Full disclosure: I had more than a casual interest in Simon Ennis’ engaging documentary before seeing the first frame, because Constant Companion and I ran a game and puzzle store in our town, from 1978 to early 1997.
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| Once introduced to the ambitious world of today's board gaming culture, Candice Harris can't get enough of it. |
Happily — as Ennis’ film repeatedly proves — board and table games enjoyed a major resurgence as the 21st century’s second decade began, and now the pursuit is arguably more popular and diverse than ever before.
More power to them, because games have been with us for a long time.
Ennis opens his film at the British Museum, where Dr. Irving Finkel — Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East — stands between two enormous Ancient Assyrian “Lamassus” statues. He points between the hooves of one statue, where a rudimentary board game has been scratched onto the metal base: something with which temple guards could while away the time, using pebbles or bits of dung as playing pieces.
Dr. Finkel is quite philosophical about this pastime, explaining that “When a game is invented, which is fair, and just, and exciting, and unpredictable, it spreads like wildfire, because there’s a hunger since the beginning of time, to play.”
That said — and Ennis must’ve been amused to get this quote — Dr. Finkel has no use for modern table games, all of which he considers “too ridiculously complicated.”
(Folks who’ve never progressed beyond Monopoly and Scrabble likely would agree with him.)
Following a brief title credits sequence — backed by a cover of Joe South’s “Games People Play” — the action shifts to opening day of the Indiana Convention Center’s annual Gen Con, a four-day event that draws more than 70,000 attendees (!). We meet moderator Tom Vasel, a board game reviewer and podcaster well known by the regulars.
Vasel is one of roughly a dozen gamers, podcasters and game designers profiled in this film, and he explains why new titles have exploded exponentially during the past decade and change: Crowd-funding allows far more creativity than ever was delivered by the likes of Parker Brothers, Hasbro and Milton Bradley.
(Think of them as the original three TV networks, whose programs had to deliver high ratings in order to survive, as compared to the successful niche options now made available by the multiplicity of streaming outlets. Today’s indie gamers are like the latter.)
The action shifts to the Spielbound Board Game Café in Omaha, Nebraska, where we meet brothers Grant and Miklos Fitch, and their mother Starla. They “found” gaming by playing the popular Settlers of Catan, and now their home is laden with shelves upon shelves stacked ceiling-high with games.
Ennis subsequent cuts between the Fitch family, Vasel and many others, all of whom prove to be on a mission of sorts.
John Hague, who has loved making things since childhood, is shown developing what will become his first serious game effort: The Last Summit. His progress is revealed in stages, throughout this film: making the prototype; playtesting with friends; setting up a table in a local game store, and trying to get the attention of customers (we die a little, over his lack of success); traveling with his wife, Roxy, to Philadelphia’s Pax Unplugged, a more ambitious “game incubator”; and then — breath held — finally launching a Kickstarter campaign.
Former rock ’n’ roll drummer Clarice Harris, seeking a new passion, embraces board games and begins the podcast Cardboard Creations, as a “media content creator” for Board Game Geek. She’s immediately drawn to war games, and confesses that while she loathed history in high school, she’s now fascinated by the subject ... within the context of historical war games.
Vasel shares the contents of his staggeringly large home collection: so massive that he even maintains an entire wall of small plastic drawers that contain potential gaming pieces of every possible variety (the equivalent of a home LEGO store).
An oddly pastoral sequence introduces Elizabeth Hargrave, who loves the outdoors, and particularly birds. She’s inspired to create the game Wingspan, which industry “experts” warn is both too niche, and too complicated. She nonetheless pushes forward, with results I’ll not spoil here ... except to point out that her game has — so far — hatched four sequels and variants.
Newly inspired gamer Dan Corbett becomes hooked on Terraforming Mars, and is determined to beat best friend Simon Ennis (yes, this film’s writer/director). Chinese gamer Hanshi Li hosts Worthy Opponent, a Chinese-language podcast designed as a bridge to the international gaming community. Candice Harris invents her own game, Stage Left, which blends gaming with her earlier passion for indie rock bands.
Grant and Starla Fitch unveil their Our Family Plays Games podcast, as a reaction to the fact that very few gamers are Black; sadly, they’ve actually felt shunned when dropping in at weekly game store play events. (On a personal note, I was dismayed during our own two-decade game store experience, by the fact that a staggering 95 percent of our customers were white and male. That ain’t true these days, and it’s damn well about time.)
As Ennis’ film moves into its second half, considerable time is spent at 2022’s debut World Series of Board Gaming (which has become an annual Las Vegas event). Sixteen games — including Carcassonne, Blood Rage, Ticket to Rideand Terraforming Mars — are employed during the same number of mini-tournaments, leading to initial “game champions” who ultimately face each other for a $25,000 purse.
Several of the individual profiled thus far participate: Dan Corbett, Hanshi Li and enthusiastic newcomer Rebecca Beach, accompanied by Adam, her partner and full-time cheering section.
The tension definitely mounts.
Throughout this often fascinating adventure, Ennis’ approach never is critical ... but there’s a definite sense that some of these individuals have leapfrogged Devotion and landed squarely in Unhealthy Addiction. Their enthusiasm notwithstanding, Vasel and the Fitches clearly are game hoarders, soon to have nowhere to sit or sleep in their own homes.
On the other hand, it’s heartwarming to see that so many shy and socially awkward individuals have found bliss and a welcoming environment among “their people.”
Ennis has one extremely annoying habit: He fails to introduce most of the people profiled in his film, particularly when initially introduced; we constantly play catch-up, trying to figure out who they are. As one of the most glaring examples, Nicholas Ricketts — curator of table games, at the Strong Museum of Play, in Rochester, New York — nevergets identified. (I was forced to look him up online, and that’s just sloppy filmmaking.)
Happily, Ennis redeems himself by granting Candice Harris the final bit of wisdom: “We need to break out of the mindset that board games are this thing that only nerds do.”
Well said. Roll the dice, and draw a card!
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