Table Of ContentBoard Games as Media
Board Games as Media
Paul Booth
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
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First published in the United States of America 2021
Copyright © Paul Booth, 2021
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To the good sports, the happy losers, the magnanimous victors;
To the laughers, the food orderers, the rules pedants;
To the play- my-tu rn-wh ile-I -make -the- coffe e’ers ;
To the board gamers.
And to Brendan Riley, the best of them all.
Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgments x
Introduction: Board Games as Media 1
Part One Textual Analysis
1 Meeples, Miniatures, and Cubes: Ludo-Textual Analyses of Board
Games 17
2 A Depressing Choose-Your-Own Adventure: The Interactive
Potentiality of Board Games 38
3 Colonizing Mars: Ludic Discourse Analysis 58
4 The Designer as Créateur: The Board Game Industry and
Constructed Authorship 77
5 The Player as Fan: Ludic Fandom in Board Game Cultures 101
Part Two Ethnographic Analysis
6 Surveying Board Game Players: Who Plays What . . . 119
7 . . . and Why: Examining Motivations and Popularity
of Board Games 145
8 Cultural Studies of Games: Diversity and Inclusion in the Board
Game Industry and Hobby 167
9 The Epic Adventure of Grundy and Trixie: An Autoethnographic
Journey through Gloomhaven 192
Conclusion: The Board Gaming Environment 215
Appendix 1: Survey Questions 227
Appendix 2: Data from Survey 232
Notes 244
References 263
Index 277
Illustrations
Figures
All photos taken by the author, unless otherwise noted.
1.1 Mech in 1920s Scythe, art by Jakob Rozalski, Scythe game by
Jamey Stegmaier. Used with permission 26
1.2 Crimean mechs in Scythe 27
1.3 Characters from Scythe—l to r, Zehra and Kar (Crimean
Khanate), Gunter von Duisburg with Nacht (Saxony Empire),
Olga Romanova and Changa (Rusviet Union), Connor and Max
(Clan Albion), Anna and Wojtek (Polania Republic), Akiko and
Jiro (Togawa Shogunate), Bjorn and Mox (Nordic Kingdom) 28
1.4 Jonathan Schwartz, the hardest-working Medic in Pandemic
Legacy: Season 1 35
2.1 Three characters in This War of Mine scavenge to find medicine 50
2.2 Clear and partial memory of Billy Kerr 54
3.1 The Hub, First Martians 66
3.2 Health actions slot in Martians 70
4.1 Laukat’s people and animals, from (top to bottom) Empires of the
Void II, The Ancient World 2e, Above and Below, City of Iron 84
4.2 Three games, three themes, three styles, three aesthetics; same
crafter. Image created by author 92
4.3 Partial list of board game companies owned by Asmodee. Image
by Asmodee 96
6.1 Age of participants. Qualtrics graph 126
6.2 Gender identity of participants. Qualtrics graph 127
6.3 How do you participate in board games? Qualtrics graph 132
6.4 Digital apps. Qualtrics graph 135
6.5 What style of game do you prefer? Qualtrics graph 136
6.6 What mechanisms of game play do you prefer? Qualtrics graph 138
7.1 Top fifteen categories for “What motivates you to play games.”
Nvivo graph 150
Illustrations ix
7.2 Top fifteen categories for “Why are games popular today?”
Nvivo graph 159
9.1 My board game motivation profile. Quantric foundry 198
9.2 Trixie and Grundy after their victory 211
Tables
6.1 Age Data, Favorites Question 124
6.2 Race/Ethnicity, Other Answers 128
6.3 Countries Represented in Survey 129
6.4 Ten Most Popular Gateway Games 131
6.5 Types of Board Game Participation 133
6.6 Preference for Types of Games 137
6.7 Preference for Game Mechanics 138
6.8 Favorite Parts of Games 142
7.1 All Answers for “What Motivates You to Play Games?” 151
7.2 Common Themes Described as “An Ideal Experience
Playing Games” 155
7.3 All Categories for “Why Are Games Popular Today?” 160
