Domain Analysis

Board Games

Many people perceive the hobby of board games as "nerdy" or "geeky," however recent popular shows like The Big Bang Theory and Stranger Things have helped to bring "nerd" culture into the mainstream, including board games. Also helping with this movement in the Philippines is the sudden popularity of board game cafes, where you can play board games while buying food and drinks.

While many historical artifacts have been found that could potentially have been game pieces, the very first game that was proved to have actually been a game were "dice" in the form of flat sticks that had colored sides. Dice eventually evolved into the polyhedral shapes with different sides assigned different numbers that we still use to this day. Other historical games whose rules still survive to this day are Backgammon (2000BCE), Mancala (700BCE) and the game that would eventually inspire chess called Tafl (400 BCE). Skipping ahead to the modern era, another historic moment for board games was the creation of the German Game of the Year award, better known in the original German as the Spiel des Jahres, where games are critiqued on Concept, Rules, Design and Layout.

Another stable of the modern era, the figurative "board game bible," is a site called BoardGameGeek which is a database about almost every game ever made. Information about each game includes genre, classification and a difficulty rating that is based off of user reviews. Also in BoardGameGeek are useful forums about said games, including many about rules clarifications and strategy guides for games that require it. This site is friendly to both newcomers and veteran gamers. It has had a huge impact on the community, with it's difficulty rating system for games becoming the standard that every other reviewer and gamer bases their expectations on.

Another helpful resource, especially to newcomers to the hobby, are YouTube tutorials and reviews. The advantage of board game youtubers is being able to see the components of the game, and to have these explained to you. A particular favorite board game YouTube channel of mine is Shut up and Sit Down which I relied on in choosing the first few board games of my collection. Shut up and Sit Down also manages their own site where they post videos and reviews of various games.

The domain of board games contains both empirical and socially-constructed knowledge. It can be said that the rules and mechanics of each game are empirical knowledge, as the rules for a certain game will be the same for everyone. However, the experience of playing games is different for everyone, and is usually dependent on the genre or classification of board game. As board games usually need to be bought before being played, that means that in looking for a board game to play one must usually rely on socially-constructed information online reviews and forums like those I mentioned earlier in order to judge whether a board game is worth buying. Of course, some people are just fans of a particular genre of board game, and decide to

Within the domain of board games there are many different classifications of game. The main classifications are based on the mechanics of the game, though this can be tricky as games sometimes have several mechanics in play. In general though, board games can be classified into the following categories: Abstract, Area Control, Campaign, Deckbuilding, Dexterity, Drafting, Engine-building, Eurogame, Exploration, Luck, Party, Roll-and-move, Roll-and-write, Trading Card Games, Social Deduction, Storytelling, Worker Placement, and Wargame.

Board game jargon is also dependent on the genre of game. Some, however, are universal. A meeple always refers to small figures that have a stylized human form, usually found in worker placement games. "Tapping," a card means using up it's ability , that ability being "untapped," or refreshed in the next turn or when a specific condition is met. Lastly the most ubiquitous board game jargon actually comes from Tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, which would be referring to different polyhedral dice as "D" then the number of sides that the dice has. An example of this would be a normal cubic 6-sided die being referred to as a "D6".

As there is no one body that governs or manages all the knowledge of board games, some jargon remains within certain groups. For example the tabletop organization in UPD, UP Tabletop, usually uses the word "proc" to mean that an effect will proceed. This word is common to other games, but it is not standard jargon for the entire community.

Board games as a hobby are lately becoming very popular, however this comes with some challenges. Since board games were seen as part of the predominantly male "nerd" culture until recently some parts of the community remain sexist - despite some popular games recently having been created by women. In general however, I have the board game community in the Philippines and online forums to be generally very welcoming and helpful, particularly in the online forums and the game difficulty ranking system of BoardGameGeek. Hopefully as the domain of board games grow the community will continue to work together collaboratively and help each other.

Sources:
Alex, B. (2020, June 17). *The ancient history of board games." Discover. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-ancient-history-of-board-games

Attia, P. (2016, Jan 22). *The full history of board games." Medium. https://medium.com/@peterattia/the-full-history-of-board-games-5e622811ce89

Castle, S. (2020, Feb 12). Board game types explained: a beginner's guide to tabletop gaming terms. Dicebreaker. https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/board-game/how-to/board-game-types-explained