Thought Exercise: Introducing Board Games to People

It can be an absolutely arduous task to put oneself in the shoes of someone who doesn't play board games. Over the years, I have come to realize that each person's baseline experience is different from mine and from others. For example, to remind myself of how a non-board game player must feel about playing a board game, I often put myself through a thought exercise to calibrate myself to the baseline of a person who has little game experience.

Here is the exercise I use:

I imagine that it’s a Sunday night. I am at a church function, trying to make small talk with a person I just met named Harry. Harry is a plumber who works long hours, but tries to carve out time with his family. He enjoys watching movies with his family and playing the odd game on the family Nintendo Wii, but Harry is a hands-on guy who prefers building projects and spending time in his garage. He also likes cruising the Internet for bargains on power tools and building materials.

Though I share a common faith and a love of family with Harry, I grasp for anything that I can discuss with Harry. I begin with one of my default “grasping for straws” question:

“So, Harry, do you like any sports?”

As of writing this post, I enjoy running, basketball, and throwing the Frisbee. Sports is usually a common denominator I share with many guys, but not Harry.

“I play golf a little, but I mostly walk with my wife to get exercise.”

Okay, sports is no good. “I run with my wife,” is all I manage to say, so I go to my second common-denominator subject. “Do you like any movies?”

Harry purses his lips and looks skyward as if he were searching the inner confines of his skull for an answer. “I just watch what the kids watch,” he replies.

Clearly, Harry is not helping me out, conversation-wise, so I decide to bring out what I have come to regard as my conversational “big gun.”

“So, Harry, do you play board games?”

Somewhat expectedly, Harry raises an eyebrows, casting a quizzical look. He probably isn’t greeted with such a question on a consistent basis. In fact, he is almost never asked this question. He pauses to consider not just how he would possibly answer that question, but even the deeper implications of the question.

“You mean, like, Monopoly?” Harry mutters half-audibly, “I used to play Risk when I was a kid.”

“Have you ever heard of European board games?” I blurt, managing to derail Harry’s already careering train of thought. At this point, Harry peers around the room feverishly searching for an escape route. His wife preternaturally senses his distress and intervenes.

“This is Donovan,” Harry grins frantically as he struggles to alter the course of the conversation, 

“Donovan, this is Jill.”

With my enthusiasm unabated, I extend my hand to shake Jill’s as I state without hesitation, “I was talking to Harry about board games. Do you play board games?”

Jill’s mouth is agape as she musters an answer. “I used to play Candy Land with the kids when they were younger,” she quipped, hoping desperately to satisfy my curiosity without advancing what she came to regard as an odd conversation…

Of course, this dramatization is not often what happens when I mention board games, but almost every person with whom I speak know little about board games outside of the standard American ones on sale at Walmart or Target, and usually do not give board games much thought. That is the baseline that I must always keep in mind: people usually conjure up memories of their childhood playing Monopoly, Risk, Clue, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Scrabble, or other well-known paragons of American gaming. Some people have shared with me their sadness at being trounced into bankruptcy, or how they win at Risk by conquering Australia first, or how the dice were never kind to them. Usually, this is a person's baseline for board games, and this should inform one's approach when sharing board games with others.

For most Americans and Europeans, board games have a place in our collective pasts, but rarely a prominent place, as if people dallied with them for a while before they moved on to more pressing concerns like school, sports, and trying to fit in without being picked on. More often than not, board games are only an occasional family diversion for which some cannot spare extra time considering. It's certainly not the default family activity, but merely something that is done once in a great while.

Whenever I broach the subject of European board games with the relative newcomer, I talk about how there are a wealth of games out that are about more than just rolling dice and moving pieces. There are building games, train games, resource management games, worker placement games, deck-building games, party games, and the list is ever-growing. As people listen, they realize that board games are more than just the dice-rollers of their youth. More crucially, they realize the potential of board games as reflected in a question they often ask: “What board games do you recommend for my family?”

Such is the intent of this blog: I would like for people to not only see the potential of board games for themselves, but the potential of board games to bring together family members, friends, and even strangers. Currently, many people default to common activities with friends and family, such as playing video games, watching movies or sporting events, and messing around on their own personal devices in a shared physical space, i.e. family and friends playing on their devices while only interacting sparsely with each other. However, what I hope to do is to present the numerous positive influences of board game play: connecting with people, honing of social skills, understanding of tactics, implementing strategy, cultivating a healthy, encouraging attitude towards competition, and unplugging from technology (for the most part).

More importantly, my desire is that people would look at board games as a way to reach family members, bind friends, and even build bridges with co-workers and strangers so that they can be encouragers, sharing the love of Christ in a deliberate way, yet without the blunt force trauma of in-your-face evangelism. In other words, board games is a conduit through which we can reach people and form connections, whether it’s a neighbor, a son or daughter, or the new guy at your church, like Harry and Jill.