Have you ever traveled to a different country and wondered why nobody owned your favorite board game? Did you ever try to share your favorite board game with a person from another culture, and come to find that they had never seen nor played the game? Of course, just like we have different food in most countries around the world, so too is our gaming experiences. If you’re a board game aficionado, you’ll notice a few trends as you travel around the world.
Production
A lot of smaller, less developed countries don’t even have proper governments, healthcare or transportation infrastructure. You’d be hard pressed to find a smaller country where citizens are spending hard-earned money on a colorful, intricate board game. While a lot of the games that are played in the United States happen to be produced in some of these countries, odds are they’re not owned by many people who live in those countries due to the different availabilities in stores and so on.
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Different Strokes
Except in European cultures, most games consist of less factory produced “stuff,” and more relate to card games, marbles, chess/checkers, and classic games. These games are played repeatedly, and generally mean more than the throwaway $5 games you can buy at any big box store in the United States. A lot of cultures have a specific game that is played by families, another game that is played among older crowds, and there is usually always a new card game to learn. A lot of cultures also have different ideas of what board games are for – more for family time, or for entertaining people in leisure time.
Cards Are Universal
Have you ever noticed that no matter where you go, someone is probably playing cards? There are so many different card games out there that even if you learn as much as you can, there’s probably someone who knows of another game you’ve never played before. If you’re ever wondering how to connect with someone from another culture, ask them to teach you how to play a card game.
Language
While there are definitely Scrabble versions in different languages, most of the games we play in the United States just don’t translate well in other places. Because of the structure of the language, games like Sorry, Cranium, Apples to Apples and others just don’t work well in other places. There are also plenty of games that rely heavily on other languages, such as Mahjong in Chinese, YutNori in Korean, and so on.
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Different Rules
Sometimes, you may even find a game that is similar to what you’ve played in the United States. When you sit down to play, however, you realize that it’s a totally different game. Rules change based on the culture, which is why we see so many variations of checkers – Brazilian, Chinese, etc. If you ever want to learn how to play a “traditional” game in a new country, be prepared to throw everything you thought you knew about the game out the window.
