With dedicated cafés popping up nationwide, there’s no doubt that board games are back in fashion. Katy Blanchard heads to Richmond’s very own board games café to find out how the trend is more than just a retro
Rob Cormican
When I was growing up, board gaming meant whole days at Christmas dedicated to classics like Monopoly and Cluedo, with no family member spared from the squabbles that might ensue. And when the decorations came down, so were the board games relegated to the cupboard for another year.
Fast forward to 2016 and the launch of The Library Pot, London’s latest board games café in the heart of Richmond, and it’s a different story. With more than 200 games – and counting – board gaming takes place here six days a week, attracting not only board game devotees, but people like me, swept up in the revival.
“Before opening the café, we’d been running board game meet ups at our house facilitated through meetup.com,” says Rob Cormican, co-owner of the games café. “If you’ve got a special interest or hobby, you’ll find someone in meet up land doing it and you can get together to enjoy it.”
It’s no accident that board gaming has exploded back onto the scene – social media and meet-up websites at our fingertips make it easier to meet people with similar interests, bringing board game gatherings nationwide and now in Richmond to life.
Rob and co-owner Emily Knight’s meet-ups had become so popular that they needed more space to satisfy Richmond’s appetite for board gaming. And since its launch at the end of January, many of The Library Pot’s customers have already worked their way through several loyalty cards.
“So many local people have taken us to their hearts already,” says Rob. “Richmond has a really strong leisure culture, and lots of people have told us that this is exactly the sort of place the town needs to add variety,” he says.
The opening of The Library Pot follows the huge success of established board game cafés including Thirsty Meeples in Oxford and Draughts in East London, which has a staggering 600-strong library of games.
Looking around at the selection at The Library Pot, there are lots I recognise from my childhood board game-playing days, but there are even more that I have never seen before.
The resurgence of board gaming that social networking has helped facilitate is clearly about more than just nostalgia. As these impressive libraries show, there are a host of new board games on the scene, and fans are digging deep to help fund them.
“Kickstarter is the new shop window for board games,” says Rob, telling me that hundreds of new games are being produced and released as a result of crowdfunding.
Loyal to prized games like Game of Life and Scrabble, I’m cautious about so many new games distracting from old favourites. But far from it, the newer games that crowdfunding is helping bring to life offer a whole new approach to board gaming.
“Lots of the newer games are an antidote to the roll-a-dice approach of older games, which rely largely on luck,” says Rob. “A lot of the newer games, such as Carcassone, are a lot more tactical,” he adds.
Won over, I admit that a lot of the newer games I’m less familiar with are great fun. And I’m not alone as a convert.
“Many people come here to play the older games that they know and love, but end up discovering new favourites,” says Rob.
Rob Cormican
Crowdfunding is just one of the ways that social technology is breathing new life into this ancient past-time, bringing more games and ways to play than there have ever been.
But as well as facilitating our re-found affection for the age-old hobby and giving rise to places like The Library Pot, technology is also providing people with a new reason to play as Rob and many of his customers tell me.
“The internet is wonderful,” says Rob, “but nowadays people sometimes need an opportunity to get away from it. Board games can provide that. They allow us to do all the things we’re good at – facial recognition, lying and cheating to people’s faces, looking people in the eyes – things you can only do in real life.”
Here in Richmond and in East London’s Draughts, the social side to gaming is the main draw for most customers, including Jaz – one of 35,000 people that Draughts welcomed through its doors in one month alone.
“Playing board games is so interactive,” she says. “You’re using your hands and your head a lot, and you can bond with the other person.”
At Draughts, the social side to board gaming has even seen them make their way onto the dating scene.
“We get a lot of people in here on dates – board games are perfect for that,” says Mike Strickland, one of Draughts’ Game Gurus who help players branch out from not just classic favourites but newer ones too, like Cards Against Humanity and Catan.
“You can get to know someone and get an idea of what they’re like through a board game,” he says. “Plus, if there are awkward silences you can chalk them up to thinking about the game,” he adds.
Face-to-face interaction and the social side to board gaming is undoubtedly the cause of their rapid rise back into the nation’s affections, and that’s certainly true at The Library Pot.
“We have several open tables where anyone can join in a game, and you can’t help meeting new people,” says Rob. “People who’ve never met before make new friends, and that’s partly what makes so many local people return.”
I’ve had real fun visiting The Library Pot and Draughts, playing board games with old friends and people I’d never met before.
And I’ve also had my eyes opened to the number of games out there, including newer games like Pandemic and Ticket to Ride that are well known to many fans already. I think there’ll be some new arrivals for our next big family board game blow-out – they’d better be prepared now I’ve got a local board games destination to practice at.
For more information visit librarypot.uk
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