It’s board game time once more! Anyone who still thinks that this is only for so-called nerds or children has unfortunately missed something. A renaissance has taken place in the last three to five years: board games are cool, but above all they have become varied and diverse.
There are cooperative board games, video game adaptations, board games on almost any topic, and those for 20-minute sessions or those that last several hours. Let’s not even talk regarding the many different role-playing campaigns – the current one, very much passionate debate around the Dungeons & Dragons licenses proves that. But despite all the joy regarding analog games, there is still often a problem, namely the question: who explains the rules?
Paradice Board Game Bar
Performance of the board game club Paradice
Paradice is the name of a young association. The name is a portmanteau paradise and dicealso Dice in English. The goal: to make board games accessible to everyone – including those who are undecided and those who don’t play games. The trick is that the rules of the game are patiently explained by experts – that’s the principle and philosophy behind it.
It’s 2019 when three friends from the communications industry are working on this concept and trying it out. Her initially private and in-house board game sessions are working well, and at the beginning of 2020 the club and the associated bar will be founded in Vienna 16, the Paradice Board Game Bar. Then Corona came, but that didn’t throw the young club off track – on the contrary. The pandemic has fueled interest in board games even more. The longing for game nights together in the same place, at the same table, has grown steadily. Many people now prefer board games to sitting alone in front of the PC, as Paradice co-founder Felix Goldberg reports in an interview with FM4.
Unsplash/Karthik Balakrishnan
Game Gurus
The key role of Paradice is the mediation between game and player. This is done by the so-called game gurus, i.e. voluntary members of the club, who bring the board games closer to a – mostly uninitiated – audience in the bar or other places. There are currently around two dozen game gurus who suggest games to interested people, explain them to them and answer questions.
Social experience at the same table
Board, parlor and role-playing games are not only becoming more diverse and attractive, but their respective communities are growing closer together. Through crowdfunding campaigns, discord servers, videos and streams, the scenes stimulate and exchange ideas with each other.
In addition, many people who are interested in games have a longing for fun and social experiences in the same place – and not just at home alone via an online lobby in a computer game.
Pixabay/Michal Beitz
FM4 Games Chamber x Paradice
From today (Thursday, February 2nd) we will also be doing board game sessions once more and once more in our weekly live streaming format FM4 Spielekammerl-Show. The pilot episode is today! Felix Goldberg from Paradice will guide the FM4 hosts Gersin Paya and Robert Glashüttner and of course the viewers at the new, black table through various games.
Take a look at the analog FM4 games room show (this time with several webcams too!) to see what’s happening at the game table: Unter twitch.tv/radio_fm4 from 5 p.m. to around 8 p.m.
