What's old is new again

I came across this interesting tidbit concerning the beginning of Parker Brothers while surfing the Hasbro website (www.hasbro.com/default.cfm?page=ci_history_pb). 

George S. Parker, the founder of Parker Brothers "spent the majority of this time developing new games and play-testing them. As he wrote, "There are many games on the market which, though bright and interesting in external appearance, are found dull and unentertaining when played." To insure that all the games he published remained fun to play time after time, he played every game with employees, friends and anyone else he could persuade to sit down with him. He noted the points over which they seemed confused and the time when the pace of the game seemed too slow. Even though George was a busy head of a fast-growing business, he personally wrote the rules for every new game." George was producing games from the late 1880s through the early half of the 1900s.  He died in 1953.

What strikes me is how some of the topics and themes that are discussed and debated here at F:AT were relevant even back in the early days of mass-produced board games. 

1) George Parker was concerned that games be fun and recognized that not all board games were fun.

2) Although games were to be fun, George took the gaming business and the design of games seriously

3) Back then, games were also rigorously tested. 

4) George recognized the importance of game flow, playability and making rules understandable. 

5) One of the major requirements for F:AT members was also a requirements of George: replayability.

Perhaps it shouldn't be such a mystery to us how the old standby, mainstream games can remain so popular.  They weren't, after all, just slapped together but were the product of serious thought and revision.

By-the-way, I'm amazed at the number of once independent companies that have been gobbled up by Hasbro: Kenner, Parker Bros., Milton-Bradley, Tonka, Wizards of the Coast, Avalon Hill, Tiger Electronics....

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On another note I've been going back over my own journey to gaming and I can see that I had the gamer gene early on and it was an AT gene at that!.  As a youngster I was playing with my sisters' Candyland and Uncle Wiggily games.  I still have a fond spot for Uncle Wiggly because even at that tender age I thought the pictures of the Skeezicks and the Big Bad Pipsisewah were cool as shit.  Then I moved on up to Trouble with that great invention the Pop-O-Matic and Monopoly.  I even tried my sister's Mystery Date! I can only guess that my parents saw this and I started getting games of my own for Christmas....Stratego, Sub Search, Risk, Chopper Strike, Chess, Pay Day, Checkers, Dark Tower! I've already mentioned once before the time I got the Planet of the Apes game.  I don't think at that point I had ever seen any of the movies or had much interest in the theme (maybe Mom had seen me watching the Saturday morning cartoon) but for whatever reason, it was one of my Christmas presents.  Not my favorite nor a theme I took much interest in, but I played it anyway because it was a game!  And trapping humans in a cage via a working trap door mechanism was kinda cool!  Later on I would receive AH's Jutland and TSR's Julius Caesar game (thank god Mom didn't realize what else TSR was famous for).  It was clear I liked to play games, but at about that point the gaming gene went into hibernation through much of high school and into college.  I did go to a college gaming club function once.  It was fun but the social atmosphere at the time just didn't feel right.  The gamer gene only came out again when a friend(s) introduced me to Civilization and a little later to Rail Baron, and so on to other hardcore hobby games.  I had no problem learning the rules, having an interest to play, or being intrigued with the themes.  It was all good (okay...there were some games we played once and haven't seen since). So where was that "gateway game" for me?  That early Uncle Wiggily game could arguably be it. Or was Stratego which I played a million times against my best friend?  I don't see it as the Civilization game as it didn't take much to get me into to it.  In my case I just can't see any one turning point.