From Table Top into Screens

Games existed for a long time in the history. One of the most famous and long-enjoyed game I can think of is probably chess, which people still play nowadays. But people can play chess in many different ways today whereas the environment for a proper chess game was very limited back in the old days. Imagine how to set up a chess game in the medieval times. You need all the chess pieces, a chess board, and probably two people who knows how to play the game in the room. Playing chess today has lot less restraints. You probably do not need any piece of board if you are playing on a computer, a cellphone, or other digital device. The players do not have to be in the same room because they can just connect with each other via the almighty internet. And what happens if you do not have someone to play with? You can play against a computer AI, which can be more skillful than a real human player.

Not only did computer technology make games easier to setup, but also greatly expanded the limit of a game’s content. Games do not have to be something playable in real life environment anymore. For example, you could make a game where player shoots aliens on a spaceship. I am not saying that is absolutely impossible in real life, but we probably will not encounter such scenario any time soon. Content in a video game were much less regulated back in the late 1900s. There was no age restriction on games that contained violence and any sort of Parental Control system like we have today. Game creators could put anything they want in games without being afraid of the game getting banned. A good example would be a game made in 1976 called Death Race. Player’s goal in the game was to run over as many people as possible before the time runs out in order to get a high score. That sounds terribly wrong, right? But there were no laws to control any types of game content at the time, so game companies will just make whatever sells, which ties to the most important reason that games evolved to exist in a virtual space.

Making a fun and popular game is satisfying indeed, but if the product is considered a failure if it cannot convert enough profit. Video games are not only cheap to create, but also easy to distribute. Using the example of chess again, we can clearly see why a company would prefer to make a digital version of the game. To make real chess pieces requires real materials such as wood or plastic. The more units manufactured, the more cost needed for the production. In contrast, to make multiple units of a digital chess game, only one working copy of the game is needed. Then, it can be shipped on an online web-store or in a compact storage such as a CD or flash drive whereas a real set of chess must be packaged in a box and picked up in a local shop. It is undeniable that board game still has a solid share in the market, but it is extremely difficult for it to grow or even stay par with the rest of the competitors that are mostly digitalized.