A Wasted Opportunity

This morning, the Washington Post's daily newspaper, Express, had an article on boardgaming! What's more, it featured two good guys that I know, the creators of Wits & Wagers, Dominic Crapuchettes and Satish Pillalamarri. Wits & Wagers is one of the few party games I like, so I'm glad to see them get some well-deserved publicity for their game.

The point of the article was:

"Adults playing board games — in public? Holy Chutes and Ladders! Believe it. While Irish pub trivia nights still rule social gaming, many D.C.-area residents are hedging their bets by hauling out the old-school stuff. And they're moving well beyond Monopoly."

Sweet! Surely they'll discuss the Games Club of Maryland, or some of the many Virginia gaming groups, or the DC Gamers! We play games in public every week. In fact, the DC area is one of the biggest gaming hotspots in the entire United States.

Sadly, no. The article doesn't go into any depth on the availability of sophisticated, knowledgeable boardgame groups in this area. They focus, instead on Meetup Groups.

I admit I'm a boardgame snob. I own hundreds of games, I know what makes a good boardgame, and I play a lot. So, while I'm happy to hear that there are adults playing games, I'm disappointed that they don't seem to be playing really GOOD games; games that are superior to standard American fare. If the point of the article was to publicize the Meetup groups, that's fine. But if the point was to highlight adult boardgaming, then perhaps the reporter should have taken a better look around.

While the article gets huge kudos for mentioning Boardgamegeek, the games they discuss are rather mundane. Here's every game mentioned in the article:

Wits & Wagers
Chutes & Ladders
Monopoly
Taboo
Cranium
Scattergories
Curses
Celebrity
Werewolf
Clue
Pictionary
Balderdash
Don't Drop the Soap

Meh.

If you want to see a group of excellent, fun games that I'd recommend, check out my favorite games on the sidebar. Or click on my recent games played.