The in thing in gaming
Games, like any other pastime, are subject to trends. The popular trends roll in and out with the frequency of the ocean tide.
Board games—from humble beginnings like Monopoly or Risk—are seeing a huge resurgence in popularity and creativity, as are many multiplayer strategy games like the Settlers of Catan.
Trading-card games also come and go like the seasons, with dozens created every year that fail just as quickly as they came.
A perfect place to get an idea of gaming trends is Gottacon—Victoria’s annual gaming convention. Gottacon, which took place Feb. 5–7 at Pearkes Arena, next to Tillicum Mall, was home to a number of events involving board games, role-playing games, and just about every other kind of game one can think of, as well as many vendors and industry experts.
Michael Lum, co-founder of Gottacon and proprietor of Skyhaven Games, has firsthand experience with much of the gaming industry—mainly role-playing games (RPGs), trading-card games, and board games.
Lum says board games are seeing a change in style and popularity.
“A big thing that’s happening in board games right now is the cooperative board game, where players try to beat the board instead of beat each other,” says Lum. “People want to interact with other people and have fun, so they don’t want to beat everyone.”
The HP Lovecraft-inspired horror game Arkham Horror and the historical fantasy Shadows over Camelot are examples of this rising trend.
The aspect of player cooperation and interactions is finding its way into other kinds of games as well. Derek Eide of Stain Internet Café, a haven for some members of Victoria’s PC-video-gaming community, says online games are the most popular right now.
As new online games come out, large portions of a particular title’s player base can switch their game of choice.
“Modern Warfare 2 is the big game right now. A lot of people from the Counter-Strike community have transferred over to it,” says Eide.
He says some gamers are tired of the hardcore player population of many online games—namely shooters—and are finding enjoyment in more laidback, cooperative games like co-op zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2.
“A lot of people like it because it’s a more casual game. You can just sit down, and get into it, and, being a mostly cooperative game, it’s not dominated by these twitch-sensitive people who play it all the time. It’s a lot more easygoing,” says Eide.
Over the years Carson Upton—co-founder of Gottacon and the Vancouver Island Gaming Guild, and also a Camosun graduate—has developed quite a body of knowledge in the world of RPGs.
Upton says that the more games change, the more gamers tend to stay the same. In 2007, a whole new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons rules were released, and, while the new, more accessible rules did much to bring in new players, the drastic changes to the setting and core mechanics could distance the older players.
“Some liked the balance of the old rules, some were upset at the new additions, or subtractions, and a lot just don’t want to have to buy new books,” says Upton.
He also says the new version of the game won’t live up to the popularity of the former one.
“For a while every distributor or game creator used the older system for their games—tweaking some rules and adding a homemade setting. I don’t think the new edition will be that universal,” says Upton.
No matter what changes are made to RPGs, the new games will always appeal to someone, and perhaps breed a new generation of gamers on its own.
“The latest edition is getting a new crowd of people to play RPGs in a big way,” says Upton.
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