Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
This is part of a new category of posts designed to explore business ideas, properties, etc. that we here at Fan To Pro think MORE can be done with. The idea is to look at media properties, technology, games, entertainment, etc. that we wish the owners/authors/makers of did more with – and make suggestions.
The goal is to give you, the profan, more ideas, stimulate your imagination – and of course to get a few things off our chests.
My subject today? Physical games.
I have a shelf of old board and card games in my bookshelf. It's made me think a bit about the geekonomy.
A lot of these games I have are a mix of casual games (the old Dr. Who boardgame. No, seriously), and more committed ones (say, Iron Dragon). I recall in the last few weeks seeing an article on what casual gaming is doing to the non-electronic game set. It's really not something I've thought of.
In fact, I doubt it's something that crosses anyone's minds much these days.
In a recent episode of X-Play, a gentleman from www.giantbomb.com was commenting on why games are tough to make – unlike movies, you often have to re-invent at least part of your technology from the start. If you've worked in games (or programming) you know that's not strictly true – there are many development tools – but game development certainly requires a lot of work and a lot of invention if not re-invention.
As I noted that's not strictly true that gaming requires re-invention of technology. It's less true over time, and I think that can signal a shift in gaming.