Category Archives: News

We Play “Second Generation Games”

The BBC really seems to have picked up on boardgaming recently:  in January, BBC Breakfast reported a rise in game sales over the Christmas period and now You and Yours on BBC Radio 4 are getting in on the act.  The report interviewed Joe Jaques (from Jaques of London) and Steve Buckmaster (from Esdevium Games).  It is a nice article that explains the rise of “Second Generation Games” including Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride and discusses their origin and how many of these games have iOS versions that have led to increased interest in the real thing.  The 5 minute article starts 22 minutes and 45 seconds into the program and is available from the BBC website.  There is also an online write up in the business section of the BBC Website.

BBC Radio 4

Cat in Monopoly Box

Monopoly is always being updated and new versions released.  For example, last year Winning Moves/Bletchley Park announced that a special edition to commemorate the life of Alan Turing was to be released. In this edition, the board’s London landmarks, and its Community and Chance cards, have been swapped for places and events important in Turing’s life and players can move their pieces from his birthplace in Maida Vale to Hut 8 at Bletchley Park.  Alan Turing is undoubtedly one of technology’s heroes — a mathematician and codebreaker who laid the foundation for today’s computing age, and 2012 was the 100th anniversary of his birth, but what is the connection with Monopoly? 

Turing Monopoly
– Image of unknown origin

Well, it turns out that he once played a hand made copy made by William Newman (the son of his mentor Max Newman).  According to the booklet that comes with the set, “One afternoon the Newman household phone rang, with Turing on the other end, asking to speak with William. ‘Did he have a Monopoly board?’ Alan asked, and on hearing that he did, raced round. Turing’s mind was fascinated with codes, and there have long been suggestions he thought there were code-based tactics to playing Monopoly to ensure success. Alas, the hand drawn nature of William’s board (not to mention the unique diagonal straight and ‘turn around’ square) proved otherwise, and the great mathematician was beaten.“

CAT-an!
– Image by boardGOATS

The connection between Alan Turing and Monopoly may seem tenuous, but in contrast, the way cats have a penchant for sitting in game boxes is well known to all gamer-cat-owners – there is even a game called “The Settlers of CATan”!  Thus, it should come as no surprise that, following a month long poll by Hasbro, the cat has beaten off competition from a robot, a helicopter, a diamond ring and a guitar.  The new cat design received 31% of the total vote and will replace the iron in the next edition which will be released later this year.

So now every Monopoly box will come with its own cat!

Monopoly Cat Token
– Image of unknown origin

OxCon and Big DoG

This weekend is OxCon.  OxCon is a weekend of gaming held every January in The Mitre pub in Oxford.  It has almost mythical status within since publicity is almost entirely by word of mouth and often quite last minute.

This year, in addition to the usual thread on BoardGameGeek, there is also a mention in the latest Queen’s Lane Advertiser (QLA-42, page 8) and a FaceBook page.  Not sure how many of the GOATS will make it, that will depend on weather (currently snow-chance) and family commitments, but it should be a good event with Puerto Rico and Settlers of Catan tournaments for the more competitive.

The Mitre, Oxford

In a couple of weekends time (2nd February to be exact – check out the calendar), is the Big DoG – a Day of Games hosted by the Oxford Meeples at Wolvercote Village Hall.  Just to the north of Oxford situated close to the A40 and A34, this looks to be a well cited event, and the list of proposed games looks enticing.  However, whether or not (m)any GOATS are there, will again depend on other commitments.

A Big Dog

Boardgames in the News

According to BBC Breakfast, retailers have reported a rise in game sales over the Christmas period with John Lewis quoted as reporting a 12% increase. Jaques of London, who claim to be the oldest games manufacturer in the world (they were established in 1795), say sales are rising much faster than that with traditional and boardgame sales rising by 32% for November this year compared with the same period in 2011.

BBC Report 31/12/12

Essen 2012

Essen is a small city in the industrial heartland on the River Ruhr.  One of the less well known German cities, people are often surprised that it features in so many games.

Pandemic

The reason for this is a sort of in-joke:  Essen is the home of the largest games fair in Europe and, arguably, the world, The Internationale Spieltage.  Known by gamers simply as “Essen”, it runs for four days in October every year (18th-21st October 2012) and everyone who is anyone goes.

As well as all the major (and most of the minor) publishers, game designers and game illustrators, there are also thousands of people from all over the world who simply like playing board games.  In 2012, there are nearly 750 exhibitors who will be selling and demonstrating their latest offerings to the nearly 147,000 visitors.

This year no-one from boardGOATS will be going, however, you can get a flavour of the event and an idea of some of the latest games by watching the live feed from the BoardGameGeek booth.

Here are some more games that feature Essen, can you recognise the games they are from?

Ticket to Ride: Europe

Railways of Europe

Paths of Glory

Planning Stages

So, after a lot of deliberation and many trips to the Jockey for a quick card game and a drink (which no doubt started a lot of gossip), we have a “day”, we have a venue, and we have a name, so then we got a website – and this is it.  As the name suggests, we are going to meet on alternate Tuesdays in Stanford at the Horse and Jockey pub.  The intention is that this website will be a record of the games played as well as a way of publicising meetings, so it is only fair to mention here some of the games we played during the planning stages…!

  • Citadels
  • The Bean Game (Bohnanza)
  • Mr. Jack Pocket
  • Saturn
  • Court of the Medici
  • Jamaica
  • Dixit
  • Die Erbtante
  • Jaipur
  • Hamburgum (or perhaps Londonum?)

Yes, we spent quite a lot of time thinking about it and playing games in the pub!

Oh yes, and we have settled on Tuesday 2nd October for the big day.

The Horse and Jockey Pub