The World of Boardgames!

In this new era of co-operative video games, 3D graphics, motion sensors, virtual gaming community etc. etc. What place does boardgames have? Most of us ask this question when you see a boardgame in any near by store. I have observed most of them dismiss the category of boardgames as being boring, mundane and just for kids!

Whenever I go and share that I love boardgames and that boardgames are for real people and fun. I kind of get a very quizzical look- Something like boardgames ಅಂದ್ರೆ ಹಾವು ಏಣಿ ಟೈಪ್? (meaning snakes and ladders?) A slightly more educated comment would be "You mean boardgames like Monopoly?" Well I really don't have anything against these games, in fact I grew up like many others with these games, but boardgames are way beyond these games.

I started this blog to share a few thoughts from this fascinating world of boardgames!

Let's first start of by understanding what boardgames really are?
As the name suggests most of the boardgames are played with a board, dice, tokens, cards, different varieties of game chips etc, However boardgames are not limited to just this. Even your age old favorite (in fact one of my favorite too!) ಛೌಕ ಭಾರಾ (Chauka Barah- a 5*5 or 7*& matrix with tokens going around to reach the centre), ಕೈ ಮಯೇಲ್ ಕಾಶಿ (a simple game played with sea-shells), ಮೇಕೆ ಹೂಲೀ ಆಟಾ (that you find engraved on temple ಪ್ರಕರಾಸ್) comes under the boardgame domain. Lot of modern games don't even have a board, they are purely card games. Some of them are just a set of books with host of instructions and a few dice- you just develop a character and build a story out of it (this specific category is called Role Playing Games or RPG's in short and extremely popular in the western world). The art work for many modern day boardgames have gone beyond imagination with minuaters representing tokens and game pieces bringing in a whole lot of realism to the game play experience.

In India though the market for boardgames has been fairly limited. I do see an influx of a few more international games into large stores like Crossword, Landmark & Sappire toys (Bengaluru), but bye-and-large the range is limited that gives grown ups a perception that boardgames are for kids.

Sure it is for kids, in fact there are thousands of them desogned just for kids, but there aremore than 30,000 designed for adults as well. Yes, more than 30,000 differnt games and this is an ever growing list by the day and month!

If there are 30,000+ games how come we don't see them? Unfortunately in India the culture of playing boardgames is very limited- may be because of our lifestyle, which is already highly interactive, maybe because of cricket (haha),or maybe we were just not exposed to them!

I find it hard to believe that the modern day child does not even know ಛೌಕ ಭಾರಃ, ಪಗಡೆ (Pachisi or Indian version of the Ludo) etc. Most of us get into the video game mode at a very young age and outgrow the available boardgames. Again I'm not against video games, in fact I own a Nintendo Wii and love it. However there is this "something extra" that boardgames bring in and that something is interaction, bringin in people closer, having fun together, making noise and laughing out loud, using your grey cells to outwit your friend (for a change not the computer) and having a laugh about it even days after you've played the game. Getting in the family to enjoy an evening by forgetting eveything around. This is what I see boardgames doing. The collective fun experience for eveyone involved.

Let me talk you through some of the popular games available in the Indian market today:

Monopoly: Business World as we knew it during our days ;-) popular even among adults even to this day. I saw a group of teens at Landmark pick this up and asked out of curiosity why did they pick this up- the answer was ' We know this is fun, and we've played it', we have a few friends coming over and we thought we could have good time'. Recently my friend acquired a copy of this (the Indian Edition) and played it with his entire family (wife, brother, parents) and said he didn't even know that his parents liked such games.

Clue: This is a Parker Brother's classic detective game popular ever since 1957 if I'm not wrong. Details of this game in another post.

Life: Another popular family entertainer with loads and loads of fun

Taboo: One of the party games that is extremely popular- something like Charads you could say, but more fun

Pictionary: Game of drawing pictures

Scrabble, Riversi, Mastermind, Dr. Wood's series of games etc. etc

I can go on and on with this list, but the point is the market for the "Real Boardgames" are non-existent in India. I'm sure there are only a handful of us in India who have heard of Puerto Rico, Caylus, Notre Dame, Setlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Thurn and Taxis, Agricola, Race for the Galaxy, War of the RIng, Descent: Journeys Through Darkness and thousands of others right?

The above mentioned list is just the tip of the ice berg in the world of boardgaming. Boardgames where you develop economy, manage resources, bid fr items, use strategies to upset your opponents and not sheer roll of dice, plan your every move- this is the world of boardgames that I've come to know in the last few years.

A world that is so fascinating that everytime I introduce anyone to any of the games that I own- they have surely given a nod to play another and ready to take up more complex games. It has become a regular feature in any of the outings that I go with my friends, friends, relatives and others wanna play games over the weekend and borrow some to take them home to try out with their families :-)

I would be sharing in this blog about these games- Games that I own and aspire to own etc. I would start by giving you a brief history of how I got into boardgames :-) (of course it is my blog!!) and then start by taking one game at a time and writing musings on them- be it game mechanics, components, length of play, fun element etc. etc.

Hope more people start playing boardgames and make these games available in India rather then a few of us who shell out a fortune to get a game imported or beg someone to bring it along whn they come to India!!