While play is undoubtedly the primary function of board games, talking about them is one of the most engaging uses the medium has to offer. You can talk about your experiences and insights. You can consult on strategies. Or you can freely associate what a game might have to say about its theme. Admittedly as a podcaster I may be somewhat biased. To me, talking about games is an important part of enjoying them. But if you’re the kind of person who uses podcasts as white noise during your commute or while doing the dishes, you might find the printed word a more serious way of engaging the medium. A book that seeks to provide this service to you is “What Board Games Mean to Me”.

It’s a collection of essays by various personalities of the international board gaming scene. Among them well-known names such as Geoff Engelstein („Space Cadets“), Steve Jackson („Munchkin“), Ian Livingstone (Games Workshop founder) und Susan McKinley Ross („Qwirkle“). But names like John Kovalic („Dork Tower“), Reiner Knizia („Stephenson’s Rocket“) and Sen-Foong Lim („Mind MGMT“) are also presented. In the cover blurb it says that “players, designers and fans” get to speak about their thoughts on board games. Even if you don’t recognize every name listed in the book, you don’t have to feel called out. They are all people like you and I, united primarily by their relationship to board games.

In fact, most of the texts are defined by how close many of them allow us readers to get to the writers. The majority of essays veer strongly towards autobiography. This is often done by retracing the author’s life through its connections to individual board games. This includes moments of making early and long-lasting friendships with fellow gaming nerds. As the writers reflect on the past, gaming emerges as a foundational element of forging relationships that span years, if not decades. But their texts also include less pleasant experiences. Like the thoughts that remain of a late friend, shaped by the time spent together playing games. These reminiscences emerge suddenly, in short, touching paragraphs. Reading them, you can’t quite shake the feeling that you’re already living those “good old times”, you will look back on in a few decades with a smile on your lips and a small tear in your eyes.

But it isn’t the emotional moments, that best describe this book. It’s also not its title. One which made me expect a wider range of different perspectives on board games. What the essays show most clearly, is how present and influential games have been in the lives of the writers. They show what it means to have games be part of people’s lived reality. Each essays gives us a glimpse into the paths the writers’ lives have taken. In them, board games emerge in different ways. Sometimes they are companions through the years; a connection between family members of different generations; the first bridge that leads to a life-long friendship. But they also show games as an expression of individual creativity and a gateway into self-discovery; as a means to form communities and keep them alive; or simply as a hobby that has become a career.

Almost all essays are written in a very personal and approachable style. Reading them is like being involved in a pleasant conversation while taking a walk. It’s a conversation that inevitably leads to the realization just how much space board games take up in our lives. How board games are, quite explicitly, not just a fleeting distraction in our everyday lives. I’ve found myself picking up strong parallels to my own experience with some writers. Other texts showed how vastly different the impact of board games can be on our lives.

„What Board Games Mean to Me“ isn’t the kind of book that will fundamentally change the way we look at board games. For that, it doesn’t really dive into what it means to play games together. But it normalises the idea that board games matter to people. That we like to play them, and often; and that taking them seriously enriches our lives. To some, this well earn a supportive nod of approval by stating something that seems so self-evidently true. But if you still cling to the idea that board games are a luxury hobby, defined by its triviality, you will find yourself at odds with this book’s ethos and central thesis. Namely, that board games mean something to people.

Publisher: Aconyte
Edited by Donna Gregory
Pages: 288
Released: November 2023