The Impact Of Computer Games On Board Games

Discuss about the ITECH 1100 Video and Disruption Report Assignment.

Overview of board games and computer games

The gaming world has been one of the oldest entertaining and captivating ventures for both the children and the adults. Board games have been some of the oldest games that people have been playing for the past decades but still being played although not as much as they used to be played before. Board games can be defined as the table top games that involve the counters or pieces moved or placed on a pre-marked surface or a board, derived from the game names. There are different types of board games such as, monopoly, chess, scramble, draughts, scramble, Jumanji among other games. These games have been some of the dominant games for many while growing up but thing have changed with the introduction of technology and computer gaming (Akilli, 2014). Computer gaming has completely revolutionized gaming and with the current rate at which it is growing, few years from now the children may have forgotten about board games. Computer gaming have swiped the market due to multiple reasons such as their realistic nature, there involvement and their ability to be played internationally on real time bases. Throughout this research, we will get to clearly understand the impact of computer games on board games where we will get to understand the impact technology has had on the gaming world.

Computer games can be defined as gaming software that have been designed and developed for gaming purposes only. The software has been coded to deliver a gaming experience to the users with the application of different technological. Over the years the computer games have evolved with the increase in the game complexity, graphics of these games and the game logic. The internet has also brought closer the gaming community with gaming forums which users can utilize while playing to create a gaming world experience. More advances in technology have also been seen over the past few years such as the virtual reality gaming technology and the play station simulations that have all been introduced in the computer gaming world to intensify the gaming experiences. It is important to compare the board games with the computer games before looking at the potential impacts of computer games over the board games. It is evident of the rigidity of the board games. This has significantly impacted the board games popularity. The games have been referred to as constant generation that does not evolve. This is due to the nature of these games, the have the predefined rules that players need to stick with, which fails to give the players a chance to feel connected with the outside world apart from the board the game is designed to play on. Understanding the games over the years clearly depicted the ideal use of once brain while playing these board games but a research by (Castronova, & Knowles, 2015) indicate that most of the current gamer prefer gaming for the fun bit of it but not the thinking perspective of the game that is awarded by the board games hence loosing most of its audience to the computer games. Due to these changes in technology over time, it is important to identify some of the potential impacts of computer games on board games.

The impact of computer games over board games

One of the commonly identified impact of computer games over the board games is the engagement of the computer games as compared to the board games. The computer games have been seen to be more engaging as compared to the board games. This has been based on the ability of computer games to have an open word experience where the players apart from just basing the game on the set game rules, these computer games have the ability of letting the users of the gamers forge their own will in the game. This is an experience that has been categorized as one of the most engaging features of the computer games (Castronova, & Knowles, 2015). This feature is net present with the board games. The board games are based on predefined rules and steps that can hardly be deviated from. This disconnects the player with the ability of engaging in an open mind venture in the game management. This has seen has significantly affected the players of board game if they were to be compared to the computer games players. A good example is an over view of one of the most played computer games referred to a GTA V, the game had the ability of letting players choose a character and develop the character into anything one would wish in the game, this shows the level of engagement of the game, such an experience can hardly be fund on a board game, most of the board games are based on winning and losing but this has been redefined by the computer games (Bourgonjon, et al., 2016).

Computer games have also affected  the popularity of the board games, since the board games can only be played physically with all the members present in most cases under one room, the computer games have taken this experience and made it global experience, computer games have been developed with the ability to have an online experience where the players from different parts of the world on different time zones can join gaming rooms and play competitively as a team (Seo, & Jung, 2016). With such experiences, the board games have significantly lost their popularity. Computer games have integrated global features where different games require formation of teams, these teams are based on members from all over the world and these members can communicate with each other in real time despite their geographical locations. Computer games have helped create online gaming communities where players can go online to discuss the games and plan the next missions that they are to play (Carvalho et al., 2015). All this is due to the ability of the computer games to be easily integrated with the advance in technology. Most of the board games do not meet these compatibility measures hence a huge number of the gamers have shifted to computer games.

Engagement and popularity of computer games

Computer games have also intensified the gaming experiences which have completely made the board games close to obsolete, the recent technologies in gaming such as the virtual reality and simulated gaming have changed the gaming experiences. Virtua reality in computer gaming has managed to incorporate the player into the actual gaming world, this technology has managed to give the player the actual feeling of participating in the game they are playing. This is a feeling that can hardly be achieved while playing board games (De Mul, 2015). This computer gaming technology has been integrated by most of the gaming communities and their experiences have been splendid. These experiences have made it impossible for the computer games to completely steal the attention from the board games. Most of the board games involve less involvement with basically involving the strategic play that is bound to the game rules and regulations. Research shows that most of the gamers prefer the next technological experiences in computer gaming due to the exiting adrenalin rush of unpredictability of the games. The computer games are not based on a win loss theory as most of the board games. The same research clearly explained the advancement in technology such as the simulated racing gear for computer games have managed to give the players a real-life experience while playing the games. This has significantly affected the board game market (Richter, et al., 2016, October). The integration of any technology to help create such connection with the games has not yet been identified with the board games hence affecting the board games audience.

Computer games have also affected the gaming hours people spend playing board games. Most of the board game audience has shifted to computer games hence reducing the gaming hours people tend to spend on board games. This shows the decline in interest towards the board games. This is evident due to an analysis by (De Mul, 2015) that shows most of the board gams only offer a restricted world when compared to the computer games. As seen earlier some computer games have an open world development where players can venture into countless worlds and they are free to explore all this in the game. Such experiences are no found on the board game since the entire game lies on a piece of board already pre-defined with boarder on what is expected from the player. With this being the case most of the players spend less time of the board games and spend more time on the computer games due to the wide explorational nature of these games (Fullerton, 2014). With the advancement in computer games it is evident that the gaming hours on board games will significantly dwindle down as more of the gamers transit to computer games.

Conclusively it is evident to state that computer games are overtaking the board games in the gaming world with more players being inclined to pick computer games over board games (Smed, & Hakonen, 2017). The board games have been identified as rigid and limiting the players explorational expectations from a game which are being offered by the computer games, these have been seen as evolutionary and give the players a chance to explore different gaming ventures which is absent on the board games.

References

Akilli, G. K. (2014). Games and simulations: A new approach in education?. In Gamification for Human Factors Integration: Social, Education, and Psychological Issues (pp. 272-289). IGI Global.

Bourgonjon, J., Vandermeersche, G., De Wever, B., Soetaert, R., & Valcke, M. (2016). Players’ perspectives on the positive impact of video games: A qualitative content analysis of online forum discussions. new media & society, 18(8), 1732-1749.

Carvalho, M. B., Bellotti, F., Berta, R., De Gloria, A., Sedano, C. I., Hauge, J. B., ... & Rauterberg, M. (2015). An activity theory-based model for serious games analysis and conceptual design. Computers & education, 87, 166-181.

Castronova, E., & Knowles, I. (2015). Modding board games into serious games: The case of Climate Policy. The International Journal of Serious Games, 2(3).

De Mul, J. (2015). The game of life: Narrative and ludic identity formation in computer games. In Representations of Internarrative Identity (pp. 159-187). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Fullerton, T. (2014). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

Richter, S. R., Vineet, V., Roth, S., & Koltun, V. (2016, October). Playing for data: Ground truth from computer games. In European Conference on Computer Vision (pp. 102-118). Springer, Cham.

Seo, Y., & Jung, S. U. (2016). Beyond solitary play in computer games: The social practices of eSports. Journal of Consumer Culture, 16(3), 635-655.

Smed, J., & Hakonen, H. (2017). Algorithms and networking for computer games. John Wiley & Sons.