It’s hard to imagine someone who is really into the CALL OF DUTY games not sinking their teeth into the squad-level World War II combat of TIDE OF IRON and any fan of 4X style space exploration games will weep tears of joy during their first game of TWILIGHT IMPERIUM (particularly if they’re a MASTER OF ORION alumni). And if you still think board games means pushing around those little plastic pawns like you’d find in SORRY, then you’ve got another thing coming. The board games of today are lavishly produced with sculpted miniatures, some of the best genre art out there, and extremely high quality components that evoke theme and atmosphere almost as thoroughly as anything your graphics card can render. Take a look at any big-box board game published in the last year and I think you’ll have a hard time not wanting to check out how it plays based on its physical merits alone.

Yet I still hear complaints about board games and comments that basically relegate them to the same attic of obsolescence where most people store vinyl LPs and 300 baud modems. I remember showing a non-gamer friend of mine a copy of POWER GRID, a Eurogame about setting up, running, and maintaining a system of power plants, and his response was, “We have computers that will do the same thing this game does now.” Which is absolutely true. Electronic gaming has made a lot of the calculation, logistics, and hassle out of gaming. No doubt, some of the older games- even the better ones like the previously mentioned CIVILIZATION- suffered from a large amount of administration and overall complexity that these days can be effectively put behind a curtain in a computer or video game. Looking at a PC game like HEARTS OF IRON it pretty much does the same thing a board game like WORLD IN FLAMES does (simulating all of World War 2…all of it) but without the backbreaking labor involved. Yet, advances in game design idioms and paradigms has resulted in more efficient, effective rules where a lot of the “work” involved has been eliminated.

Even in wargaming, that last bastion of rules filled with minutiae, exceptions, and staggering complexity, there has been a shift toward simpler, more accessible gameplay without losing essential details. Playing these games has become fun again, and in no small part due to an impetus on accessible, immediate rules design that favors getting players into the game as quickly as possible. There’s no doubt though, that some kinds of games, particularly extremely expansive games that involve a lot of factors, are definitely better suited for electronic applications but I am continually surprised at the level of depth and strategic richness today’s board game designers can cram in ten or less pages of rules--for the record, that’s less reading than most of the booklets stuck in video games these days.

Obviously, there is also an intellectual component to all this as well. I’m not one of those people who believes that playing video games makes you stupid, but I do believe that playing face-to-face games against human opponents is a far greater challenge requiring a lot more intuition, empathy, gut-level intelligence, and psychology than sending out the typical “d00d u got pwned” messages. When I’m playing a game like the amazing Avalon Hill DUNE (a 27 year old game that feels just as fresh as it did the day it was published), there is a social component that Internet messaging (or even voice chat) can never match. It’s one thing to renege on diplomatic relations with some kid in his parents’ basement in Hoboken, but it’s another thing altogether to look your friend in the eye five feet away and inform him that you’re moving the troops to attack his stronghold at Arakeen.

So then, I invite you all to my gaming table here at GameShark to check out some really great board games. I hope to enlighten those of you who might not be aware of what’s been going on in other areas of the gaming hobby and maybe I can turn you on to something new to do with your friends on a rainy day. Or maybe I can make you one of us…a dice-tossing chithead prowling Ebay for moldy, long-forgotten bookcase games and constantly wondering when the next Fantasy Flight big box game is coming out. If you’re already in the board gaming brotherhood, it’s great to have you here and I hope I can entertain you with insights and ideas that aren’t necessarily the pro-Eurogame “party line” expressed on other board gaming sites. I’m committed to promoting this hobby because I love it, I write about it because I love it, and I believe that if your idea of “gaming” stops at a control pad or ends in a wall outlet then you’re missing out on a lot of fun.

Questions or comments for Michael? Send them along to gameshark.feedback@yahoo.com .