I’ve always loved games.I grew up in the 1970s and 80s surrounded by them. Board games were a constant—boxes stacked in closets, missing pieces replaced with coins, rules bent or rewritten depending…
I grew up in the 1970s and 80s surrounded by them. Board games were a constant—boxes stacked in closets, missing pieces replaced with coins, rules bent or rewritten depending on who was winning. I played casual Dungeons & Dragons with friends, rolled dice on living room floors, and imagined worlds far bigger than the rooms we were sitting in.
Later, video games took over. RPGs. Sports titles. Consoles that grew faster, flashier, and more immersive. Somewhere in my 20s, probably in the 1990s, board games quietly faded from my life. Not because I stopped liking them. They just stopped being part of my routine.
Video games stayed. Board games didn’t.
Then, about two years ago, my wife’s friend’s husband invited me to a game night—and something clicked.
Since then, I’ve bought around 30 games in the last 18 months and backed another half dozen on Kickstarter. By hardcore hobby standards, those numbers are modest. For me, they represent a genuine obsession—and one that keeps deepening the more I understand why board games work the way they do.
This isn’t just nostalgia. There’s real psychology behind why modern board games are so compelling—and why once you fall back in, it’s hard to stop.
(Tactility, Design, and Embodied Cognition)
One of the biggest shocks returning to board games was the quality.
Opening a modern board game doesn’t feel like opening a toy. It feels like opening a treasure chest.
Thick cardboard. Custom inserts. Sculpted miniatures. Linen-finished cards. Purposeful graphic design. Even the way components are organized tells you this experience has been considered carefully.
From a psychological standpoint, this taps directly into embodied cognition—the idea that our thinking and emotional responses are shaped by physical interaction. Touch matters. Weight matters. Texture matters.
Games like Plunder and especially Return to Dark Tower feel good before you ever take a turn. The tower itself isn’t just a gimmick; it’s a physical presence that creates tension and anticipation the moment it hits the table. Add the Dark Horde expansion and suddenly the game isn’t just something you play—it’s something you engage with.
I’ve played Return to Dark Tower solo and with groups four or five times a week for the last three weeks, and it still feels fresh. Sometimes I open the box without even planning to play, just to interact with it.
Ninety-five percent of the time, that leads to a game.
The other five percent, the experience has already begun.
(Social Bonding and Shared Attention)
I enjoy solo board gaming—largely because I haven’t fully converted my family yet—but nothing compares to a game night.
Board games excel at structured social interaction. They create shared rules, shared goals, and shared consequences. Everyone is present, focused on the same space, the same objects, the same unfolding story.
That’s why a game like Thunder Road: Vendetta has become such a favorite with our group. It’s chaos by design. Plans fall apart instantly. Cars explode. No one pretends they’re in control for long. And because of that, we laugh constantly.
Psychologically, this works because games lower social risk while increasing emotional payoff. You’re allowed to tease, celebrate, complain, and fail—all within a safe, agreed-upon framework.
Add wine and cheese and suddenly it’s not just a game night—it’s a monthly ritual. In a world full of screens and passive interaction, sitting around a table feels almost radical.
(Why Losing Feels Good in Games)
One thing I didn’t realize I was missing until I came back to board games was how good it feels to fail without consequences.
In real life, mistakes carry weight. In games, they carry lessons—or laughter.
Board games create what psychologists might call low-stakes competence loops. You take a risk. You see the outcome. You adjust. You try again. There’s no penalty to your identity, reputation, or security.
This is deeply satisfying, especially as an adult, when opportunities to experiment without real-world cost become increasingly rare.
Whether it’s misjudging a strategy in Planet Unknown or overextending in Return to Dark Tower, the loss doesn’t sting—it invites another attempt.
(Why One Game Is Never Enough)
One of the most surprising aspects of the hobby is its sheer variety.
In a single night, I can play:
A deck builder like The Star Wars Deck Building Game
A polyomino puzzler like Planet Unknown
A classic race-style game like El Dorado
Each one activates a different kind of thinking—spatial reasoning, long-term planning, tactical improvisation, or pure reaction.
Planet Unknown, in particular, hits a perfect balance for me. It’s a puzzle first, a strategy second, and a resource optimization challenge throughout. It’s satisfying solo, but even better with others, where every choice feels just a little more pressured.
What’s fascinating is that board gamers tend to enjoy genres they wouldn’t normally choose. Once you’re in, curiosity replaces preference. That’s a hallmark of openness to experience, a personality trait strongly associated with sustained engagement and creativity.
You’re no longer looking for your game.
You’re looking for what this one does differently.
Looking back, I don’t think board games ever disappeared. I think I stepped out of the room for a while.
While I was gone, the hobby matured. Design improved. Production values soared. Themes broadened. Rules became more intentional and more welcoming.
And when I finally returned, board games offered something I didn’t realize I was missing: presence.
They slow me down. They demand attention. They reward patience. They turn entertainment into an event and play into a shared experience.
For me, this isn’t just about rediscovering a hobby. It’s about reconnecting with something deeply human—touch, focus, risk, laughter, and time spent together around a table.
That’s why I love board games.
And judging by the shelves filling up in my house, I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Pete Fletzer is the author of Who Owns the Myth? Star Wars, Fandom, and the Soul of the Saga, a nonfiction exploration of modern fandom, mythmaking, and the evolving relationship between storytellers and audiences. A longtime Star Wars podcaster and host of Around the Galaxy Live, Fletzer blends personal experience, cultural analysis, and decades of professional marketing and communications leadership to examine how belief, trust, and shared stories shape communities. His work focuses on fandom not as conflict, but as a living conversation—one that reveals how modern myths are created, challenged, and ultimately sustained.
Read the original article
Comments
Board games are my favorite way to accomplish two things that I find hard to do as an introvert that works from home:
1. Getting off screens
2. Socializing
But it still also accomplishes one of my favorite things to do: thinking — specifically problem solving and optimizing.
And, as an introvert, socializing actually naturally is secondary in our group, but that’s ok — a good heavy heads-down board game (think 3-5 hours) is still quite enjoyable in the presence of other human beings. A bit of a lost art in the day of the “black mirror” (cell phones).
If you haven’t tried getting into board games lately, I highly recommend it. If you don’t know where to start, I’d be happy to offer suggestions!
By DauntingPear7 2026-02-164:5114 reply As a college student without too much spending money, what’re some board games I should check out? I have wingspan, catan, and azul and wanna expand my collection with other must have games
+1 to shoo for the bgg links!
BoardGameGeek is the place to read up on games before buying them.
On the 'without spending money' front, depending on the city where you live, there often are board game cafes where you can go to rent games and play over there.
More economical if you are playing the game once or want to try out different games. Also very good if you struggle with learning rules from the rulebook.
By pavel_lishin 2026-02-1614:22 I really wish their design was better.
By pavel_lishin 2026-02-164:581 reply I'm not the person you asked, but I'd highly recommend Splendor. Very easy to learn, very fun to play.
By r-johnv 2026-02-165:25 Love Splendor! It created a category of its own!
By jader201 2026-02-166:01 Also agree with the other great suggestions in the sibling comments.
One thing that would help if you could figure out the types of games you and your group might enjoy — or the type of group you and your friends are.
If you think you’d enjoy deeper strategy games, start with some of the popular games in the “strategy” category on BGG, looking for light to medium weight (1.5-2.5) to start out, working your way up the scale (to 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0).
If you’re more into the social/party type games (those are always more fun in larger groups), look at the party category. I particularly enjoy social deduction games in the right group, and those are usually big hits with older kids / younger adults (though I still enjoy social deduction games and I’m quite beyond “younger adult”). :)
One good example is One Night Ultimate Werewolf.
One tip: if you’re interested in trying out some strategy games that are a bit out of your price range, check out boardgameoracle.com and add price alerts on a few games you have your eye on. Many great board game sites run good deals (gamenerdz.com is one of my favorites), so you can often get good deals on games if you’re patient.
If you ever get to the point where you’re looking for something with a bit more depth, and are ok spending money, but you want the money to go a long way, Age of Steam is one of the best bangs for your buck.
It’s basically a system that has a library of probably close to 200 maps, where each map can change the game quite drastically, by tweaking several rules, in addition to a different map of course.
It’s currently my #1 game, and you could repeat plays with it without it getting old, assuming others enjoy the mechanics of game (route building, auction/bidding, tight economy).
By enlyth 2026-02-169:22 I want to recommend a game you can pull out and explain in a couple of minutes that everyone tends to enjoy. I've played many a board games with people and this one has had unparalleled success in terms of enjoyment and replayability across broad audiences
It's called "So Clover!" and it's a word association themed game where each person gets four pairs of words, you write a one word clue for each pair, and then the rest of the group has to work backwards to figure out the original orientation of your cards (the cards themselves each have four words as well)
I really like "Root" (for the asymmetry) and "Arcs" (for the openness), although they are quite "heavy" in terms of rules and interactions.
By kombookcha 2026-02-169:141 reply +1 for Root!
For a nice entry game for a group setting, I recommend Carcassonne. It has a simple and engaging basic gameplay with a surprising amount of depth, that can easily be scaled up and down in complexity depending on your group's preference and experience level by simply adding more pieces/mechanics.
Carcassonne is also really nice with children. You can start them on just the "puzzle" aspect on attaching matching tiles, without scoring.
Our oldest child is now capable of the base game, and I can still make it interesting for me by going for secondary objectives, such as filling difficult gaps ;-)
By kombookcha 2026-02-1610:22 Very clever to introduce it to kids as purely a puzzle game! I'll keep that in mind.
When my girlfriend and I play, we sometimes give unofficial bonus points as compensation for suboptimal plays that fill out unseemly gaps that would otherwise stay open. Makes for a nice, aesthetic endstate board without handwringing over your score :b
By r-johnv 2026-02-165:24 'Terraforming Mars' is a game that I've come back to more times than I can count.
The beauty is that it visually looks really complex and advanced, but the gameplay isn't really that much complex more than wingspan.
Over the years I bought the 'prelude' expansion which speeds up the beginning. (Highly recommend)
And then once you've played it more than 10-15 times, the Hellas& Elysium adds more maps for variety.
By toast0 2026-02-166:05 Does your school have a board game group? If so, consider joining it to expand your effective collection (and perhaps your social group).
If not, maybe there's an adjacent group that might also be willing to entertain board games, or it's a group you could found. My college had a gaming, anime, and chess group which anchored my social experience.
By throw_await 2026-02-167:281 reply I can recommend Stardew Valley. It really captures the same cozyness as the video game, and it's cooperative.
My only complaint re Stardew multiplayer is because the clock doesn't pause in menus, conversations etc like it does in singleplayer, the game gets a lot less relaxing and more rushed. I wish the day would just be 25% longer when playing in co-op.
By internet_points 2026-02-1612:151 reply are you talking about the computer game in coop or stardew valley board game?
By Nition 2026-02-1618:38 Oh whoops, the videogame, I missed that the parent comment was talking about a boardgame version.
By alasdairking 2026-02-1622:25 You should play at a games cafe or ask around for:
Pandemic. Ticket to Ride.
Modern classics, great fun, easy to get into.
For meatier games I really like Scythe: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/169786/scythe
By mg74 2026-02-168:05 Get a 1830 variant (e.g. 18Chesapeake) and Age of Steam. Also any Splotter game (Indonesia just got a new printing). A new Brass will come to Kickstarter very soon, that could be a good choice. A pax game would be good to, Pax Pamir 2ed is a good choice.
By deaux 2026-02-169:54 A lot of the so far mentioned games, while great, aren't that cheap or portable.
I really recommend trying a trick-taking game! Skull King, Fox in the Forest, Tichu. Easy to learn, impossible to master.
By gessha 2026-02-1613:10 Sushi Go is fun and compact. Dominion if you have friends that like to optimize. Uno is a good one for the road. Even a regular deck of cards is great once you learn a few samples games.
+1 to pavel_lishin's Splendor suggestion. There's also Splendour: Duel [1] which is a more complex version of the game designed for 2 players.
Another quick, low-complexity game that is easy to teach & pretty good fun is Century: Spice Road [2]
Chinatown [3] (re-themed as Waterfall Park [3b] ) is a simple highly interactive game that is basically 100% negotiations between players who are trying to make real estate deals with each other. Can be played in 90 minutes, including rules explanation, plays up to 5. For a more complex asymmetric game that's more focused on engine building, with a healthy dose of negotiation, check out Sidereal Confluence [4].
For more complex games that take a bit longer to play to teach and play, that are largely focused on players doing their own thing ("multiplayer solitaire"), building their engines without much negative player interaction, check out Ark Nova [5] or Terraforming Mars [6]. These might take 3-4 hours or so to finish, provided there's an experienced player to teach everyone the rules.
For another moderately complex strategy game with a little more player interaction, check out Brass: Birmingham [7]. Takes around 4.5 hours to finish a 4 player game, including the rules explanation. If you have a group that enjoys complex strategy games and wants something with spikier negative player interactions, where one player's actions can completely wreck another player's plans, check out Barrage [8].
This probably doesn't help "without spending much money"! One trick is to find or create a regular board gaming group where everyone brings along different games. That way if, everyone buys a new game or two every year there's a lot of variety without everyone needing to buy heaps of games.
[1] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/364073/splendor-duel
[2] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/209685/century-spice-roa...
[3] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/47/chinatown
[3b] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/396618/waterfall-park
[4] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/202426/sidereal-confluen...
[5] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/342942/ark-nova
[6] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/167791/terraforming-mars
[7] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/224517/brass-birmingham
This is the kind of positivity that I love finding find once going down the rabbit hole of board games today.
So make amazing suggestions in this list, including two of my favorites: Terraforming Mars and Brass Birmingham.
Just chiming an opinion that Brass Birmingham is high on the complexity scale for beginner board gamers. Or more specifically, high on a frustration scale because there are so many placement restrictions that there are often only 1-2 legal moves to play and figuring out what they are is quite a challenge for people playing the first time. (From experience that we as well as several others we know had on their respective first times)
That said, I absolutely love the game!
By shoo 2026-02-165:46 > Brass Birmingham [...] there are often only 1-2 legal moves to play and figuring out what they are is quite a challenge for people playing the first time.
Also, some of those legal moves will set up a board state that the player taking a turn immediately after you can exploit for a lot more benefit than you got, so not only are the legal builds hard to identify for new players, half of those legal moves are also traps! If new players aren't comfortable learning the hard way, the player who is teaching the game can always call these out, explain what is going to happen & give people the opportunity to redo their move.
An alternative strategy game that is less complex than Brass is Friedemann Friese's classic Power Grid (2004) [1]. It has some of the same elements (network expansion, building stuff to make money) and parts of it are highly interactive (auctions!) but it is less complex and doesn't feature so many negative player interactions. The main down side of Power Grid is that some of the "admin" rules are pretty fiddly, but provided there is an experienced player to teach the game & be responsible for the admin, players who are learning don't need to care about the details.
By aaronblohowiak 2026-02-166:01 carcassonne!
> I enjoy solo board gaming—largely because I haven’t fully converted my family yet—but nothing compares to a game night.
I’m just going to get this off my chest here because I think a lot of “board game people” might not really understand why their enthusiasm doesn’t catch on with a lot of people
I know a decent number of board game “enthusiasts” that will pull out a fancy new game to show off, and spend a couple of hours setting it up and explaining the rules to everyone…
And then the next game night its the same thing. Check out this great new game! Let’s set it up and let’s all learn a new set of cards and board.
This happens so often to me. These people never want to actually _play_ a game, or at least they can’t get over their obsession to buy new games that I rarely end up playing a game that I just learned the rules to. Next night it’s a new game!
It’s exhausting and honestly I tend to avoid board game nights now. And I like games!
I had so much fun playing dominoes or simple card games with my friends before board gaming got huge. Because the point was not the actual game, but the time spent with my friends.
By jakespencer 2026-02-163:521 reply As a 20 year “board game person “ I understand what you’re talking about. Many people like playing games, but most “board game people” like learning games. I love playing games and have many games I have played dozens of times (or hundreds if you count digital plays), but an equally enjoyable part of the hobby for me is learning new games. Learning a new game and trying to hold the interlocking systems of rules in my head while trying to deduce optimal strategy is a very enjoyable experience for me. It took me a while (years) to realize how unlike most people I was in this respect. Many people were excited when we first played Settlers of Catan and then Ticket to Ride, so I thought they had the same feelings about learning new games that I did. But ultimately I think they were happy with one or two games and then found the thought of learning new games unpleasant. Whereas I have never grown tired of learning new games.
By bombcar 2026-02-164:00 The group of people who read the instruction manual for video games, and then the hint guide, and then played a bit - these people love new board games.
And you can sometimes get a group of them and try a new game each time!
But the average person just wants to play the same game each week for fun - we used to do things like this with cards (poker, bridge, cribbage).
By pavel_lishin 2026-02-163:50 > These people never want to actually _play_ a game, or at least they can’t get over their obsession to buy new games
I get what you're saying, but I'm a wanna-be board game person. I do want to try those games! To me, it's like going to a different restaurant every time you go out.
Sure, the point is the time spent, but it doesn't mean that we should go to McDonald's every time.
(I say I'm a wanna-be, because I don't have enough of a combination of friends and time to do this, and crucially, those friends also have to be willing to sit down and probably play one round of a new game after spending just as much time learning the rules. But board game nights with new games do happen - we just all know to pick games that at least one person already knows the rules to, or whose rules are short enough to pick up quickly, or whose gameplay goes quickly enough to get multiple rounds in after learning the rules.)
By jader201 2026-02-164:04 As someone that hosts and co-hosts several game nights (once or twice a week, most weeks), the key is to try to feel out the group, and if necessary/helpful/desired, send out "how to play" videos in advance (if they prefer learning that way vs. live).
But yeah, see if the group wants to learn a new one vs. playing one they already know.
When I set up games for my coworker group, I always send out new options along with a number of games we've already played, and let them pick. (More times than not, they pick a new game.)
When I host games with my family, I always bring a bunch of games, both new and already played, and let them pick (these are usually much lighter [easier] games). I'll sometimes suggest a new game if I think they'll like it, and they usually do. The key is to get to know what the group typically enjoys.
By Fire-Dragon-DoL 2026-02-164:521 reply I am into board game and was into complex game because I thought they were more fun to play. Then playing a bunch of Spiel games, where the rulebook is 2 pages and the setup time is 5 minutes, I changed my mind entirely. I now refuse to buy complex games. I want little rules with a lot of depth.
There are many of them, every match is intense and yet you can explain the rules in a few minutes.
What does a Spiel game refer to?
If you want the ultimate depth:ruleset ratio, come learn Go :) Every game is so different and exciting
By Fire-Dragon-DoL 2026-02-169:26 Spiel Des Jahres is a prize they give every year to a bunch of board games. Don't look at very old board games, but some of the modern ones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiel_des_Jahres
As for Go, I was tempted, but it's also very abstract, I do like some kind of theme in my board games.
A board game well integrated with the theme gives great vibes.
Some of the games great from there: - Sky Team, discovered right there on the wikipedia page: for 2 players, me and my wife spent countless hours on it. Very simple rules yet so damn fun - Azul up to 4, simple rules and a lot of depths. Place tiles on a board while stealing from others the stuff they want to use - Kingdomino is so simple yet choosing the piece (some form of draft) requires thinking ahead so many turns! - Dominion is still a great game: deck builder with simple rules. Didn't think that was possible? It is!
A lot of the children games are also great (this is for families with kids)
Some nominated are also great, even if they didn't win
By kombookcha 2026-02-169:22 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) is a boardgame award that notably favors family-friendly accessibility. If you're seeing the award on the box, you can be confident that even if the strategy can potentially get really deep, you can still break this out to have a fun time with both grandma and your 12 year old cousin.
I love boardgames too and could wax lyrical about them for ages. Sucks that this article was clearly written by AI.
By gwern 2026-02-166:56 Yep: "The tower itself isn’t just a gimmick; it’s a physical presence that creates tension and anticipation the moment it hits the table. Add the Dark Horde expansion and suddenly the game isn’t just something you play—it’s something you engage with." 100% in Pangram, BTW.
But there's enough biographical details and concrete facts that I think he at least wrote the outline before having ChatGPT rewrite it.
Man I suffer from this recently. Everything I read feels AI written but because it’s just a guess I get into this loop of questioning myself and then the whole read is ruined for me.
I hate it so much.
By Nition 2026-02-169:09 So much is AI written now. I can only hope that more people start to notice and react negatively so that others will be discouraged from doing it. People are using ChatGPT to write the most ridiculous things for them, sometimes only a few sentences!
By barbs 2026-02-166:23 For me, the emdashes and the constant use of "it's not just [X], it's [hyperbolic Y]" gives it away.
By bspammer 2026-02-167:43 This has happened to me so much recently that it’s actually pushing me towards reading proper books. I’m so sick of everything sounding the same.
By fragmede 2026-02-166:04 Was this written by a human?
