6,000 avid players descend on Vancouver Convention Centre for board game fun
Credit to Author: Denise Ryan| Date: Fri, 04 Oct 2019 00:48:56 +0000
More than 6,000 avid players are expected to attend Shux19, Vancouver’s wildly popular board game convention this weekend at the Vancouver Convention Centre, according to event organizer Chris Pope.
Shux is designed to feel like a music festival, said Quinton “Quinns” Smith, a board game journalist and founder of Shut Up and Sit Down, a YouTube channel and podcast.
Shux has tripled in size since it started off three years ago with the modest goal of bringing a world class board game event to the west coast.
This year’s event features 1,800 open gaming seats.
Attendees can pick games from a library of 1,400 of the world’s most popular games, go to the “Looking for group” area, set up a helium balloon on a table and get a game started. They can sign up to join more dynamic mega-games of 50 to 80 players or attend some of the stage events, like Smith’s 60 minute romp through the 7,000 year history of board games.
“We try to focus less on sales and more on playing the games, meeting people, having fun and putting on funny shows, and create a festival atmosphere for people to make new friends,” said Smith.
According to Research and Markets, the global board games market will be worth more than $12 billion by 2023. The popularity of this “niche space”, said Pope is partly due to the growth of game bars and cafes, a longing for social connections, a renaissance in game art and design and a balancing of genders.
“It’s no longer a boys club,” said Smith.
Over 3,000 new board games are published annually, and they have changed, said Smith — in a good way.
“New games build on everything that came before. In Monopoly, you know half way through the game that you are going to lose. In newer games, you might not know who is winning and losing, so no one gets depressed,” said Smith.
You won’t find Monopoly in the Shux library, but you will find Battlestar Galactica, Eurogames like Settlers of Catan, the super-popular Root, roll and write games like Welcome To, revamped retro games like Fireball Island, and one of the most popular in the world: Codenames.
The growing tabletop gaming industry is still a niche, but Smith says the artistry and complexity and an exciting place to be. “Everyone is just here because they love it. It’s almost like being at that moment where you see a band before they are huge, and you get to have that moment forever.”
dryan@postmedia.com