Board Games as Media Board Games as Media Paul Booth BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Inc 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in the United States of America 2021 Copyright © Paul Booth, 2021 For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on p. x constitute an extension of this copyright page. Cover design by Namkwan Cho Cover image © Shutterstock.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Inc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. ISBN: HB: 978-1-5013-5716-9 PB: 978-1-5013-5717-6 ePDF: 978-1-5013-5719-0 eBook: 978-1-5013-5718-3 Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. To the good sports, the happy losers, the magnanimous victors; To the laughers, the food orderers, the rules pedants; To the play- my-tu rn-wh ile-I -make -the- coffe e’ers ; To the board gamers. And to Brendan Riley, the best of them all. Contents List of Illustrations viii Acknowledgments x Introduction: Board Games as Media 1 Part One Textual Analysis 1 Meeples, Miniatures, and Cubes: Ludo-Textual Analyses of Board Games 17 2 A Depressing Choose-Your-Own Adventure: The Interactive Potentiality of Board Games 38 3 Colonizing Mars: Ludic Discourse Analysis 58 4 The Designer as Créateur: The Board Game Industry and Constructed Authorship 77 5 The Player as Fan: Ludic Fandom in Board Game Cultures 101 Part Two Ethnographic Analysis 6 Surveying Board Game Players: Who Plays What . . . 119 7 . . . and Why: Examining Motivations and Popularity of Board Games 145 8 Cultural Studies of Games: Diversity and Inclusion in the Board Game Industry and Hobby 167 9 The Epic Adventure of Grundy and Trixie: An Autoethnographic Journey through Gloomhaven 192 Conclusion: The Board Gaming Environment 215 Appendix 1: Survey Questions 227 Appendix 2: Data from Survey 232 Notes 244 References 263 Index 277 Illustrations Figures All photos taken by the author, unless otherwise noted. 1.1 Mech in 1920s Scythe, art by Jakob Rozalski, Scythe game by Jamey Stegmaier. Used with permission 26 1.2 Crimean mechs in Scythe 27 1.3 Characters from Scythe—l to r, Zehra and Kar (Crimean Khanate), Gunter von Duisburg with Nacht (Saxony Empire), Olga Romanova and Changa (Rusviet Union), Connor and Max (Clan Albion), Anna and Wojtek (Polania Republic), Akiko and Jiro (Togawa Shogunate), Bjorn and Mox (Nordic Kingdom) 28 1.4 Jonathan Schwartz, the hardest-working Medic in Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 35 2.1 Three characters in This War of Mine scavenge to find medicine 50 2.2 Clear and partial memory of Billy Kerr 54 3.1 The Hub, First Martians 66 3.2 Health actions slot in Martians 70 4.1 Laukat’s people and animals, from (top to bottom) Empires of the Void II, The Ancient World 2e, Above and Below, City of Iron 84 4.2 Three games, three themes, three styles, three aesthetics; same crafter. Image created by author 92 4.3 Partial list of board game companies owned by Asmodee. Image by Asmodee 96 6.1 Age of participants. Qualtrics graph 126 6.2 Gender identity of participants. Qualtrics graph 127 6.3 How do you participate in board games? Qualtrics graph 132 6.4 Digital apps. Qualtrics graph 135 6.5 What style of game do you prefer? Qualtrics graph 136 6.6 What mechanisms of game play do you prefer? Qualtrics graph 138 7.1 Top fifteen categories for “What motivates you to play games.” Nvivo graph 150 Illustrations ix 7.2 Top fifteen categories for “Why are games popular today?” Nvivo graph 159 9.1 My board game motivation profile. Quantric foundry 198 9.2 Trixie and Grundy after their victory 211 Tables 6.1 Age Data, Favorites Question 124 6.2 Race/Ethnicity, Other Answers 128 6.3 Countries Represented in Survey 129 6.4 Ten Most Popular Gateway Games 131 6.5 Types of Board Game Participation 133 6.6 Preference for Types of Games 137 6.7 Preference for Game Mechanics 138 6.8 Favorite Parts of Games 142 7.1 All Answers for “What Motivates You to Play Games?” 151 7.2 Common Themes Described as “An Ideal Experience Playing Games” 155 7.3 All Categories for “Why Are Games Popular Today?” 160