TY - JOUR

T1 - Board Games

AU - Schmidt-Madsen, Jacob

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Board games constitute a category of non-digital games traditionally defined as being played with pieces on a specially arranged surface. The accelerated growth of the hobby games industry since the mid-20th century has challenged the definition and the ways in which board game scholars approach their subject. While studies of traditional board games still tend to focus on questions of identification, classification, transmission and reconstruction, studies of contemporary board games are increasingly informed by the theoretical and analytical underpinnings of digital game studies. This article discusses the history of the term board game and its definition, and tracks changes in scholarly attitudes to board games since their emergence as an independent field of study in the late 19th century.

AB - Board games constitute a category of non-digital games traditionally defined as being played with pieces on a specially arranged surface. The accelerated growth of the hobby games industry since the mid-20th century has challenged the definition and the ways in which board game scholars approach their subject. While studies of traditional board games still tend to focus on questions of identification, classification, transmission and reconstruction, studies of contemporary board games are increasingly informed by the theoretical and analytical underpinnings of digital game studies. This article discusses the history of the term board game and its definition, and tracks changes in scholarly attitudes to board games since their emergence as an independent field of study in the late 19th century.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Board Game Studies

KW - Brettspiel

KW - Ludemes

KW - History of board games

M3 - Journal article

JO - Encyclopedia of Ludic Terms

JF - Encyclopedia of Ludic Terms

ER -