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2008 May Be the Year of the Board Game?
Posted by Maggie Greene at 6:30 AM on June 9, 2008
"A game is a game is a game" — are they? The plethora of popular card and board game adaptations — and their popularity — would seem to indicate 'yes.' Over at the Escapist, Scott Jon Siegel muses on the future and potential of adaptations on a number of levels. Especially when one considers the casual market, familiar electronic adaptations make for potential casual hits:
Any classic non-digital game has the potential to become a casual hit. The turn-based nature of these games makes for a slower, more relaxed play experience. A working knowledge of many titles allows players to approach with some degree of skill right off the bat, lowering the barrier to entry. Name recognition also goes a long way in promoting sales. Any non-gamer perusing the titles on Xbox Live Arcade will more quickly download UNO than Outpost Kaloki X, Monopoly than Mutant Storm Empire. Board and card games are inherently casual experiences, and the digital adaptation market can only benefit from the growing success of the casual cash cow.
He also talks about traditional board games being a training ground for game design, and the increasing popularity of adaptations like Scrabulous in social networking situations.
Simplified Systems [The Escapist]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
PippinZ
Posted June 9, 2008 5:21 PM
At the heart of most games is a system that can easily be translated to a table-top game (or board game) system, with variant levels of complexity. An obvious example of an easy translation is the ever popular WoW.
It's worth mentioning that the 1988-89 series of games titled "Star Saga" blurs the lines between between table-top and computer games. Up to 6 players (or just 1 playing "solitaire" style) guide their characters through an epic space opera. The game itself consists of the games software; which acts as a game master, and the paper: One small galaxy map, one massive galaxy map, the rule book and 13 booklets (!) which contain a total 888 pages of text (!!). The software stores all player character information and actions, occasionally referring players to a page in one of the many booklets that describes a given situation and possible actions.
However, the game exists in this precarious state due to the technological limitations of the time it was created. Today this game could easily exist entirely free of paper, and would probably do pretty well in a game network like Steam if it took advantage of Steams buddy-networking and notification system.
the_answer
Posted 6:55 AM 9/6/08
playing board games means waiting for the other player's turn to end while i do nothing.. i, i just can't do that anymore.
the_answer
the-hypnotoad
Posted 6:53 AM 9/6/08
@sir_carrot: It was a revision of Talisman. I believe it was cancelled because the revision and big rollout of the new boardgame version was dropped too.
the-hypnotoad
the-hypnotoad
Posted 6:52 AM 9/6/08
Just like every article concerning board games moving online, I have to put in a plug to get Battlelore brought to the 360. I know about brettspiel and other places to play but it's not the same as sitting on the couch and doing it all through the 360.
The problem is that most of the folks the article is talking about probably is drawn more to the 'checkers/uno/heartwood hearts' vein rather than the more crunchy german boardgames.
the-hypnotoad
sir_carrot
Posted 6:47 AM 9/6/08
I would welcome this happily. My mother is addicted to Scrabulous and I could see something like that on XBLA.
Even more so, I would like to see more titles like Culdcept, or that intriguing looking fantasy board game adaptation that was canceled recently (completely forgetting the title here - it had like one teaser video and was supposed to have released about a year ago).
I think that board games are, or at least were, for a lot of people - very entertaining. Unfortunately it's sort of difficult to get a group together around one table for an extended gameplay session these days.
Which makes XBLA, with shiny graphical additions and streamlined rules (that was always a task, trying to figure out exactly how the rules worked for any given game, and almost always doing it completely wrong).
sir_carrot
underground_slacker
Posted 6:45 AM 9/6/08
ive gotta say ive been playing videogames since the NES but ive only got into board game stuff like catan carcassone or even stuff like heroclix as ive gotten older.
what can i say, a nerd bit me and the moon is full.
underground_slacker
akashhhhh
Posted 6:43 AM 9/6/08
Catan ftw.
akashhhhh
demonknightinuyasha
Posted 6:43 AM 9/6/08
bah fuck traditional board games bring on a rousing 8 hour game (3 of which is set up :P) of twilight imperium! >.>
demonknightinuyasha
supercrap
Posted 6:37 AM 9/6/08
Most traditional board games were more carefully designed than casual video games. Same thing with old arcade games. Sometimes I think that the art of balanced gameplay is losing out to 3-d modeling techniques. (sigh)
supercrap
Beatboxtaun
Posted 6:37 AM 9/6/08
what's next Hopscotch?
Beatboxtaun
scruffy, the janitor
Posted 6:36 AM 9/6/08
that would be most boring indeed
scruffy, the janitor
Odin
Posted 7:17 AM 9/6/08
Board and card games are pretty good fun. I've been having a lot of fun recently playing the WoW TCG, mainly because it caters very well to group play. You can easily have 6 people doing a raid or a 3v3 and it's pretty awesome fun.
Odin
Jazhuis
Posted 7:15 AM 9/6/08
@demonknightinuyasha: Bah! When is someone going to make my XBLA version of World In Flames?
Jazhuis
kickassy
Posted 7:12 AM 9/6/08
NextGen Boggle FTW
kickassy
flashadams
Posted 7:09 AM 9/6/08
I dig UNO on XBLA, because it's low-impact and very social, but I really want Risk on there, too.
flashadams
excel_excel
Posted 7:09 AM 9/6/08
@the_answer: Theres a party your invited to! Its called a Mario Party! and you still wait for the other players turn to end while you do nothing! woohoo!
Still though, Eye of Judgement pushes the bar for this quite a bit
excel_excel
CancerMan
Posted 7:08 AM 9/6/08
I'm all for this. Love board games. bit difficult on a console or a Pc but, whatever. And while we're at it... more game show adaptations, please!
CancerMan
Duoae
Posted 7:24 AM 9/6/08
Ha! I totally called this! I'm waiting for the royalties to come piling in if this is true...
Duoae
uros643
Posted 8:01 AM 9/6/08
You know what my favourite GBA games are? Ultimate Brain Games and Ultimate Card Games. I really like the background music.
uros643
antialias02
Posted 8:32 AM 9/6/08
I'm really disappointed Talisman didn't make it: it's one of the better board games I've been introduced to lately. Also, the Age of Empires III board game is a lot more fun than I would've given it credit for, had I not received it as a gift. Go figure.
antialias02
SAKY
Posted 9:49 AM 9/6/08
Lunchbox or Zombies!!! would be pretty sweet.
SAKY
flukielukie
Posted 12:08 PM 9/6/08
Its stupid they havn't put Monopoly on the XBLA with ability to save games online and off.
I'd snap that up in seconds.
Content could be new boards or something.
Doesn't EA own the licence to Monopoly video games..
Oh never mind then. They don't like cheap good games.
flukielukie
kumuasata
Posted 12:34 PM 9/6/08
@Beatboxtaun:
Shh EA might be listening.
kumuasata
Cap'n Jack
Posted 12:27 PM 9/6/08
This is totally spot on. There are a lot of board and card games, though, that I don't think would do well on consoles. Like Munchkin, for example.
Cap'n Jack
adumbguy
Posted 12:53 PM 9/6/08
Carcassone on XBLA is better than 99% of the rest of the stuff on there. A game is more than the graphics or the engine or the cutscenes.
adumbguy
DARTH_TIGRIS
Posted 2:14 PM 9/6/08
Its the multiplayer potential that makes this so attractive. That's why UNO is such a runaway success.
DARTH_TIGRIS
interstate78
Posted 4:13 PM 9/6/08
2009: the year of 'Running After a Hula Hoop with a Stick'
interstate78
BigWeather
Posted 4:45 PM 9/6/08
Gah, Talisman was cancelled? I somehow missed that. =(
Though we do have Ticket to Ride coming later, which will be nice.
BigWeather
Klaymen
Posted 6:47 PM 9/6/08
It's funny what "board games" means to different people. Some people assume it gets no more advanced than Monopoly and Apples to Apples. I've loved seeing "advanced" games like Carcassonne and Catan (even though I'm not a huge Catan fan anymore) come out for the XBox 360. I'd love to see some other games like Princes of Florence or Citadels make an appearance as well. The blessing/curse of many of these games is the learning curve. Most people can pick up a platformer, FPS, etc. and play it with relative ease, but most, if not all, board games/card games take a while to learn.
That being said, the article seemed to focus more on Battleship, Uno, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Chutes and Ladders, and Hi-Ho Cherry-O. Yeah, those last couple weren't actually mentioned, but it seems like Chutes and Ladders would be an easier sell than a game like Puerto Rico because it's all about "casual" these days. There are a lot of board games I enjoy playing, and I've enjoyed seeing some them make the transition onto consoles (now if only Sierra would release them for other platforms...). If you're into board games that cost more than $12 and don't revolve around cartoon fruit or animals: I would recommend checking out Shogun or (the previously mentioned) Princes of Florence and Citadels.
Klaymen
kingofallcosmos
Posted 3:41 AM 10/6/08
I had not heard that Talisman had been cancelled. I played that game for years and would have been interested in playing it on the console, although I wonder how the rule sets would be applied. I had no idea that it was being relaunched in board game form. It doesn't seem like it would matter, since the board game would reach a niche audience anyway, one that was probably already familiar with the original.
kingofallcosmos
shrek187
Posted 10:02 AM 9/6/08
2008 is the year for fighting games
shrek187
BryanH
Posted 11:30 AM 9/6/08
If this means more Culdcept Saga, then I'm all for it. That game made all my special places happy.
BryanH
Lebowski26
Posted 7:56 AM 9/6/08
I would actually love to see more board games come to XBLA. At the bar I work at, we play board games regularly and by far the most popular is 5-card draw team Sorry! If they could implement this with quick action (ala UNO), it would mark the official end of my social life, or what was left of it.
Lebowski26
braindeadalive
Posted 6:45 AM 9/6/08
Put Clue, Monopoly & Risk on XBLA, would be fantastic!
braindeadalive