Is playing board games social or a game? It's about quality socializing while playing. Personally, the most expensive games for me are those that require at least...
Is playing board games social or a game?
It's about quality socializing while playing. Personally, the games that require at least four people are the most expensive for me. The best game is one that I can play on several levels or in such a way that I think about the strategy of playing "all night", and at the same time I can relax with it, forget about everyday problems and enjoy socializing.
When did you decide to make life a game?
I've been playing since the very beginning. I started to deal with board games more intensively during my studies, when we played a lot of Tarok and Malefic - a game similar to No Man Gets Angry, except that it is much more complex, as it is necessary to change strategies on the way to the goal, avoid teammates, cooperate with those who help you towards your goal and stop your opponents... Later, the playing continued with the family, because it is a very quality way to spend time with children. Professional gaming started ten years ago, when we ported the game Zofia's World into Slovenian.
You ran the company Laserplus, which operates as a publisher of board games, and with the store Črna luknja, a place was created in Ljubljana that is friendly to fans of games translated into Slovenian. Recently, the association Igroljub was formed. What can we expect in the future?
In addition to promoting the culture of social gaming, creating the largest possible family of Game Lovers, organizing events such as the Game Festival, enabling the renting of games throughout the country, not only in Ljubljana...
Have you ever thought about designing your own game?
No, because I don't think I have the right nerve as a physicist. One must be born for it. Those who have the most "basics" for designing a good board game are probably mathematicians. There are not many principles of how to get a good game. This is just the base, it still needs to be built on with a good story. Teuber, one of the most successful game designers of recent times, is a dental technician, Knizia, also successful, is a PhD in mathematics.
The game Zofia's World was presented for the first time at the book fair in Frankfurt. Is designing a board game similar to writing a book, art?
At some points, the creation of board games seems to be an even more complex process, because in addition to the basic principle of the game and the story, good graphics are also needed, which requires a lot of innovation and technical and artistic skills.
Tell me what you play and I'll tell you who you are. Does the statement hold true when you think of board games?
In Slovenia, only partially, because here also due to the small size of the market, slightly different rules apply as to which social game users accept as their own and which will be successful. Recently, party games like Activity and CroMagnon's Ancestors have been somewhat more popular in our country compared to abroad, but on the other hand, there are games that are very popular abroad that never "catch on" here. In my opinion though, there is a reason why countries like Germany, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries are the ones that know the most about board games. It's about the style of living and socializing. People in the south, by the Mediterranean, socialize more on the streets, in bars and in larger companies, which makes it harder to find a suitable game. North of the Alps, people socialize in somewhat smaller groups, often at home, which leads to socializing over board games.
Is a board game a simulation of life?
Certain games definitely. The most successful, that is, the games of the year, which this year is Dominion, even more so. These games imitate life in the sense that you have to construct a certain strategy to reach the goal. That's what life is after all.
How is it that many successful board games encourage our desires to appropriate, to dominate?
Maybe this is an opportunity to give an individual something that is present in reality, but it is much more complex there. There is a certain satisfaction in being able to achieve this on the table, despite it being only a tabletop game.
Where is the board game capital?
The country where about ninety percent of new games are presented is Germany. A game fair is also held in Essen every October, where approximately three hundred new games are presented every year. The fair is definitely the biggest event in the world of board games, as more than 150,000 people visit it every year, and they play there all day. When there is no space on the tables, they move to the stairs, the floor, in restaurants,...
