FOR a while, if you weren't paying attention, you might have thought that board games had gone the same way as cassette tapes, eight-track cartridges, VHS videos, Trimphones and bulky TV sets - quaint relics of a bygone and curiously innocent era, now fit only to be consigned to the nearest landfill site or to be given to charity shops.
If you're like me, you probably have piles of old board games stuffed into the back of a cupboard: you haven't touched them in years and likely never will.
But board games, it seems, have been going through a golden age for the last decade. Sales, though lagging well behind those of video games like Call of Duty, have been increasing by as much as 40 per cent a year over the last few years.
Every 12 months there are thousands of new board games; the most popular sell in their millions.
They're becoming increasingly innovative, too. One caveman game, Ugg-Tect, invites you to build functional structures while limiting communication to 'primitive gestures and sounds'. Other games are more serious.
One focuses on the Abolitionist movement in America; another casts players as medical experts tackling four deadly diseases.
I dig out my old stash of board games from the back of a cupboard, dislodging a considerable layer of dust in the process.
Some of them might count, at a pinch, as reasonably sophisticated. Poleconomy ('the Power Game') is there, as are the games that once featured in what passed for dinner-parties in my house - Trivial Pursuit, and Scrabble, and Enigma, and a film-trivia game.
There are jigsaws, all with several pieces missing, and a chess set I bought and used only once, having discovered that it was a lot harder than draughts.
But the other games are embarrassingly unsophisticated. Mouse Trap, for one.
There's even an elderly edition of Ker-Plunk, a game expressly designed to irritate parents hoping for a quiet Christmas morning. There's a Simpsons edition of Cluedo and a quite spectacularly tattered box of Monopoly. I look inside. Half of the board is missing.
Part of me is glad that board games have stayed in fashion and that they are enjoying a Golden Age. Another part of me … well, let's just say that that game of Mouse Trap is looking strangely appealing right now.
Even if it does make Ugg-Tect look like the very model of urbanity.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article