OzComicCon on board

OzComicCon

Anyone who follows The Campaigner Facebook page would have seen the OzComicCon photo gallery earlier this week. OzComicCon came to my home town, Adelaide, last weekend, and I spent the two days wandering about and meeting people. I have been to OzComicCon a number of times before, but this time I noticed a new addition to the conventions line-up. Board games.

This wasn’t just exhibitors offering board games, though there were some of those. There was a dedicated space for people to play tabletop games, as well as a number of board games available to borrow. Good games, too. Like Love Letter and Ticket to Ride.

It is an interesting development, seeing tabletop games given valuable floor space like this. Especially at an expo that is essentially about comics and film. The tabletop game area wasn’t massive, and I only saw it almost full to capacity once. But obviously the audience is there, and those who run non-tabletop focussed conventions like OzComicCon are apparently paying attention to the market.

Not only is social tabletop gaming seeming to slowly be recognised in the social consciousness, this is a very promising sign for small local game designers. As tabletop games become more prominent, the potential audience they have access too grows. With a larger audience comes an increased number of possibilities.

The thing I find most interesting is that this isn’t an isolated incident. ComicCon in the USA already has a sizable tabletop showing. But closer to home the local anime and video games convention AVCon last year had a board game area. And look set to continue this feature into the foreseeable future. Tabletop games really seem to be breaking through peoples preconceived notions and demanding their fresh attention.

Am I right. Do you think that tabletop games are becoming more accepted by the general public?

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