Description

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Celebrating the role that board games hold in our lives, celebrities, industry professionals and lifelong gamers share the remarkable and personal stories of their profound love for gaming

People want to feel good about their passions, their hobbies included. People want to talk about them, and to listen to others who share their enthusiasm. This book celebrates that sense of affinity while providing diverse perspectives on board games that will allow readers to reflect on what drives their passion in their own particular case. From uber-competitive players learning to lose with grace to the fascinating history of the very first games humans played, and bonding with far-away stepsiblings to the story of the first board game café in Africa, there’s something here for everyone.

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM:

Jervis Johnson, KC Ogbuagu, Allen Stroud, Gav Thorpe, Edoardo Albert, Will McDermott, Gabriela Santiago, Holly Nielsen, Fertessa Allyse Scott, Ian Livingstone, Alessio Cavatore, Sen-Foong Lim, John Kovalic, Reiner Knizia, Susan McKinley Ross, Leslie Scott, Geoff Engelstein, Calvin Wong, Jenn Bartlett, Cathleen Williams, Lynn Potyen, Matt Coward-Gibbs, Steve Jackson, Christopher John Eggett, James Wallis, Matt Forbeck, Donna Gregory, Jack Doddy

About the Author

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A lifelong hobby gamer with a predilection for customising board game sets, DONNA GREGORY spent two decades editing non-board game books before realising she could combine her passion and her profession and edit books about games. Loves dinosaurs, biscuits, and the wild weather of the western Scottish coast where she lives.

Ian Livingstone is one of the founding fathers of the UK games industry. He co-founded iconic games company Games Workshop in 1975 with Steve Jackson, launching Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer in Europe. Ian and Steve co-authored The Warlock of Firetop Mountain with Steve Jackson in 1982: the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series has sold over 18 million copies worldwide. Ian was executive chairman of Eidos until 2002, where he launched global games franchises such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

John Kovalic is a cartoonist, illustrator, and writer who has contributed artwork to many game products, including Munchkin, What'Ya Know, and Apples to Apples. He is best known for his Dork Tower comic, and he has also created other humorous works set in and about the fantasy role-playing game genre, such as The Unspeakable Oaf. Kovalic is an award-winning editorial cartoonist for the Wisconsin State Journal. His work has appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post.

Dr Reiner Knizia is one of the world’s most successful and prolific board games designers, having designed over 700 published games. Reiner’s games Keltis was awarded the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) award in 2008. His Lord of the Rings board game (2000) is credited with beginning the popular revival of cooperative games, among his many other achievements.

Praise For…

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"The ephemeral nature of the stories of these moments is beautiful."
— Ludology, on What Board Games Mean to Me

"Games are important to society, but sometimes we need to be reminded just how essential they are and why. What Board Games Mean to Me does an outstanding job of that."
— Cosmic Circus, on What Board Games Mean to Me

"What Board Games Mean to Me is a love letter to a different sort of way to navigate the curveballs the life throws at us."
— Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub, on What Board Games Mean to Me

"I really enjoyed getting so many insights, and I related to a lot of the sentiments shared around the connections that games can create and the memories they help us make."
— Magic and Meeples, on What Board Games Mean to Me