Board gaming is a great hobby to geek out with. Putting aside the actual playing of a game there is a lot to get in to: the mechanics of games, components, component quality, themes, game designers. Of course most board games require other people to play with and for someone who likes playing board games a lot it can be difficult to get the required play time to scratch the itch.
iPad is a great platform for board games: small enough to be portable but large enough to provide a good playing experience for most games. iPad board games are much cheaper than their physical counterparts. This makes it attractive to buy a digital copy of a game you already own or just try something out. Like other genre of computer games virtual board games benefit from being able to play other people online as well as providing an AI to practise against or for when there are no other humans around.
There can be down sides to electronic versions of games. Although advantageous in that there are no pieces to set up or put away, games on the iPad can be less tactile and lose something over the physical experience. Weak or poorly implemented AIs can be frustrating to play against. Also the very fact of having the ability to play a board game any time or any where can sometimes be a detriment, leading to over familiarity and either dulling the fun and freshness of the game or improving one's ability to such an extent that playing with others becomes unfulfilling.
When talking about board games i'm not talking about the likes of Monopoly and Scrabble which might be the first such games that come to mind. Rather, a more niche area of games, often called designer board games, so called because the games themselves are more often than not credited to a particular person. A further subset of board games are euro games. Although the origin of these games is given away in the name, it is the features and mechanics of these games that are most worthy of the title. Euro games generally focus more on skill than luck, keep everyone playing until the end and provide a more social, interactive experience.
A number of designer board games have been recreated on iPad. In a future post i'll give an overview of what some of them are about and what the iPad implementations are like. For now, here's a short list of some of the games available.
- The Settlers of Catan
- Ticket to Ride
- Puerto Rico
- Neuroshima Hex
- Samurai
- Small World
- Carcassonne
- Through the Desert
- Ra
- Battleline
More information about board games can be found at the Mecca of board gaming sites boardgamegeek.com and reviews of iPad games can be found at ipadboardgames.org.
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