October 9, 2016: Breaking News: People Play Games

Boardgames have left the unfurnished basement shop and entered the well-lit, family-friendly café.

Why? A combination of widespread mobile gaming, which makes more people willing to play games in general, plus the ubiquity of online social interaction, which makes people crave something fun to do face-to-face.

At least, that's the story told in a new article from UK newspaper The Guardian.

That article, "The Rise and Rise of Tabletop Gaming," is pretty lengthy, and digs into what specific factors, people, and games helped boardgaming get bigger than it's ever been, even during the age of Monopoly and Clue (or Cluedo, as they say in the UK). Yes, it talks about Pandemic.

It's an interesting outsider's look at how it came to pass that your grandmother has probably heard of Catan, Sushi Go!, or maybe even Munchkin. So if you want that perspective, even if just to see how a newspaper reporter words a layman's description of Dungeons & Dragons, give it a read.

-- Ariel Barkhurst