The history and cultural significance of board games

2024-11-04

Tabletop GamingThe history and cultural significance of board gamesWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Benjamin Abbott)

A collection of board games stacked together, with Paypay and Monopoly clearly visible

Play is a fundamental part of life. It’s not just people that play; many animals do too, and most of those play well into adulthood. It’s no great surprise, therefore, that we find evidence of that particular, peculiar practice of structured play that we might now call thebest board gamesalongside the earliest human artifacts. Archeologists have unearthed 11,000-year-old slabs of limestone with parallel roles of pits or holes that they’ve tentatively suggested might be boards for a Mancala-like game. That’s about 6,000 years older than Stonehenge. And, of course, who knows how long before that people had been playing games with sticks or pebbles on boards scratched in the dust of their dwelling places?

Staying power

(Image credit: Benjamin Abbott)

Monopoly playable tokens on a board, with the box behind them

These formed the staple of gaming for most of Europe for an astonishingly long time, right through until the eighteenth century. What made the change was the invention of mass manufacturing, which made it possible for people to design and produce more complex games and bring them to the mass market at a low enough cost to make a profit.

Games can be so much more. They can be bigger than the box – they’re a lifestyleEric M. Lang, designer of more than 20 games

Games can be so much more. They can be bigger than the box – they’re a lifestyle

Victorians tended to focus on moralizing roll and movetypes of board games, educational quizzes and the like as a means of self-improvement, particularly for children. However, the birth of games as a simulation also dates from this era with Kriegspiel, a universal wargame designed as both a teaching tool and recreation for officers in the Prussian army.

Those Victorian templates dominated gaming for another hundred years. Monopoly is recognisably a game of this type, although it has a rather bizarre history. Its inventor was an American progressive called Lizzie Magie, who entitled her original The Landlord’s Game in 1903, and created it to make a satirical point about the negative impact of land ownership and monopolies. She self-published it, and it proved quietly popular, until one day a man called Charles Darrow played it. He repackaged it, stripping out the satirical elements and sold it to Parker Brothers as his own invention, a glorious celebration of American capitalism, and made a fortune which was, appropriately enough, stolen entirely off of someone else’s labor.

(Image credit: Benjamin Abbott)

A collection of classic board games on a wooden table

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Natural 20(Image credit: TSR, Wizards of the Coast)Although it’s not a board game, the influence of Dungeons & Dragons has been felt on the tabletop industry at large since the 1970s. In fact,the first edition of D&D conjured magic from a mess, and changed gaming forever.

Natural 20

(Image credit: TSR, Wizards of the Coast)Although it’s not a board game, the influence of Dungeons & Dragons has been felt on the tabletop industry at large since the 1970s. In fact,the first edition of D&D conjured magic from a mess, and changed gaming forever.

(Image credit: TSR, Wizards of the Coast)

An original Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook on a tablet sat on a wooden table, surrounded by dice, a dice tray, and other books

Although it’s not a board game, the influence of Dungeons & Dragons has been felt on the tabletop industry at large since the 1970s. In fact,the first edition of D&D conjured magic from a mess, and changed gaming forever.

In with the new

(Image credit: Benjamin Abbott)

Catan box, board, cards, and pieces on a wooden table

Now known simply asCatan, itchanged board games forever. The game used the probability curve of two dice to decide which hexes on a randomly-constructed island would generate a resource. Players with settlements next to the productive hex would get the associated resource, which they could spend on expanding their network of roads and villages, securing more resources and, hopefully, eventually winning the game. It was noteworthy for a whole series of genius moves, chief amongst them being a brilliant combination of considered strategy with enough red-blooded interaction to excite those more used to conflict-driven games. While there was no actual fighting, securing key spots and denying them to other players was very much a part of play, as was hard-driving negotiation over resource trading.

Living legends(Image credit: Benjamin Abbott)Few have had more of an impact on gaming than the man behind MTG. We caught up with him in our piece whereMagic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield talks game design: “Players look back now and see a bunch of broken cards.”

Living legends

(Image credit: Benjamin Abbott)Few have had more of an impact on gaming than the man behind MTG. We caught up with him in our piece whereMagic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield talks game design: “Players look back now and see a bunch of broken cards.”

(Image credit: Benjamin Abbott)

Three cards from the Elven Council deck in MTG Lord of the Rings

Few have had more of an impact on gaming than the man behind MTG. We caught up with him in our piece whereMagic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield talks game design: “Players look back now and see a bunch of broken cards.”

(Image credit: Benjamin Abbott)

Gloomhaven figures, components, board pieces, booklet, and box on a wooden table

While the sheer pace and breadth of innovation on display in this time couldn’t possibly be sustained, there have been a couple of noteworthy attempts in more recent years. In 2011 we got the first legacy game in the form of Risk: Legacy. Not only was this an excellent overhaul of that rather creaking classic, it invented the idea of each set launching a unique campaign for the players, with the results of each session feeding into the next to the point of players renaming continents on the board with permanent markers, destroying cards and using stickers to make irreversible changes to the components. At the end of a Risk: Legacy campaign, your game was entirely unique, allowing you to carry on playing on your own personalized set. The concept has been ported to many other games, including Pandemic.

Whether you feel comfortable with socializing with other people or not, a game provides a way to engage. If you know the rules you don’t even necessarily need to speak the same languageRichard Garfield, creator of MTG & King of Tokyo

Whether you feel comfortable with socializing with other people or not, a game provides a way to engage. If you know the rules you don’t even necessarily need to speak the same language

Want some recommendations on what you should play next? Check out thebest 2-player board games, or thebest card games.

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GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension"2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package"3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure"4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years"5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths"1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show"2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie"3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action"4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien"5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite"1Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat"2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses"3Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist"4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands"5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”

GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS

1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”

Nemesis board game models and tokens laid out on a board

1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”

Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”

2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”

Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”

3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”

Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”

4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”

5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”

Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”

1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”

Shadow brandishes a gun in Sonic The Hedgehog 3

1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”

2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”

Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”

3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”

Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”

4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”

5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”

Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”

1Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”

Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and Nicola Coughlan as Joy in Doctor Who Christmas special Joy to the World

1Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”

Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”

2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”

Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”

3Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”

Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”

4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”

Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”

5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”

Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”

Staying power

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In with the new

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