Instead of going out to Court Street on a Thursday night, some students choose to congregate in the Living Learning Center to play tabletop games.
One group on campus, Bobcat Tabletop, dedicates those nights to playing board games. The organization has seen a resurgence in membership, which comes in conjunction with an upsurge in national popular opinion of board games.
The tabletop game market revenue has increased approximately $150 million from 2013 to 2014, according to a study done by International Correspondence version 2 — a website for businesses that focuses on gaming and pop culture.
Brendan Tisch, the president of Bobcat Tabletop, said this year, there are about 40 people who regularly attend the meetings, compared to the 20 members in previous years.
“It’s been exciting this year because we’ve certainly grown,” Tisch, a senior studying environmental biology, said.
Bobcat Tabletop also holds all-day events throughout the year where they play board games from early afternoon to early morning the next day. Tisch said as many as 100 people have attended those events.
People in Bobcat Tabletop admit the club is known for its geeky personalities, Tisch said.
“I don’t want to say geek culture is trendy, but, you know what, it is,” Tisch said. “And people like (board games) again, and they are fun.”
Rhane Napier, a freshman studying mechanical engineering and computer science, said Thursdays are the best time to play board games because there is not a lot of homework.
“These are my people — these are my nerds,” Napier said.
The club has at least 50 different games they store in crates and keep in the Living Learning Center, Tisch said.
Some people who attend the club’s meetings do not find mass-market games such as Monopoly, The Game of Life and Connect Four. Tisch said mass-market games have a simple system that does not change. He added that the games they play have “deeper systems” with more complex rules, such as allowing players to alter the physical components of the game and lie to their opponents.
“Board games are great, especially compared to video games because they accomplish two really big, main things,” Tisch said. “They make you sit facing each other, and that’s huge because if you’re playing a game on a screen, you’re not looking at a person. And you need to understand the system — or what’s making the game go — so you definitely pick up some really quick logic skills.”
Tisch said Betrayal at House on the Hill is a popular game within the group. In the game, players mimic what it is like to be in a horror movie by creating a haunted house one room at a time. One player in the game is deemed the traitor and the rest of the party has to figure out who it is in order to end the game.
Tisch said board games similar to Betrayal at House on the Hill involve a lot of critical thinking, strategery and, sometimes, a little bit of math.
“It’s more of a brain teaser than homework, though,” he said.
Connor Moroney, a senior studying chemical engineering, said playing board games can help people make friends, improve a person’s brain and make someone a “cooler person.”
However, not all students are eager to play games of strategy on a regular basis.
Emma Carroll, a freshman studying nursing, said she does not play board games because they take up a lot of time.
“Some (board games) are too complicated and too long,” Carroll said. “The Game of Life, I can never finish because it takes like 10 years.”
For those who do not mind spending an evening playing board games, Tisch encourages them to check out the club and attend one of its all-day events.
“We’re a very open club and you don’t need any experience to show up,” Tisch said. “I’ve never had to justify fun before. It’s just a good time.”
