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Game Time: People are realizing that breaking out the board games is a fun, cheap way to pass the evenings
Journal Photo by Lauren Carroll
Brandon Ellis thinks carefully about his next move as he plays Stone Age with a group at Starbucks on University Parkway.
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Published: July 3, 2009
Some people might find it hard to believe that they could enjoy playing games without hooking up to a computer or a Wii console.
But others have recognized the appeal of board games, games played with a group of people who actually speak to each other and physically move game pieces. Board games have enjoyed a resurgence in recent years as people spend more time at home and look for inexpensive entertainment.
In 2008, according to the market research group NPD, sales of board games were up 6 percent over the previous year. They accounted for $794 million in sales.
Will Fleeson of Lewisville is part of a loose-knit group of about 50 men and women, between the ages of 20 and 50, who meet regularly to play board games. Fleeson is 44. The Camel City Gamers, as they are called, sometimes gather at a member's home; often, they meet at a Starbucks. Its members are drawn through a Web site, www.meetup.com/Camel-City-Gamers/.
The group doesn't play Monopoly or other traditional games. They prefer Euro-style games like Puerto Rico, Runebound, and Tigris and Euphrates. Euro-style games tend to emphasize strategy more than luck, and they downplay drama and conflict. Their themes are often about economics, not war.
At a game night in the spring, some group regulars and a few newcomers met at Starbucks on University Parkway. Fleeson headed one table of gamers and taught them Stone Age, a resource-management game. Some caught on quickly as the game progressed; others needed more help.
Gamers made their way around the board, gathering materials to build huts and accumulating workers. Fleeson and the others, some strangers to each other, fell into an easy back-and-forth conversation.
Steve Hastings quickly hit upon an unorthodox strategy for conserving food resources.
"I'm never going to feed my people," he said. "I'm going to let them starve." Zabrina Liang came up with a slightly less cruel plan.
"I'm going to make them eat bricks," she said.
The camaraderie of playing games with other people is what draws people to such groups, Fleeson said. "In these days of everything being electronic, this is face-to-face," he said. And the price is right.
"It's the cost of a cup of coffee for some and nothing but the gas for others," Fleeson said.
Joe Harrington and his wife, Catherine Harnois, get with friends to play Euro-style games about once a week. Their favorites are resources games, Settlers of Catan and Agricola. Since each game develops differently, the games can be played repeatedly.
"We enjoy the social interaction and intellectual challenge these games offer," he said.
For many people, however, board games have always been a source of fun.
Shirley Ferguson, who played board games as a child, is part of a group called the Games Dames. For more than 12 years, the women have gotten together once a month to play such games as Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary and Cranium.
"Many times we've commented about how hard it is to be there on a Friday night after a long week of work," she said. "But we always feel energized after eating, talking, laughing and playing games. It's a good deal all around."
The group, whose membership hovers around 10, is made up mostly of women in their early 60s. A few are older; a few are younger. Most of them no longer have children at home. They like the intellectual challenge that playing games affords them.
"Sometimes it humiliates us," Ferguson said. "Other times, it gives us a chance to shine. Most of the time, it just gives us a chance to laugh."
Although she gets a kick out of playing computer games by herself, Ferguson loves the camaraderie of playing games with a bunch of friends.
"One of the best things about our group is that we've been there to support each other during the ups and downs of life," she said.
Don and Clare Adamick, both 67, live in Clemmons. They grew up playing games with their extended families, including their grandparents. She and her husband started their grandchildren on games as soon as they became old enough to count. They enjoy the challenge, the competitiveness and the congeniality.
"We are not doing it to save money," she said. "We like it. It's just a great way for a family to spend time together."
Wendy Edens Jessen of Boone prides herself on continuing the thrifty habits her parents taught her. Playing games helped Jessen and her husband entertain themselves when they were young marrieds with little money to spend on evenings out. She still plays games and has brought them into her classrooms in the Watauga County Schools, where she teaches academically gifted students.
"We have a lot of fun using the skills we have learned in a game format," she said. "Little do they know they are really learning, although, they are AG, so they may have figured that out, too! We even make up games to play on a Jeopardy board which review end-of-grade type questions."
Bob Geyer of Pfafftown and his wife, Laura, have continued the tradition of playing board games from their childhoods.
"We continued it on to our children," said Bob Geyer, 63. Now, the Geyers play games with their grandchildren.
"I think it's an important part of development," he said. "It teaches you how to interact with others competitively without being angry."
Julie Palm, 41, plays Scrabble about once a month with a group of girlfriends. They play two games, with an easy potluck dinner in between.
"We love it," she said. "We're all busy with jobs, kids, community, work, etc. But this is something we do just for ourselves.
"It's four hours when we can laugh and stretch our brains a little."
■ Janice Gaston can be reached at 727-7364 or at jgaston@wsjournal.com.
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