Parlour games for young & old
The good news first: computers and smartphones have by no means displaced classic card and board games. Still 47% of Germans - distributed over the entire population - regularly play "classic" games. This refers to games with tangible objects; for example, board and card games. At least that is what an Ipsos survey from 2015 showed. In fact, parlour games are currently experiencing an upward trend.
As you know, statistics have their weak points. It all depends on how the question is asked, who it is asked to, and how the result is to be interpreted. On the surface, Monopoly is both the most popular in surveys and the most bought game in the sales charts. But I ask you now: how often is Monopoly actually played? There are no statistics on that.
Society is divided into two camps when it comes to parlour games: The players and the non-players. The typical gamer has a large cupboard full of games at home and regularly buys new ones. The non-player has only a handful of games, just in case guests want to play something. They have Monopoly, Memory and Uno in their cupboard.
Today's games and players are very different from the past
These three games in particular are often played by parents with their young children because they would not understand the complex rules of adult games. The "real" gamer scene does not touch these mainstream games. The market for parlour games, especially in Germany, is full to the brim with a huge selection of really challenging games. Many of these games require
- complex thought processes
- powers of observation & perception
- Logic & imagination
They are complex, and the first game a player plays a new game usually ends in frustration, because - unlike the well-known classics - you haven't devised a perfect game strategy in just a few minutes.
Although games can be divided into logic, knowledge and strategy games - although there are other categories as well - there are plenty of games that cannot be assigned to any one group. Either the game principles are different from anything known so far or they are a mixture of the known principles. These games are most often played among young people - mostly students. Unlike other activities that are popular in student days but then disappear as people get older, the desire to play board games often lasts a lifetime. That is why the community of players is constantly growing.
The most important difference to the computer game
In statistics, the well-known card or board games regularly compete with the classics on PC and smartphone. Mah-jongg and solitaire are leaders on the PC, Candy Crush and Farmville run on many smartphones. One thing all these games can't do is bring a group of people together. But that is precisely what is most important to the players: that they sit together and have fun together.
However, there have already been attempts to bring together computers, smartphones and the game principles of classic parlour games. The inventors of the quiz game "You don't know Jack" have brought out several games under the name "Jackbox" that are controlled centrally from a PC and in which each player contributes from their own smartphone. Technically, this already works very well, but there is still a long way to go in terms of inventiveness. So far, there are only party nonsense games. But it is certainly worth watching this market.
Generations come together for a parlour game
Here is the quintessence of why I talk about parlour games in such detail in the first place. Today's enthusiastic players are an open and friendly bunch of people. I have yet to see a group that is not happy when new faces join. Above all, there are many more of them than you would probably expect. Do you live in an apartment building? Then there is a good chance that there are regular games evenings in your house and you don't know about them. Ask around if a conversation arises in the stairwell.
I already wrote above that interest in games is usually awakened during student years. So it's mostly young people who like to sit down at the gaming table. They are also almost equally divided between the sexes. This means you don't have to worry about being a woman sitting in a group of young men, for example.
If you are already looking forward to playing complex games with young people, you are right to be excited. Many of the games require the ability to think around corners. There are plenty of situations in which you can suddenly - thanks to life experience and a different way of thinking - absolutely come up trumps. By the way, this is even nicer in cooperative games. There you play as part of a team, either against another team, or simply to win the game. In these cases, too, a person from the older generation always means an enrichment for the group.
This is particularly interesting in a completely new category, the so-called exit games. Here, everyone plays in a team to solve a puzzle - against the clock, of course. There is no predetermined procedure here, but you are thrown into a situation from which you have to get out again. You are not asked questions to which you find answers, but you have to discover the smallest details of the game structure and draw the right conclusions. Sometimes spatial thinking is required, sometimes powers of deduction, sometimes intuition or even mental arithmetic. Here you will certainly be of great benefit to society, because with enough years of life you approach problems differently than is usual for young people.
But sometimes you just want to gamble a round
The beauty of parlour games is that they are equally attractive to men and women and are therefore played with equal pleasure by both sexes. The typical skat game in the pub or poker night in the cellar, however, are more a thing for men. So, if you're a woman, don't be sniffy when your man meets his friends for a round of Schafkopf and then doesn't come home all night. Firstly, he has a lot of fun, and secondly, you have peace in the house. As a man, don't be disappointed if your wife goes out to play poker or Yahtzee with her friends. In the end, everyone should have fun...
