From passion to professionalism – the next big step for the board games industry?

People point to the insane number of games released each year and the money spent on board games on Kickstarter and talk about a “golden age of board gaming”. That can’t be true; I hope it’s not. I believe the board games industry to be in its infancy. It’s like one big startup with lots of promise but that does not really have a solid business plan yet and the next big step, is to go from passion to professionalism.

(Glad you are reading; English is not my mother’s tongue so please pardon any mistakes!)

In my dayjob I work with business innovation. I meet a lot of people at start-ups trying to gain a foothold on the market, and at incumbent companies trying transform their business as a response to the new digital and global world. Since board gaming is a great passion of mine, I also follow this small industry with great interest, with my business glasses on. And all of the stories I hear add up to two parallell narratives.

On one hand, I hear people talk of this great boom and a golden age. On the other hand, few actors in the industry seem to be thriving in a business sense. Each publisher and creative involved in putting a board game out there (designers, artists, developers etc.) seem to be getting a smaller size of the pie (the market) even though the size of the pie is increasing. And through the entire value chain (design – publishing – agents – distributors – retailers), there are people scratching their heads as to how they are going to make ends meet, let alone grow their business. Those who are thriving seem to be the outliers.

How can you have a boom and still on the business side there seem to be mostly problems and challenges?

There are many ways to examine this and tackle the subject, and I am of course not an industry insider, but with the purpose of trying to dig deeper and start a discussion, I will zoom in on what I believe to be one of the answers:

This industry right now mainly runs on passion. Where the business practices are lacking and when consumer demand really isn’t there, passion on the supplier side (from designers, publishers, retailers etc) makes up for it. Passion, as in: People go to extraordinary lengths to make things work, because they love it some much. A lot of people have provided amazing games to people over the last decades without seeing the proper returns for it. Sure, Asmodee isn’t run on passion, but otherwise this seems to be true of course for many indie publishers as well as for many of the small to moderately sized ones, from what I can tell.

Passion – both superpower and an obstacle

First: This is an amazing starting point for growing an industry. When so many people are genuinely passionate about doing great work, we have fertile ground for progress.

On the other hand, this is can be a huge hindrance if the goal is evolving the industry. Basically: If so many people are willing to sacrifice so much, you’re probably not going to see the returns economically because, hey, that’s not what we are here for, right? The designer is happy because her game is out there, the publisher is glad they made ends meet and get to put out more games next year, and so on. And when too many settle for too little, then the ground simply stays fertile but the next growth stage doesn’t really come about.

Let’s define this “next stage” I want to see. I’m talking about an industry with a more profitable ecosystem. Where more people involved in making a game get paid more, because more people – a more diverse range of gamers – are buying more “hobby games”, because there are a wider swath of games readily available and easier to buy. I’m talking about finally seeing Franchised Monopoly #73 removed from the prime shelves at Wal-Mart in favour of actually great new games. And so on and so on. A true step forward for the industry, far beyond: “Look how many games are released and look how much the games category makes on Kickstarter!” Those are poor metrics.

There is true opportunity here. If we stay on the current path, we are of course still in for great things in the future. We are occasionally going to see a Ticket to Ride or a Wingspan appear to sell millions of copies. We’ll be glad and cheer our amazing industry, where everyone is so passionate and glad to just be a part of it.

Look: This is not a bad thing. If you feel like “that’s me, I just want to put out things I’m passionate about and have other people enjoy them”, I’m NOT saying stop doing it. I’m saying you are part of this fertile ground where we all, together, can take aim for the next great step for the industry.

Professionalization – needed but scary

I argue that if we want to reach this next level sooner rather than later (if at all), we need to elevate our business practices to a completely new level. Set the bar higher, ask new and tougher questions, in order to drastically increase the chances of putting a new Wingspan-type success out there.

I think this next step I’m talking about is fairly well described as “increasing professionalism” in the industry, except the term often seems to be used with negative connotations. I’m going to quote a chunk of an interesting blog piece here written by Isaac Shalev, game designer, co-host of On Board Games podcast and co-author of the excellent Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design (my underscores for key points):

“Industry changes, and changing tastes among games, means that designers need to think about product development earlier on, and to be better observers of the industry. There’s also a lot of room for publishers to be more effective in communicating what they’re looking for, conforming to their brands, and building relationships with designers.

All these arrows point in the same direction, though, and it’s a direction that will leave some designers, and some gamers, disappointed. It’s the direction of increasing professionalization. All of the ingredients that go into making hits, and making hits more consistently, add up to designers and publishers spending more time doing the work.

Designers need to spend more time brainstorming, experimenting with different materials, crafting and learning new skills. They also need to spend more time talking to publishers, maintaining contacts, and reading industry news and trends. Getting out of the workshop and into the world, scanning the shelves at Target and Wal-Mart, attending conventions, and enriching their perspectives will feed back into better designs.

Publishers, similarly, need to spend more time, and they need to gather more capital. Bringing on investors, consolidating to improve scale, managing credit lines and leveraging better, while continuing to improve in marketing, branding, and relationship management all demands more time, more skills, more partners and more staff.”

Isaac Shalev, in ”Playful Thoughts: The Hit List”

Isaac presents the professionalization needed with a slightly negative undertone (”it will leave some designers, and some gamers, disappointed”). I believe I get where he is coming from; increased professionalization would probably result in every creative needing to do a lot of side-stuff of the type Isaac mentions above, besides the thing you love to do (design games, for example). For me, personally, all those things are connected to being part of a profitable business, no matter in what industry. If you need to do those things, it is a sign of a healthy business.

What kind of industry do you want to see?

Every creative industry has a huge part of it fueled by passion. The indie part, let’s say. Movie and documentary makers trying to make their way via Youtube, authors trying to break in via self-publishing on Amazon, bands playing night after night at the smallest bar in town trying to catch a break – or not. It is perfectly reasonable to want to stay indie, keep it on a level that you are satisfied with. Starting a band does not mean you aim to be the next Metallica.

The future of the board games industry will of course consist of both these worlds. The indie part, where it’s tough to make ends meet but where passion is overflowing; and the professional part, where people actually make a living doing it (and are hopefully still very passionate!).

My personal driving force is to play my tiny part in shaping the professional side of it. I want to help make (either design myself or help others bring to market) the games that sell millions, broaden the market and bring new people to the table, so to speak. That is what drives me and that is why I have started Imaginary Sword.

What do you think about a more professionalized board games industry? Do you want to be indie and run on passion, or are you willing to “put up” with the professionalization to advance the business practices? Maybe you think the industry is on the right track right now and no professionalization is needed? I have just started the conversation – please join in!

/Samuel

Want to be updated with new posts from the blog?

Just go here to drop your email.