In terms of the art, craft, and hobby of board games, there will always be board games as long as there are people who want to play them. If we're talking about commercial viability, board games are no different than other forms of entertainment (movies, music, books, video games, sports, etc.), in that they thrive on whatever fancy captures the public's imagination at the moment.
I've been an avid gamer for nearly 30 years, and have seen the hobby/industry go through many changes and stages of evolution, but no matter how commercially viable or impractical the business of making and selling board games was at any particular point in time, they never disappeared. There was always somebody out there making new games, and there was always an audience, sometimes small sometimes large, ready to play them.
Back in the early 80s, many speculated that computer games would make board games obsolete, and when video game consoles emerged in the 90s, the same predictions were heard once again. Of course, these predictions never came true. Mainly because these things are not mutually exclusive - most gamers I know enjoy video/PC games as well as board games, and they also watch movies and go to baseball games. Why would anyone want to limit themselves to just one form of entertainment?
But the real flaw in broad statements like, "Video games will extinguish board games!" is that they assume a stationary target. The fact is, there's always something new out there. Just when computer games were starting to hit their stride in the mid-80s, along came Trivial Pursuit, and suddenly board games were all the rage, in a way that no one could have predicted. As video game sales skyrocketed in the mid-90s, Magic: The Gathering emerged, and kids and adults suddenly found a new way to obsessively spend their time and money. No one saw it coming.
Like everything else, board games are not a static form, and neither are people's interests. From time to time the two cross serendipitously in unpredictable ways to generate new levels of interest.
Many have pointed out that we have been in the midst of a "golden age" of board gaming during the past few years, thanks mainly to European game design sensibilities and production values. I agree with this view, and am also very aware that this too shall pass. 10-15 years from now it is very possible that we will look back on current favorites like Puerto Rico and Settlers, and consider them to be outdated and archaic. In fact, we may even be disillusioned and disappointed with the state of board gaming as a whole.
But this would not be the result of video games dwarfing board games, but rather, simply the natural course of change and progress. Just like we can't predict what the next hit song will be, or who the next great athlete will be, we cannot predict what the next board gaming rage is going to be, or for that matter, what the next video game craze will be.
What we can reasonably be sure of is that there will still be musicians trying to make hit songs, scouts still trying to find the next Michael Jordan, and game designers still trying to make the next great game, both for the table top and for computers, or whatever gadget might be popular in 2020.
I wouldn't worry so much about the future of board games. For those of us who enjoy this hobby, there is plenty (almost too much at times) to keep us happily occupied in the present and the near foreseeable future!
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© Copyright 2004 by George Phillies.
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