When you say board games people, I believe, almost always start thinking of Monopoly, Clue, or some other “standard” game out there in Wal-Mart. Why? Because that’s what’s in the store. That’s what people know about from advertising.

In my opinion, the only way you’ll ever get “big money” in board games is with lots of television, radio, and print advertising. Like video games or any other product, without advertising, they don’t grow. That does not mean they don’t grow at all, as there is some advertising out there (BGG is a major hub of it), but without Major players getting involved, believing in the future of board games, and so on, you’ll never see great success. But, again, I believe this is true of any product.

Does anyone remember commercials for “Famly Game Night”? That was Hasbro I think and those games probably sell well. Other companiies have worked hard on their brand name recognition and marketing and they to have a better chance at being successful (Cranium comes to mind.) Even in the subculture, you probably have high hopes for a game when you see FFG, Rio Grande, or Mayfair. These companies have worked hard on their name and (probably) their products.

On the issue of anybody getting into the hobby, it is a lot like video games in the early days. In fact, just as video games had to change its economic model, so will board games. That is why it is so hard to create console games today. For a paltry ten million you can make Wii games, but these keeps quality up. In the early ’80s small companies everywhere were making games, cruddy games too. I had many of them. The surplus caused a collapse. That and other factors like larger video games looking better than smaller consoles (at that time), and other factors caused a meltdown and the model had to evolve.

Boardgaming, if it is to survive, must also evolve.

I like the idea of a guy in the garage making a game. I’m trying my hand at it. It’s one of the rare things left today that I care about that I can actually have a chance at creating. I work on computers and can program, but I’ll never be able to work on video games professionally. It’s just to huge for me. The whole game built in a garage is akin to the glory days of Apple making their computer in a garage. It’s all very nostalgic.

My original intent for the thread was to try and figure out what it is that people want and how a local business could suceed, if possible. I don’t believe it’s all about offering services and these other sub-debates in this thread shed light on other factors to consider. I’m way to “scared” to sink my life savings (or good credit) into a game store after reading what I have on here, online or offline. But, I got another job anyway, which meant I probably wasn’t serious enough anyway. Entrepreneurialship is highly interesting to me.

My wife is saying she wants to play a game of For Sale, so I must stop now. Maybe I can get her to play Citadels too.

John Marchant

Georgia Boardgames Association

“Together time all the time”™ 

This was a response to a very interesting thread here.