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There Will Be Games

Tetsuo on throne

Now I know that this isn't exactly a place with incredibly young gamers posting, but it's something to think about when I consider my place as one of the youngest people here. In the comments, feel free to tell me Clint Eastwood style to "GET OFF MY LAWN" - but let's face it, a hobby needs kids on your lawn to survive.

Recently, I discovered to my horror that Satoshi Kon, anime director of Paprika, and Perfect Blue, had died without me being sufficiently informed of it. Well, at first I thought the anime industry was doomed. But then I remembered anime didn't exactly die out when Tezuka died, did it? If anything it just became the polar opposite to 1990s comic books in the West - focused on cuteness and idealised fantasy of a saccharine world - the same thing Satoshi Kon rebelled against with pretty much any film he made.

I also noted recently this post by JonJacob - who often gets confused with me because we have a similar name, gave the hint of malaise underneath the surface of the board gaming hobby. Let me explain a few things before we get carried away here.

I don't see my gaming hobby as something that dominates my life, it's something that's there to supplement it because sometimes, a dude my age and dudes like him get bored. And there's only so many rounds of Tekken you can play before my aforementioned buddy Mr. S air-juggling me with a panda bear gets old. Board games to me are no longer about hoarding new games, it's something I do with other people when I feel absolutely lost for something to do. And I think it works well that way, because young people don't see their hobbies so much as an obsession these days as something they just DO.

There's a lot of lamenting that young people aren't playing board games and the industry seems doomed, but really the issue seems to be that young people are more picky about the games they play. Warhammer 40,000 and Magic: The Gathering are popular with young people not because they're cash sink franchises, but because young people can relate to the product since other people like them are playing it, especially in Magic's case since in my experience it's one of the more permeating entry level games into an expandable universe. It's also more portable than most board games so it can be played on university campuses and in schools.

There's also a tendency now for young people to not really care if they get called "gamers" or not because people who actually care about who is a true "gamer" tends to ruin the fun for everyone else. Me, I just like slinging Magic cards with my pals every now and again, or playing Barrel of Monkeys with the hipsters on campus.

By my nature I tend towards hobbies that aren't really mainstream, but are visible enough that they're not really social outcast material. JonJacob mentions you should have something to leave behind when you die, and I think I've already started to get that covered long before old age and mortality is a large issue for me. It's because I believe writing and creating artworks through photography benefit me on a creative level - JonJacob is right in saying that games being a creative medium is somewhat suspect, since most of the creation of the game is done for you. It's a consumer's hobby, unlike say, book fandom where you might be inspired to write a book yourself, or comics/graphic novels fandom where you might try and draw a comic you might try to get published at an indie comics press - who knows. Music is another one of these passive, yet active fandoms. Gamers however, therein lies the dilemma.

Few "gamers" will ever manage to create a game for themselves with their own two hands as compared to other artistic mediums which are more established in the eyes of the public as actual art, I mean, just look at the flak Roger Ebert gets lately from video gamers. I don't really care if board games are art or not, they certainly contain art, and a degree of craftsmanship at least. I just think on a creative level making a board or video game is something only the elite few who are talented enough or business savvy enough to manage game production will ever do, let alone PLAYTESTING.

I'm a major fan of the book world, the comics and manga/anime world, I've even dipped my toe into appreciating cinema every now and again. There exist many films people grew up with that I've just never seen - and seeing them enables me to talk with friends outside of the internet about them for conversation's sake.

Yes, board gaming is a very small hobby, but it has its place. However in my life, and for a lot of young people, I don't think board games development lists very high on their priorities. They'd rather play a pre-made board game, but those same people wouldn't probably turn their nose up at other creative endeavours. After all, sometimes board games CONTAIN art that inspires them to create something entirely different, but pretty neat.

There Will Be Games
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