About Modern Boardgames

When most people think of board games, they tend to think of either 
ancient strategy games such as Chess and Backgammon, or modern mass-
market games like Monopoly and Scrabble. Strangely enough, these last 
two games were invented in 1935 and 1948 respectively! Since that 
time, board and table games have come a long way and the most recent 
popular style of game to emerge is that of the 'eurogame'.

Eurogames (also called German Games or Designer Games) are a style of 
game that initially appeared in Germany in the early 1990s as a 
result of a strong gaming culture and a belief in the value of 
playing games as a form of family recreation. With these ideals in 
mind, eurogames tend to have a few key traits which make them easily 
accessible, engaging and, above all, fun:

* Short and simple (but clever) rules

Although some more complex eurogames can be a bit of a tax on the 
brain, most have short, clear and simple rules that can be picked up 
in a few minutes. Often they include clever mechanics which force 
players to think a little 'outside the square' on the path to victory.

* Emphasis on strategy/tactics over luck

A problem with many mass-market games is that they often come down to 
"who got the best dice rolls?" in determining the winner. Although 
not particularly complex, eurogames tend to award the player who has 
played the best during the game, not the one with lady luck on his/
her side.

* Short playing times/No player elimination

Unlike those childhood games of Monopoly that could drag on for 
seemingly forever, eurogames tend to be playable in about an hour. 
Although some take longer, very few require the kind of endurance 
that a six player game of Risk demands! There is also rarely any 
player elimination in eurogames, so all players get to enjoy the game 
from start to finish, without someone having to sit out the remainder 
of the game after a bad start.

* Constructive, not destructive

All games involve conflict in some form, but eurogames tend to 
emphasise constructive play as opposed to 'beating up on the others'. 
Players are often building or developing something (whether it be a 
castle in Spain or a colony in South America) and, although there are 
usually opportunities to obstruct other players (what fun would it be 
if there weren't?), it is rarely that players are directly attacking 
others.

* High social interaction

So, if players aren't beating up on each other, what are they doing? 
Well, trading, negotiating, bidding, building - In fact, all kinds of 
interesting social interactions can be found in eurogames. The belief 
in the values of playing games within the family tends to lead to 
games which are highly social in many interesting ways. Indeed, there 
are any number of ways to interact with other people without having 
to knock them down.

* Attractive presentation

One thing that always strikes people when first coming across 
eurogames is how gorgeous to look at they are! Games are beautifully 
presented, with attractive artwork and high quality (often wooden) 
components. Although this doesn't necessarily make the games any 
better, it does make them a lot more pleasing to play with than the 
generic plastic of mass-market games.


All of these traits combine to make games that can be picked up and 
enjoyed by new players in a short amount of time, and which require a 
little bit of thought without the brain-melting demands of games like 
Chess. They are games of skill, but the decisions tend to be from a 
small range of options, meaning that play moves along quickly and 
everyone is engaged and having fun for the entirety of the game. 
Because, after all, that's what games are supposed to be, right?



More about Eurogames:

Wikipedia entry 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_game

The Essence of Euro-style Games, an article by Lewis Pulsipher 

http://thegamesjournal.com/articles/Essence.shtml

An Affinity for Rules - Economist Article

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12009728