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61-458: The Space Gamer was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games . It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. The magazine is no longer published, but the rights holders maintain a web presence using its final title Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer . The Space Gamer ( TSG ) started out as

122-471: A digest quarterly publication of the brand new Metagaming Concepts company in March 1975. Howard M. Thompson , the owner of Metagaming and the first editor of the magazine, stated "The magazine had been planned for after our third or fourth game but circumstances demand we do it now" (after their first game, Stellar Conquest ). Initial issues were in a plain-paper digest format. By issue 17, it had grown to

183-414: A full size bimonthly magazine, printed on slick paper. When Steve Jackson departed Metagaming to found his own company, he also secured the right to publish The Space Gamer from number 27 on. In the first Steve Jackson Games (SJG) issue, Howard Thompson wrote a report on Metagaming and stated "Metagaming's staff won't miss the effort. After the change in ownership, Metagaming feels comfortable with

244-462: A games inventor said when interviewed about his game, The Great Train Robbery : With crime you deal with every basic human emotion and also have enough elements to combine action with melodrama. The player's imagination is fired as they plan to rob the train. Because of the gamble, they take in the early stage of the game there is a build-up of tension, which is immediately released once the train

305-524: A board), but some games use a modular board whose component tiles or cards can assume varying layouts from one session to another, or even during gameplay (ex. Betrayal at House on the Hill or Descent: Journeys in the Dark ). Some games have no limits on board (map) building and expansion and may be realistically only limited by a playing surface or availability of game pieces, and each game play can result in

366-650: A creation of a unique game board. In particular wargames such as Star Wars: X- Wing Miniatures Game or Warhammer 40,000 can be played on surfaces such as tables, maps or three-dimensional dioramas . Some innovative games have used storybook pages as gameplay maps (ex. Mice and Mystics ) or pop-up book mechanic. Some games can feature map reduction (shrinkage) as game progresses, or deformation (mechanics where parts of game board may shift, rotate or otherwise move). Some games feature boards that are double-sided and flappable. Legacy games like SeaFall allow permanent customization of game boards through

427-577: A dice game such as Ludo , by giving each player the choice of rolling the dice or using the previous player's roll. Another important aspect of some games is diplomacy, that is, players, making deals with one another. Negotiation generally features only in games with three or more players, cooperative games being the exception. An important facet of Catan , for example, is convincing players to trade with you rather than with opponents. In Risk , two or more players may team up against others. Easy diplomacy involves convincing other players that someone else

488-445: A game belongs to several categories. The namesake of the board game, gameboards would seem to be a necessary and sufficient condition of the genre , though card games that do not use a standard deck of cards (as well as games that use neither cards nor a gameboard) are often colloquially included, with some scholars therefore referring to said genre as that of "table and board games" or " tabletop games ", or seeing board games as

549-479: A game piece. Playing board games has also been tied to improving children's executive functions and help reduce risks of dementia for the elderly. Related to this is a growing academic interest in the topic of game accessibility, culminating in the development of guidelines for assessing the accessibility of modern tabletop games and the extent to which they are playable for people with disabilities. Additionally, board games can be therapeutic. Bruce Halpenny ,

610-766: A player moves their token, as in Monopoly , to how their forces fare in battle, as in Risk , or which resources a player gains, as in Catan . Other games such as Sorry! use a deck of special cards that, when shuffled, create randomness. Scrabble does something similar with randomly picked letters. Other games use spinners, timers of random length, or other sources of randomness. German-style board games are notable for often having fewer elements of luck than many North American board games. Luck may be reduced in favour of skill by introducing symmetry between players. For example, in

671-404: A pre-marked game board (playing surface) and often include elements of table , card , role-playing , and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a competition between two or more players. To give a few examples: in checkers (British English name 'draughts'), a player wins by capturing all opposing pieces, while Eurogames often end with a calculation of final scores. Pandemic

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732-569: A proto-calculator). The next generation of artifacts more universally acknowledged as game boards, also more complex than the possible mancala-styled boards, are dated to the Early Bronze Age period around the Mediterranean and include those for Egyptian senet and mehen from ~3000 - 2000 BCE and similar ones from Mesopotamia ( Fertile Crescent region). The Royal Game of Ur from c. 2500 BCE has often been called one of

793-488: A section in their own magazine The VIP of Gaming , but it soon became a separate publication again with the previous numbering and format, but with the name Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer . Space Gamer ceased publication in September 1985. Since that time, it has gone through a number of owners, all keeping the final name, but occasionally restarting the numbering. Eventually, Better Games , now renamed Space Gamer , bought

854-420: A skilled player will win more often. The elements of luck can also make for more excitement at times, and allow for more diverse and multifaceted strategies, as concepts such as expected value and risk management must be considered. Luck may be introduced into a game by several methods. The use of dice of various sorts goes back to the earliest board games . These can decide everything from how many steps

915-416: A subgenre of tabletop games. H. J. R. Murray 's A History of Board Games Other Than Chess (1952) has been called the first attempt to develop a "scheme for the classification of board games". David Parlett 's Oxford History of Board Games (1999) defines four primary categories: race games (where the goal is to be the first to move all one's pieces to the final destination), space games (in which

976-788: Is a cooperative game where players all win or lose as a team, and peg solitaire is a puzzle for one person. There are many varieties of board games. Their representation of real-life situations can range from having no inherent theme, such as checkers , to having a specific theme and narrative, such as Cluedo . Rules can range from the very simple, such as in snakes and ladders ; to deeply complex, as in Advanced Squad Leader . Play components now often include custom figures or shaped counters, and distinctively shaped player pieces commonly known as meeples as well as traditional cards and dice. The time required to learn or master gameplay varies greatly from game to game, but

1037-542: Is a large facet of the market, with $ 233 million raised on Kickstarter in 2020. A 1991 estimate for the global board game market was over $ 1.2 billion. A 2001 estimate for the United States "board games and puzzle" market gave a value of under $ 400 million, and for United Kingdom, of about £50 million. A 2009 estimate for the Korean market was put at 800 million won, and another estimate for

1098-545: Is a list of some of the most common game categories: Although many board games have a jargon all their own, there is a generalized terminology to describe concepts applicable to basic game mechanics and attributes common to nearly all board games. Game board The oldest known game boards may date to Neolithic times, however, some scholars argue these may not have been game boards at all. Early Bronze Age artifacts are more universally recognized as game boards (for games such as Egyptian senet and mehen , and

1159-602: Is a topic closely related to history of board games . However, not all games classified as board games actually feature game boards. While game boards would seem to be a necessary and sufficient condition of the genre , card games that do not use a standard deck of cards (as well as games that use neither cards nor a game board) are often colloquially included, with some scholars therefore referring to said genre as that of "table and board games" or " tabletop games ". Games using random outcome generators ( dice games , today often classified as board games), likely existed before

1220-485: Is hidden from players. This makes finding the best move more difficult and may involve estimating probabilities by the opponents. Many board games are now available as video games. These are aptly termed digital board games, and their distinguishing characteristic compared to traditional board games is they can now be played online against a computer or other players. Some websites (such as boardgamearena.com, yucata.de, etc.) allow play in real time and immediately show

1281-878: Is not necessarily related to the number or complexity of rules; for example, chess or Go possess relatively simple rulesets but have great strategic depth. Classical board games are divided into four categories: race games (such as pachisi ), space games (such as noughts and crosses ), chase games (such as hnefatafl ), and games of displacement (such as chess ). Board games have been played, traveled, and evolved in most cultures and societies throughout history. Several important historical sites, artifacts, and documents shed light on early board games such as Jiroft civilization game boards in Iran. Senet , found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt, c.  3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively,

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1342-415: Is robbed. Release of tension is therapeutic and useful in our society because most jobs are boring and repetitive. Playing games has been suggested as a viable addition to the traditional educational curriculum if the content is appropriate and the gameplay informs students on the curriculum content. There are several ways in which board games can be classified, and considerable overlap may exist, so that

1403-539: Is the oldest board game known to have existed. Senet was pictured in a fresco painting found in Merknera's tomb (3300–2700 BC). Also from predynastic Egypt is mehen . Hounds and jackals , another ancient Egyptian board game, appeared around 2000 BC. The first complete set of this game was discovered from a Theban tomb that dates to the 13th dynasty . This game was also popular in Mesopotamia and

1464-399: Is winning and should therefore be teamed up against. Advanced diplomacy (e.g., in the aptly named game Diplomacy ) consists of making elaborate plans together, with the possibility of betrayal. In perfect information games, such as chess, each player has complete information on the state of the game, but in other games, such as Tigris and Euphrates or Stratego , some information

1525-727: The Caucasus . Backgammon originated in ancient Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago. Ashtapada , chess , pachisi and chaupar originated in India. Go (4th century BC) and liubo (1st century BC) originated in China. The board game Patolli originated in Mesoamerica and was played by a wide range of pre-Columbian cultures such as the Toltecs and the Aztecs . The royal game of Ur

1586-686: The Mesopotamian Royal Game of Ur ). Most ancient board games were race games , utilizing random outcome generators like dice . Game boards evolved in complexity and design, with early examples featuring various shapes before the quadrilateral grid became common for abstract games . They serve as the primary interaction zone for players and can range from simple to highly elaborate, sometimes incorporating three-dimensional or electronic components. Modern board games often illustrated modular or customizable boards, enhancing replay-ability and player engagement. The history of game boards

1647-454: The definite article with the split in Number 64), and Fantasy Gamer ; the former concentrating entirely on science fiction, and the latter on fantasy. This arrangement lasted about a year. Fantasy Gamer ran six issues before being folded back into Space Gamer : You see, we were churning out magazines - Space Gamer , Fantasy Gamer , Fire & Movement , and Autoduel Quarterly - at

1708-400: The "hobby game market" ("the market for those games regardless of whether they're sold in the hobby channel or other channels,") at over $ 700 million. A similar 2015 estimate suggested a hobby game market value of almost $ 900 million. A dedicated field of research into gaming exists, known as game studies or ludology. While there has been a fair amount of scientific research on

1769-402: The 19th century. Board games made in the early 1800s started to feature maps of real locations (ex. Walker's Tour of France from 1815). The 1963 Mouse Trap is recognized as one of the first mass-produced three-dimensional board games. Avalon Hill 's wargame PanzerBlitz from 1970 was the first game to include a geomorphic map which allowed players to reconfigure sections of

1830-600: The American board game market for the same year was at about $ 800 million. A 2011 estimate for the Chinese board game market was at over 10 billion yuan . A 2013 estimate put the size of the German toy market at 2.7 billion euros (out of which the board games and puzzle market is worth about 375 million euros), and Polish markets at 2 billion and 280 million zlotys , respectively. In 2009, Germany

1891-584: The Gaming Acts of 1710 and 1845 . Early board game producers in the second half of the eighteenth century were mapmakers. The global popularization of board games, with special themes and branding, coincided with the formation of the global dominance of the British Empire . John Wallis was an English board game publisher, bookseller, map/chart seller, printseller, music seller, and cartographer . With his sons John Wallis Jr. and Edward Wallis, he

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1952-653: The Middle East, mancala is a popular board game archetype with many regional variations. In India, a community game called Carrom is popular. A popular board game of flicking stones ( Alkkagi ) is popular in South Korea . In the late 1990s, companies began producing more new games to serve a growing worldwide market. In the 2010s, several publications said board games were amid a new Golden Age or "renaissance". Board game venues also grew in popularity; in 2016 alone, more than 5,000 board game cafés opened in

2013-515: The U.S., and they were reported to be very popular in China as well. Board games have been used as a mechanism for science communication . Some games, such as chess, depend completely on player skill, while many children's games such as Candy Land and snakes and ladders require no decisions by the players and are decided purely by luck. Many games require some level of both skill and luck. A player may be hampered by bad luck in backgammon , Monopoly , or Risk ; but over many games,

2074-737: The United States and its sister game Traveller's Tour Through Europe were published by New York City bookseller F. & R. Lockwood in 1822 and claim the distinction of being the first board games published in the United States. Margaret Hofer described the period of the 1880s–1920s as "The Golden Age" of board gaming in America. Board game popularity was boosted, like that of many items, through mass production , which made them cheaper and more easily available. Different traditional board games are popular in Asian and African countries. In China, Go and many variations of chess are popular. In Africa and

2135-625: The ability to anticipate moves, plays an essential role in chess-playing ability. Linearly arranged board games have improved children's spatial numerical understanding. This is because the game is similar to a number line in that they promote a linear understanding of numbers rather than the innate logarithmic one. Research studies show that board games such as Snakes and Ladders result in children showing significant improvements in aspects of basic number skills such as counting, recognizing numbers, numerical estimation, and number comprehension. They also practice fine motor skills each time they grasp

2196-488: The board gaming market is estimated to be smaller than that for video games , it has also experienced significant growth from the late 1990s. A 2012 article in The Guardian described board games as "making a comeback". Other expert sources suggest that board games never went away, and that board games have remained a popular leisure activity which has only grown over time. Another from 2014 gave an estimate that put

2257-410: The board. Some games may be built around game board–centric concepts such as route building or pattern recognition, or the game play can be even focused on adjusting the shape of the game board (ex. Carcassone , in which players build the game board by laying down map tiles ). Most games use a standardized and unchanging board, usually quadrilateral ( chess , go , and backgammon each have such

2318-557: The boards, and the concept of mostly abstract board games was likely too complex for the people of that period. Instead, he suggests those devices were intended for fire making. Very few if any similar objects have been found in the archeological evidence from sites linked to the Neolithic and Bronze Age eras (one artifact dated to c. 3500 BCE and resembling a chess board exists from Tell Majnuna in Syria, although it might have been

2379-1213: The conceptual area where the action of a board game happens (a world, a city, a house, a ship, etc.). Extensions of the game board are sometimes called a side board; they are often used to track points . Some game boards can be quickly improvised using pen and paper or drawn on the ground. Some can be three-dimensional or include props such as landscape elements (volcanos, walls, or such - see for example Mouse Trap or Fireball Island ). Some modern game boards have electrical components (ex. Mall Madness ). Some have both; for example Dark Tower from 1981 had both 3D and electrical components. Most modern game boards are larger than an A4 sheet of paper; some are folded or assembled from smaller components. Game boards can have numerous features, most often color-coded spaces for other game pieces. Common types of game board spaces in modern games include worker spaces (for worker placement mechanic), resource and card spaces (for storing and collecting relevant components) and spawn places (for generating components). Such spaces are tied to game rules and mechanics influencing where pieces can be placed or how they can move. Reaching certain parts of

2440-423: The decision; it was the right thing to do." In the same issue, Steve Jackson announced, " TSG is going monthly   ... from [number 28 (May 1980)] on, it'll be a monthly magazine." The magazine stayed with SJG for the next five years, during which it was at its most popular and influential. In 1983, the magazine was split into two separate bimonthly magazines published in alternating months: Space Gamer (losing

2501-455: The game board but do not necessarily enforce the game's rules, leaving this up to the players. There are generalized programs such as Vassal , Tabletop Simulator and Tabletopia that can be used to play any board or card game, while programs like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds are more specialized for role-playing games. Some of these virtual tabletops have worked with the license holders to allow for use of their game's assets within

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2562-402: The game board or map can be related to winning the game; this is common in games featuring a grid . Game boards that have grids are sometimes called maps, although there are many exceptions ( e.g. , chess or checkers ). Other common elements of game boards include tracks for moving pieces. A common type of track is a victory track for counting score that is often placed around the edge of

2623-451: The game board, an innovation that became reused on many later titles. The game board provides a shared space for the game components and visually communicates some rules to the players. Most interactions between players in a board game take place on the game board, making it the most important zone of play. By drawing player attention to itself, the game board is an important part of the " magic circle " (suspension of reality) created by

2684-401: The game. Game boards have varying level of complexity, abstraction and aesthetics. Some can be very simple (ex. traditional checkered chess board or Pictionary ), others can be very complex, thematic and incorporate numerous pieces of artwork (ex. Shadows over Camelot ). Some game boards have been called "just plain beautiful". A common theme for game boards is a map depicting

2745-459: The growth of the board game market at "between 25% and 40% annually" since 2010, and described the current time as the "golden era for board games". The rise in board game popularity has been attributed to quality improvement (more elegant mechanics , components , artwork, and graphics) as well as increased availability thanks to sales through the Internet. Crowd-sourcing for board games

2806-424: The invention of board games featuring actual game boards. The oldest known game boards were made from stone (game boards made from less durable materials might have existed as well but have not survived until the modern era). Understanding of ancient board games is difficult, as artifacts from such time are often incomplete (smaller accompanying pieces are rarely found), and lack accompanying rules; in many cases even

2867-604: The magazine, and has kept the title alive by reinventing it through the internet. In 2010 Steve Jackson Games started republishing back issues in PDF format. The Space Gamer won the 1977 Charles S. Roberts Award for Best Semiprofessional Magazine . The Space Gamer was awarded the Origins Award for "Best Professional Roleplaying Magazine of 1982". Board games Board games are tabletop games that typically use pieces . These pieces are moved or placed on

2928-474: The object is to arrange the pieces into some special configuration), chase games (asymmetrical games, where players start the game with different sets of pieces and objectives) and displace games (where the main objective is the capture the opponents' pieces). Parlett also distinguishes between abstract and thematic games, the latter having a specific theme or frame narrative (ex. regular chess versus, for example, Star Wars -themed chess). The following

2989-556: The oldest board games. Fragments of game boards for unidentified board games, made from terracotta and stone, have also been found at sites related to the Indus Valley Civilization of similar age. Depaulis argues that most if not all board games from that era were race games , which he defines as "board games played with a random generator – dice of all kinds", and which feature a linear if bent "race track" on which game pieces have to move (race) from one end to

3050-467: The opponents' moves, while others use email to notify the players after each move. The Internet and cheaper home printing has also influenced board games via print-and-play games that may be purchased and printed. Some games use external media such as audio cassettes or DVDs in accompaniment to the game. There are also virtual tabletop programs that allow online players to play a variety of existing and new board games through tools needed to manipulate

3111-601: The original name of the game has been lost to time. According to Gary O. Rollefson and St John Simpson , the oldest known game boards date to Neolithic dwellings as old as ~6990 BCE ( Beidha ) and ~5870 BCE ( ʿAin Ghazal ). They were made from durable materials like limestone , and are likely related to mancala -style games. Thierry Depaulis has however criticized description of these artifacts as game boards, arguing that they look unpractical for that purpose, no expected gaming pieces nor dice were found to accompany

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3172-404: The origins of chess date from the beginning of the seventh century. Early game boards came in a variety of shapes (for example, senet's game board was made of three parallel rows, while mehen's was based on a spiral form); a quadrilateral (square) shape with grids became common only later, with the emergence of strategy games . In China, game boards were not often illustrated until around

3233-500: The other. He cites backgammon as the best known modern example of such a game. He notes the earliest game confirmed as having different rules to be a "Greek game of polis (πόλις), which appears in the literature around 450 BCE, and the more or less contemporary Chinese game of weiqi (' go '), which, under the name of yi (弈), is mentioned in Confucius's Analects (Lunyu) compiled between ca 470/50 and 280 BCE." Texts referring to

3294-417: The program; for example, Fantasy Grounds has licenses for both Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder materials, while Tabletop Simulator allows game publishers to provide paid downloadable content for their games. However, as these games offer the ability to add in the content through user modifications , there are also unlicensed uses of board game assets available through these programs. While

3355-586: The psychology of older board games (e.g., chess , Go , mancala ), less has been done on contemporary board games such as Monopoly , Scrabble , and Risk , and especially modern board games such as Catan , Agricola , and Pandemic . Much research has been carried out on chess, partly because many tournament players are publicly ranked in national and international lists, which makes it possible to compare their levels of expertise. The works of Adriaan de Groot , William Chase, Herbert A. Simon , and Fernand Gobet have established that knowledge, more than

3416-400: The rate of two a month!   ... We had to find some way to preserve what little sanity we had left. The best way to do this was to merge Space Gamer and Fantasy Gamer   ... As it has for the past year, Space Gamer will appear bimonthly, giving us the time to get some games done, as well. Like Metagaming before it, the effort of producing a magazine became greater than its publisher

3477-426: Was considered to be the best market per capita, with the highest number of games sold per individual. Some academics, such as Erica Price and Marco Arnaudo, have differentiated "hobby" board games and gamers from other board games and gamers. A 2014 estimate placed the U.S. and Canada market for hobby board games (games produced for a "gamer" market) at only $ 75 million, with the total size of what it defined as

3538-581: Was found in the royal tombs of Ur, dating to Mesopotamia 4,600 years ago. Board games have a long tradition in Europe. The oldest records of board gaming in Europe date back to Homer 's Iliad (written in the 8th century BC), in which he mentions the Ancient Greek game of petteia . This game of petteia would later evolve into the Roman ludus latrunculorum . Board gaming in ancient Europe

3599-704: Was not unique to the Greco-Roman world, with records estimating that the ancient Norse game of hnefatafl was developed sometime before 400 AD . In ancient Ireland, the game of fidchell or ficheall , is said to date back to at least 144 AD, though this is likely an anachronism. A fidchell board dating from the 10th century has been uncovered in Co. Westmeath, Ireland. In the United Kingdom, association of dice and cards with gambling led to all dice games except backgammon being treated as lotteries by dice in

3660-534: Was one of the most prolific publishers of board games of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. John Betts' A Tour of the British Colonies and Foreign Possessions and William Spooner's A Voyage of Discovery were popular in the British empire. Kriegsspiel is a genre of wargaming developed in 19th century Prussia to teach battle tactics to officers. The board game Travellers' Tour Through

3721-463: Was willing to bear. The change to bi-monthly publication was not enough to allow SJG to focus on new games as they wished, and in 1985, it was announced, "We've sold Space Gamer . We'll still be heavily involved—but SJ Games won't be the publisher any longer. Giving up SG is definitely traumatic... but it gives us the time to do other things, especially GURPS ". The magazine had been sold to Diverse Talents, Incorporated (DTI). They initially had it as

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