Media Watch: He Got Game

From Syracuse New Times:

The world of board games is no longer the exclusive purview of chess masters and Candyland fiends. A new breed of games, known as designer board games, is claiming the attention and time of children and adults of all ages.

Designer board games originated in Germany, and even though they are now developed and produced in the United States and around the world, they are still referred to as “Eurogames.” Sporting names like Borneo, Carcassonne and The Settlers of Catan, these games are quite mysterious at first glance. But they share several characteristics that separate them from Clue, Scrabble and Trouble.

Designer games prominently feature the creator’s name, much like a book names its author. The games are usually conceptually simple, with a focus on developing a strategy over several matches. They are also generally based on player skill rather than luck of the dice or random choices, and players are not eliminated as in Risk or Monopoly. According to Eric Martin, editor of boardgamenews.com, designer board games are unique because they have “a point of view and a personal style.”

Yes, it’s an article about me and BGN. Hope the self-link isn’t too narcissistic, but it makes no sense not to link to the piece.

How’d the article come about? One of my wife’s cousins knows the author of the article, and due to my persistent introduction of games at various family gatherings, where I’m looking for feedback from casual gamers, he apparently thought I’d be a worthwhile candidate for profiling. One long phone conversation later, voilà!

To correct a couple of points in the article, I said that Rick Thornquist was from British Columbia, but the author seems to have heard “District of Columbia.” Sorry for changing your nationality, Rick! The game group that introduced me to dozens of new games in 2003 was Guy Stuff Gamers (hi, guys!) in Attleboro, MA, as I didn’t move to Concord until 2005.

Whether you’ll learn anything new from the article is unclear, but I learned that I start too many sentences with “I,” which led to the article sounding too insular and self-focused. Perhaps that can’t be helped in a profile, but that’s still something for me to watch for in future interviews. Oh, yes, there will be more…

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