Everybody Wins: Modern Board Game History

“We live for books. A sweet mission in this world dominated by disorder and decay.”

– Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

As I get older and our society stumbles through the Internet Age I’m acutely aware of the ephemeral nature of anything I find on the web. Online resources about the history of the adventure gaming hobby and the companies and people who produce our favorite game-related entertainment come and go. Bookmarked sites I used to rely on vanish without a trace. People move on from their website projects, which languish without updates or fade without support for a hosting service. While people can update and expand information on the internet, none of it matters if it eventually disappears. Print books, however outdated, still offer us a more permanent resources. Books about the adventure gaming hobby provide a snapshot of the state of affairs at the particular moment of publication. So I’m delighted when I see a volume like James Wallis’ Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made documenting notable board games in the context of the prestigious German Spiel des Jahres award.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

I recently discovered a resource of adventure gaming historiography at the regional used bookstore that – besides providing an interesting and critical glimpse into the state of the hobby in 1980 – struck me by its relative lack of acknowledgment to individual game designers for their creations. I’m thankful that over the hobby’s more than 40 year history giving designers their due credit has become more the rule rather than the exception in today’s hobby gaming community.

Every few months I make a pilgrimage to the regional used bookstore with some (often futile) hope I’ll find a few books or even games catering to my varied interests at affordable prices. In the past few years the store has thankfully included a section for used games, ranging from vapid party games and kids fare to hardcore chit-and-board wargames and Eurogames. I also check out the hobby gaming shelves to look for adventures and supplements for games I’ve enjoyed in the past, newer fare to help me explore more recent games, and books about gaming in general. Alas, most of the choice roleplaying or wargame books and most of the interesting boxed games come with prices more suitable for exclusive collectors on ebay than average people browsing the shelves in used bookstores. I chuckle sadly to myself when I see a “Free RPG Day” release marked at $10.

Dictionary of Adventure Gaming Biography

Way back in my high school days I frequently took refuge in the library. During the occasional free period each week (after suffering through mandatory “study hall” as a freshman) I’d hang out in the library using the now-extinct card catalog to research interesting subjects (mostly geared toward my Dungeons & Dragons hobby), browsing for science fiction to read (not much at the time), and even trying out new game designs with friends in the group study area (until a British librarian kicked us out for “gambling” because we were using six-sided dice...).

The school library had a full set of the Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) which, as part of various English class projects, we occasionally consulted. I was delighted to find a volume covering fantasy and science fiction authors, many of whom had captured my imagination. While the articles didn’t help my academic pursuits, they showed me how various authors got their start and the scope of their literary accomplishments. My college library also had a set of the DLB which I occasionally consulted when seeking refuge among the labyrinthine stacks. The DLB still exists today, possibly as a relic in some libraries, but more prominently as a website accessible through paid subscription. While one might consult Wikipedia and other online repositories of group-contributed knowledge, the old DLB still holds authority (at least for me) with edited, well-researched materials under a tried-and-true brand.

Playing at the World: An Essential Gaming History

I’ve finally finished reading the almost 700-page dissertation-sized masterpiece Playing at the World, Jon Peterson’s expansive examination of the earliest days of roleplaying games – centered on Dungeons & Dragons – and the long history of varied elements that coalesced in the 1960s and 1970s to enable its creation and sustain its popularity. The book stands as perhaps the most comprehensive, scholarly history of the birth of roleplaying games. If you’re interested in the background behind the roleplaying game hobby in its formative years, I highly recommend you read Playing at the World.

That said, this tome and its all-encompassing stroll through gaming history isn’t for everyone. It’s an amazingly comprehensive work, complete with a detailed table of contents, long list of sources, and helpful index. The subject matter at times might seem tedious, particularly when it explores issues that might not engage some roleplaying gamers’ interests, such as the early history of German Kriegsspiele and wargames in general, the various fiction genres that inspired game designers, the imaginative endeavors of sci-fi fandom, and the origins and development of various roleplaying game mechanics. Some readers might not care for the numerous footnotes scattered across nearly every page; but I found in them interesting tangents, coincidental bits of information, and overall tertiary details enhancing the historical narrative. Peterson sometimes encourages readers to skip the deeper analysis he offers to reach more appealing subjects, though slogging through more difficult portions provides an appreciation for the numerous element that helped D&D and the fledgling roleplaying game hobby emerge.