GREAT INDOORS // GAME CLUB
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26 GREAT INDOORS
For the love of games Taking board games to a new level
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uck has nothing to do with it. At the age of 20, Catrin Berghoff built her first tiny Spanish village. Through Alhambra, a Euro-style strategic board game, Berghoff could build a Spanish village, centered around a palace, by buying and trading cards with her fellow players. "I think I connected it with home and Germany," says Berghoff, who played board games with her sister back home in Germany. An avid board-game player, Berghoff decided the playing of games needed a permanent home. "The goal was to play games without having to do all the work," Berghoff says. And with that simple mandate Berghoff, her partner Steve Smith and several students decided POGOB: Players of Games on Boards, would become a regular Sunday occurrence in the Students' Union Building on the University of Alberta campus. That was seven years ago in 2006. Today, the group has over 120 members and is organizing its first board game conference for this spring. Board games come in many varieties, from the primarily luck-based childhood games like CandyLand to the hours, sometimes days-long, warbased games, like Risk, involving extensive set-ups. And while all games involve some elements of luck, the group that came together in 2006 decided its focus would be on the strategic games for adults that have developed and gained in popularity over the last 30 years. Strategic Eurogames like Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan were developed in Germany in the '70s and '80s. Settlers would be the first to gain major popularity to a North American audience. First published in 1995, the game quickly outsold other Eurostyle games and has become the most popular strategy-based board game in North America, selling 15 million copies by 2009. And so for POGOB, Settlers is where things started as well. "In the beginning we were sort of scared we would be overrun by the story-based RPG games," Berghoff says. "They were just better organized." With its long narratives and character-based play, role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons were not what the club was looking for. Theme-based Eurogames allow players to engage in a full game for a couple of hours. "You concentrate on a simple, clear task, and it requires a fair bit of brain power," Berghoff says. "It's an escape." Having lived in several different cities, Berghoff says the strategic games are a good way to interact and meet new people, but with little social pressure. "It is a highly social activity, but it's also regulated," Berghoff adds. "You don't always have to be talking. You can ponder things and be silent."
VUEWEEKLY JAN 10 – JAN 16, 2013
And with the Euro-style games, players are rarely eliminated from the play. Balancing mechanisms, such as scoring at the end of the game, are often built in to the games to keep things competitive until the end. That balance, and the structure of the group, lends to the pressure-free environment that has allowed the group to continue for seven years. But now, it seems Berghoff is ready to take the group to another level. This March POGOB will host the first—at least, that Berghoff knows of—board game conference in Edmonton. "There's a strong gaming community here," says Berghoff, pointing out POGOB isn't even the biggest gaming club on Meetup.com. "We figured that it would sustain a conference." Based around Calgary's FallCon, which Berghoff and Smith have attended every year they've lived in Edmonton, the conference will focus on the basics: people playing games on boards. "The one in Calgary, it's not a commercial conference. It's just a giant room and a bunch of nerds playing games all weekend," Berghoff notes. Berghoff says she's done her research on hosting a board game conference, looking to FallCon for advice and to St Albert's Mission: Fun and Games store. But the conference, called GOBFest, won't focus on merchants or selling of games, just the playing and the discussing of strategy, chance, design, and, as the website states, "a day where nobody yells 'Oh, like Monopoly!' when you say 'I like to play board games.'" Berghoff is organizing a forum for game designers, most of them local, and she's hopeful the conference will be an opportunity to discuss the finer points of gaming, but she's also adamant the conference, like POGOB, will remain open to the newbies. "I'd say 80 percent of the time POGOB has players who have never played a certain game before, so we always explain the game first," she adds. Calgary's FallCon attracts over 400 people, but Berghoff would be happy to fill the hall with over 100 for the first conference. And although people will be playing competitively, it's also an opportunity—just like every Sunday is—to switch off the daily worries and join together with friends to concentrate on the construction of your own Spanish village. SAMANTHA POWER
// SAMANTHA@VUEWEEKLY.COM
Gobfest
Sat, Mar 30 Parkview Community Hall, $15 Gobfest.ca
POGOB meetup
Sundays (2 pm) Students' Union Building, free meetup.com/POGOBEdmonton/
KNOW YOUR GAMES Eurogames Developed in Germany, Eurogames started in the '60s with a game called Acquire, which focused on the acquisition of hotel chains. The primary feature of the games is the focus on strategy rather than luck. Themes are focused on economics or the building of cities and villages, and are often historical. Eurogames are developed for two to six players and are open to new players. Games are developed to be understood and played in a couple of hours, making them ideal for social gatherings. The mechanics of the games often involve dice throwing and cards, but use balancing mechanisms to ensure competitiveness throughout the game, and players are rarely eliminated before game play ends. Popular examples: Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico.
Abstract strategy games Do not rely on a theme, but focus on strategy. Most are two player games, or teams taking alternating turns. A strict definition of abstract games eliminates the use of random or hidden information, but many games falling under this category do promote random starting positions of players. Popular examples: Chess, Go, Shogi.
Wargames Centered around a historical war subject such as the Second World War, the Cold War or specific battles such as the Battle of Gettysburg, wargames are often complex situational strategic games. Tactics, created by Avalon Hill in 1954, popularized the wargame genre. Wargames peaked in popularity in the '70s. Wargames traditionally come in three styles. Hex and counter games set up a hexagonal structure on map where players conduct and counter attacks. Block wargames are defined by the use of wooden tiles, which hide the strength values until combat occurs. Card-driven wargames are driven by a deck of cards which determine player action. Popular examples: Axis and Allies, Tactics, Gettysburg.
Role-playing games Players assume the role of a character which operates in a theme-based narrative. Decisions by characters are often structured and involve a formal system of rules. The emphasis is on character development. Games are often conducted as a radio drama, with a narrator who focuses the games and ensures rules are followed. Role-playing games with a fantasy element became popular in the '70s, with Dungeons and Dragons becoming the first commercially available game in 1974. Popular examples: Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Traveller. SAMANTHA POWER
// SAMANTHA@VUEWEEKLY.COM