview that he is optimistic about the Chinese tabletop game market. He believes that China’s current tabletop game market is like Germany in the 1990s. A large number of talents and publishers are involved in it, and he believes that it can achieve breakthrough development. At the same time, according to professional media statistics, in 2009, the output value of the Chinese board game industry was about 100 million yuan. By 2010, the value of the Chinese board game industry is 900 million yuan. In 2011, the industry’s half-year output value reached 10 billion yuan. However, this figure still seems to underestimate the potential of the Chinese board game market. On the one hand, compe- tition in the game, animation and toy industries has intensified, and well-known online game com- panies such as Tencent and Shanda have begun to develop tabletop game products; on the other hand, VCs have begun to pay attention to the card manufacturer’s Chinese industry. This transfor- mation of the upstream industry has also begun to gradually improve the downstream industry, providing conditions for accelerating the development of the board game market.

The situation in China is different due to various of factors. After the grand environment of the Three Kingdoms, the werewolf killing game has become one of the main sources of income for tabletop game in recent years because of the promotion of the major live broadcast platforms. Al- most all tabletop game stores provide werewolf killing game. The werewolf killing game is charac- terized by short time-consuming, low cost, high profitability, interaction and fun, and only requires the owner to spend less time to host, so the popular tabletop game store is reasonable.

With the advent of the live broadcast era, the werewolf-killing tabletop game have also become popular. In fact, as early as 2002, the prototype of the werewolf-killing tabletop game had already appeared and became popular in China. At that time, the chinese game called “Heavenly Closed Eyes” boarded many TV programs. With the popularity of the game, the gameplay strategy has been continually being explored and become a competitive game, and then differentiated into high- end player groups and regional organizations. Then, with the appearance of Internet chat room and other media, it turns to online games, but in the end, it first collapsed because of the lack of profit points on the line. At present, it is almost impossible for capital to hope to obtain long-term profit through online werewolves. Similar to the wolf human party game, it is impossible to maintain the player’s original intention and form, and it is difficult to keep the player’s retention and it is difficult to push it. Under the speculation of capital and media operations, werewolves have reached the ceiling limit in the past two years, and it’s hard to find a further market. Major variety shows began to re-select games, such as “Resistance Organization: Avalon”.

4.The Trend of Tabletop Game

Throughout the evolution of tabletop game at home and abroad, it could be clearly found that traditional strategy-based tabletop game have been difficult to win more players’ favor in fast-paced

31 Theory and Practice of Science and Technology life, but instead run groups and collectively decrypt (for example, murder Mystery, Werewolf Kill- ing) These tabletop game that emphasize entertainment, interaction and communication can quickly capture the market.

On the other hand, the portraits and market status of chinese tabletop players also confirm that sociality is an important feature to tabletop game. Those tabletop game that focus on two-player games, strategic contests and quizzes can no longer meet the needs of contemporary players. The user groups of the tabletop game will also be extended from the core players to the ordinary people, and will be presented in front of people in the form of pan-entertainment and pan-social.

In order to achieve the above goals in the absence of the culture of tabletop game culture, it is necessary to combine tabletop game with Internet products, variety and entertainment products to achieve linkage. Apart from the path that the tabletop game players propagate spontaneously, a broader audience, more efficient, more topic-intensive promotion path should be explored. Only in this way can tabletop game stabilize the market faster and occupy a pivotal place in an era of so rich entertainment products.

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