Plug In and Play
Note: this post contains affiliate links.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I play board games to unplug from technology and give me and my family a break from screens. It is a vague attempt at a digital detox and one that I love.
For me, board games are a social affair. A chance to gather friends and loved ones around the table. Board games are a stimulus for socialising.
However, earlier this year I started dabbling in the digital implementations of board games. Up until then I had only played the Star Realms app, albeit a lot! I’m not even sure why, but I think it grew from wanting to play a few games with Instagram friends that I don’t get to play games with in real life very often. My digital playground of choice for board games is Board Game Arena.
Now owned by Asmodee, there is so many of my favourite board games available. Available to play are some of the Board Game Review Hall of Fame games: Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Kingdomino, Wingspan and Next Station London. It has also given me the chance to play games that I wouldn’t necessarily rush out to buy. New games are coming out all the time too. Obsession, Dice Theme Park, Memoir 44 and Garden Nation have all been recently added.
I’m yet to pay for the premium membership that costs £27 per year, there are some free games that I can set up the tables for. Generally though, I rely on my Instagram pals to set up the games and include me. At the time of writing with this outlook I have played 614 digital games since I joined! I don’t log these plays but I am quite taken aback by how many games I have played virtually. Granted many of these will be relatively quick games such as Similo, Next Station London and Can’t Stop.
Other platforms for playing board games digitally exist, Tabletopia and Tabletop Simulator are arguably the next most successful. I can see why these are popular, but the admin involved puts me off. Playing on BGA is much more like playing an app version of the board games. But of course, there is a wealth of digital platforms available that host a wide variety of top online games for those that fancy a flutter too.
So, if you fancy a digital duel with me, find me on Board Game Arena, username: BoardGameReviewUK. Oh and I would like to give a big shout out to these awesome people who already play games regularly with me (and set up the tables for me!): MovinMeeples, BoardGiulie, Burtons_Boards, Kay Plays Games, Brambledown Designs, Happy Meeples, SvsJBoardGames and Wanderer Meeple, to name but a few.