Last week I had an interview with a local newspaper about playing and making games. It is in Dutch, you can read it here. I made the statement that everyone likes playing games. Even people who say they don’t. They just haven’t played the game they will like yet. Or maybe not yet with the right people.

Of course I am biased as a gamer and game designer. Yet I do believe this holds up. If you don’t like competition, there are cooperative games. If you hate thinky brainburner games, there are dexterity games, party games, games focussed on story, trivia, creativity or social activities. If you don’t like to sit around, sports is a form of games (competitive, cooperative, often both). Besides analogue games there are many platforms of digital games. If you hate sci-fi space theme, there are also games around fantasy, pirates, zombies, and other tropes. Besides the ‘standard’ themes more and more unique themes pop up in games.

Photo of the article, by Arjen Zijlstra 2017

Multiple professionals in the tabletop game industry state we are in a ‘golden age’ of board gaming. There are indeed a LOT of different games to play, with hundreds new games being published each year. The quality of components is great and also the designs are good. These have improved a lot the last decades. Having a game concept published thus has become harder. As well as having good sales: there is a lot out already. A lot of different games.

So back to the statement: everyone likes games. Do you agree?

PDF download of the article (Dutch):

Arjan van Houwelingen: ‘Iedereen houdt van spellen_ – Groninger Gezinsbode