When I was younger I was given what seemed to be dozens of board games as birthday presents. While a good round of Monopoly was played here and there, I couldn't keep up with the assembly, let alone make sure I didn't lose any pieces with my child attention span. Nearly every time I visited a convenience store with my brother, we'd make sure to swindle our parents into buying a pack or two of Pokemon cards...Yu-Gi-Oh cards...Magic cards. Did we actually play these games? No, very rarely. The appeal was the pretty pictures and just having something of worth to other kids (the one-upping tug-of-war). And you can only play so many games of Monopoly before flipping the board.
Flash forward over ten years: my attic and closet are cramped with dusty boxes filled with these damn pieces of cardboard. But right when I'm seriously considering using a flamethrower to clear some space, people have seemed to take a new interest in these relics. I realize how my friends have been wanting to play Pictionary over some beers. I go to a bar and see a whole selection of games to play rather than billiards. A giant Jenga set is one of the main attractions at a party of dozens of people. What's going on?
My brother comes home from a friend's house (friends who are in their late 20s) telling me about this little game called Settlers of Catan that they played. It's a hopelessly addicting one made by fine German engineering, where the focus is to build settlements and collect resources on a fictional island, the winner being the player with ten accumulated victory points by various means.
His girlfriend joins in and becomes an unbeatable tyrant (I think she had like a 17-win streak. Given that each game takes well over an hour...that's a lot of time). We expand our network of players and soon host parties of over six people joining in.
It wasn't just my personal circle latching on to Settlers, which has been around since 1995.Parks and RecreationsandBig Bang Theory hardily featured the game on network TV. Some Youtubers rolled out a hilarious parody called Settlers of Brooklyn, a satire of gentrification and hipster-dom in the metropolitan area. And that had me wondering if these rising trends are symptom of the American Hipster New Wave, the intentional faddy digression from digital back to analog? Cardboard may be the new vinyl of cool collector madness.
But why? These games aren't just a campy family night choice, but a way for millennials (or anyone) to hang out over a few drinks. There is an undeniable social quality inherent in them, and this apparent resurgence in popularity may be filling the void that video games like Guitar Hero and Mario Party used to occupy. Board and card games are back with a vengeance, put to greater use than as a door stop or to throw to your cat.
So, I look at a flier for a Magic: The Gathering intro tournament at my college and get a weird feeling in my stomach. That dull, but consistent feeling I've felt for those last 10 years whenever I saw packs of trading cards at Target or almost anywhere. I think: Why the hell not? I'll do it, I'll retake the plunge!
When I played that night I felt like I was returning to something familiar I've been waiting to get back to.
With a measure of trepidation I approach my brother about starting to play again. I feel almost embarrassed; playing card games (at least in my head) has a stigma attached. You don't have to look far to see why people attribute geekery and being socially inept with games, but like any stereotype there are of course countless people who don't fit that bill. He is skeptical at first, but after a single match of Magic we went to the store and dropped $60... we haven't looked back.
Just last week we went to a BBQ and played Magic with some new friends, guys and girls (yes, girls play too). Settlers is played with a rotating shift of hosts, and we've bought three expansions. These games are back, and this time I don't lose the pieces.
What's in your attic?
