By the Staff of The Economist:
Table-top games are booming in the video-game age
“ESSEN is not one of Germany’s better-known cities. But for the world’s growing band of board-game devotees, it is paradise. Each October it plays host to Internationale Spieltage, or Spiel, a board-game convention that is half fan-club gathering, half trade show—and, alongside America’s Gen Con, one of the biggest gaming festivals in the world.
This year the organisers expect more than 160,000 visits over the festival’s four days. Attenders will be able to watch and play more than 850 board, card and role-playing games, including a much-anticipated board-game version of “Magic: The Gathering”, a highly popular card game launched in 1993 in which players take on the role of duelling wizards. The whole thing will be capped off with the largest contest yet seen of “The Settlers of Catan”, in which 1,000 people will compete to colonise a fictional wilderness….”
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