Naturelich Games

Themes, Part 2: Ancient World History and particularly Rome - Is this theme a result of the boardgame industry going global?
In recent years we have also seen many movies dealing with ancient history. In 2004, Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom gave us Troy which deals with Greek history or mythology and not with muscles. Still in 2004, we saw Oliver Stone's Alexander battle (almost) the entire world.

Even more than the fantasy stream, the ancient history theme has been reflected in 2005's boardgames. Fancy some examples? Antike, Das Ende des Triumvirats, Aqua Romana, Conquest of the Empire, Byzantium, Parthenon: Rise of the Aegean , Gloria Mundi, Ostia, Pecunia non olet. And the list could probably go on and on.
Luckily for us gamers, the sub-themes and mechanics are very diverse. Whether you want to build an entire civilzation or a long aqueduct whether you would like to enjoy a decent war campaign or be the owner of a Roman rental toilette. All this is possible with ancient games.

I am asking myself: why has the Ancient (Rome) theme become so popular? Is it only because of a few movies? Why do ancient civilizations make a good game theme? Why can I not be a rental toilette owner on a German highway? Why can I not build medieval water supply lines? Why ancient Rome?
The only answer I could think of is a more general one. Ancient societies are long long gone. What remains are some old ruins. They are distant enough to hurt no one's feelings. The boardgaming industry is moving global. Political correctness is important. A game relating to any of the world wars will not attract the mass market as Mum wouldn't buy it for their children. The same is true for a game where US forces battle Iraq or Vietnam. Or where you have to lead Serbian troops. All those would be politically incorrect. Ancient civilizations are not that flawed. On the contrary, these games teach you some history. As an example, Antike contains a huge booklet with background information on all the ancient personalities who are part of the game (it's not the rulebook!). And that's what Mum wants: to give a present where the kid learns something. Even Aqua Romana can be used didactically to teach your kid something about ancient aqueducts. Plus, the theme is just strong. And the Roman rental toilette sounds far more fascinating and absurd than one from Düsseldorf main station. As a small boy, I was always fascinated by ancient themes and how great these civilizations had become. All this translates into a wonderful theme, strengthened by pop culture.

The Sudoku trend
Sudoku (数独) has become very popular around the globe. I suppose it must have been one of the most favorite topics for Christmas in 2005. Anyone got a Sudoku book as a present? You can find these books and CDs in almost any store (at least in Europe). The game is a lot of fun and has seen many boardgame adaptations. As with any trend coming from Japan to Europe, I would expect the Sudoku hype to last another 6 months. The Tamagotchi-hype did not last too long, and I expect the same to be true for Sudoku. From a boardgaming perspective I do not expect any novelties as all big publishers have put their Sudoku title on the market. Whether it's a good or bad game does not matter so much. The print run will be sold by the name not the game.

Expansions and clones
A continuing trend is to produce expansions to successful games or create spinoff games set in the same universe. What started with the huge success of The Settlers of Catan series, continued over to Carcassonne and has now reached Alhambra and Ticket to Ride (both recent winners of Spiel des Jahres). 2005 has given us Elasund: The First City of Catan, Carcassone: The Discovery (Carcassonne Neues Land), Carcassonne: The Princess & The Dragon, Alhambra: Thief's Turn and Ticket to Ride Europe. This year we have seen spinoff games from a different author than the original one (Carcassonne) or at least a co-production (Alhambra). Alan R. Moon and Klaus Teuber continue to work on their big success games. Whatever one might think about these expansions, they are the bread and butter for the publishers. Bernd Brunnhofer, the head of Hans im Glück Verlag, was interviewed in Spielbox' Carcassonne Almanac. He pointed out that the feedback cards clearly indicate that gamers want more of that game. As an expansion easily sells about 50,000 - 150,000 copies this carries other games which are not as commercially successful (he names Die Macher as an example). Days of Wonder has recently announced to publish three games in 2006. Two regular ones, plus the Ticket to Ride Märklin Edition. In a way, T2R seems to help them to co-finance one more game than their usual annual two publications. I am not sure about definite plans for another Catan Adventure or another Caracssonne clone but I would bet an awful lot of money that we'll see more of expansions to successful games in 2006.
On a sidenote, I believe that expandability might become more and more relevant to game publishers. If a good game is expandable, the publisher can use modern technology to stimulate continuing interest in the game and build a community that buys follow-ups and scenarios. Shannon Applecline has written an interesting article on scenarios on Memoir '44 and I believe that concepts like scenarios or expandability will strengthen in 2006.

The boardgame community - Forums, News sites, Blogs and Vlogs
The online boardgame community evolves. Boardgames are not on TV, they are not on radio and they are not in the paper (at least not as regularly as you might want them to be). Some specialized magazines exist but these are published only monthly or bi-monthly. These days information needs to be more up-to-date. As a result, the internet is the *only* viable and up-to-date source of information for gamers. Many forums and news sites have popped up in recognition of this trend. 2005 has seen the rise of Rick Thornquist's Boardgamenews and the fall of Greg Aleknevicus' The Games Journal. Both are (have been) excellent sources of information and I wish The Games Journal would be re-vitalized somehow.

The BoardGameGeek is around for a long long time and has become a great influence on the market. What started as a forum has become one of the most frequented boardgame sites. Aldie and Derk have tried to convert this popularity commercially by starting to host their convention BGG.con.

But it is not only forums and news sites which became popular. In 2005, the boardgaming industry has seen the rise of weblogs that are driven by devoted individuals who feel urged to write about their hobbies. Some blogs are around for a couple of years but many new ones have seen their first entry in 2005. For the early adoptors in the market, the blogs have become a prime source of information. The community as a whole builds their opinions based on: magazine reviews, online reviews, blog reviews and session reports as well as BGG evaluations.

The first boardgame podcasts are starting to reach a listenership of more than 500 people. BoardGameSpeak, Boardgames To Go, The Dice Tower and Roll2D6 are some popular examples.

Very recently, the first boardgame video pdocast / vlog has appeared. It is called Board Games with Scott. As Scott points out, he has to work out some technical issues but if he is the enthusiast I suspect he is, then he will reach greater perfection soon. I presume these technical issues needed to be worked out for the first podcasts but all of them have reached an excellent sound quality at the end of 2005. Maybe in 2006 we will also see more vodcasts (I hope!).

The "Caylus effect"
The days of huge games fairs (Essen, Nuremberg, etc.) are not over. But they are supplemented by a strong online community voice. Whether a game becomes a buy or a no-buy is strongly influenced by the first two RSS feeds a Geek reads. The prime example for this is Caylus. This game is published by Ystari, a very small company with only two titles. As far as I followed the online discussion Caylus received a phenomenal review and recommendation by Rick Thornquist on Gamefest's Gamewire before Essen 2005. Here is the original quote:

"After three plays I'd say the verdict is in - I think this is a great game. I haven't been this excited about a game in a while. Right after I play the game I want to play it again. I've played it three times and was engrossed throughout the games. The reviews from almost all of the other players were very positive as well."

This message was strenghtened and repeated on other channels (BGG, Ystari forum, Blogs, Podcasts). During the fair, the game sold out quickly and the hardcore community played the game at the booth. Caylus got voted best game at Essen 2005 at the Fairplay magazine booth. After Essen 2005, Caylus got voted as the second best game *ever* on BGG by the community. A second print run is on the way. I have subscribed to receive a Geekmail if a new Caylus article is published. Not a single day has passed since Essen without a Caylus-related update in my Geek-inbox.

The Caylus-case clearly shows that forums, blogs and the online discussion in general can make a substantial difference on popularity and sales of a game. A real online-hype has been created around the game. We have seen this happening before: The Lord of the Rings discussion was extremely popular online. Video games can sometimes cause pre-release anxiety. In 2006 and the years to come, game publishers will have to learn how to influence the online community to boost their sales. Days of Wonder is doing a great job with their Ticket to Ride online games and online community as well as with their Memoir '44 site. Catan and Klaus Teuber do it equally well. Hans im Glück is not spending too much money on their web presence, so Carcassonne is still a little bit disappointing. Maybe they could have done more. Amigo has shown us how to create pre-release awareness by letting us participate in the game creation process of Royal Advancement. Even the final game title was determined by the online community: it will be Um Krone und Kragen. I think this is a very good example of how online awareness can be created for a boardgame. In the future, a game that wants to be successful (in the long run) requires a decent online-marketing budget and an excellent reception in the community.