Right on Cue
It turns out every generation has its own preferred game closet. In every case it turns out to be a reflection of their times.
My parent’s generation, the Greatest Generation, grew up in the Great Depression. Their game play experiences as kids reflected that. They enjoyed kick-the-can, and hopscotch, and tag, and a wide array of backyard games that they eventually handed down to us. The single most expensive game component in those games was a used soup can! Stickball was a game that literally used a stick as a primary component. There were existing board games like Parcheesi and even early versions of The Landlord’s Game which eventually became Monopoly. But apparently sales of new board games during the Depression were not exactly robust because a family’s first budget priority was food.
There was one game playing component that became the standard for the entire Greatest Generation: cards. A single deck of cards was entertainment for an entire family. Kids could play lighthearted games like war, variations of Old Maid, and even 52-card pickup. (As a younger brother, I want to go on record that this game was utterly cruel and unfair. As an older brother, I admit 52-card pickup was a favorite!) The adults played cards too. And then it was easy for a GI to stuff a deck of cards into his backpack and take them to war.
Sure enough, after the war they continued to play cards. Poker, gin, canasta, bridge. The entire generation was predisposed to socialize over a deck of cards.
We Baby Boomers had a very different experience. Our parents, of course, taught us the entire Red Rover collection of backyard games they had played. At the same time, there was a new medium called television, and it was filled with … (wait for it) … game shows. To Tell The Truth, What’s My Line?, Truth or Consequences, Password, and so many more.
Also, in the increasingly affluent economy of the 1950s and 1960s, from companies like Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers, we saw a wide array of packaged games to delight the 80 million Baby Boomers. Candy Land, Clue, Risk, Lie Detector, The Game of Life, Sorry!. Dozens of offerings from game companies focused on 80 million potential customers. It was a golden age of board games.
Then things changed. Baby Boomers stopped playing board games when they discovered sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. The big game companies stood on the dock, and waved goodbye to us with tears in their eyes. They had no reason to think we would ever come back to board games. There was no evidence that adults would return to their childhood predisposition to play games.
Actually there was – but it wasn’t easy to see. When only a couple of companies make and sell a deck of 52 cards there just doesn’t appear to be a significant business model to consider. But the Greatest Generation did return to card playing. Even now, as they are fading from view, they continue to socialize over a deck of cards.
Then the 1980s happened. Baby Boomers were finally making money. But high interest rates were making their mortgages and rents a greater burden than expected. Their entertainment budgets were the first thing that got cut. So they stayed home. They entertained each other at home. It was called “cocooning.” It was not a coincidence that entertaining at home became an excuse to return to the Boomer predisposition to play boomer board games.
Right on cue, Trivial Pursuit arrived. Filled with a wide, but not-very-deep knowledge base, the game used material similar to the Liberal Arts education so many Boomers received at college. In 1985 Boomers were not terribly far from their formal education and their ability to pull up arcane information. Plus sports and entertainment? Done deal.
Keep in mind, in the mid 1980s demand for Trivial Pursuit far outdistanced production, and scarcity was rampant. TP was selling for $35 and there were waiting lists! In 1985.
Fast forward to today. Baby Boomers are eager for entertainment. Network TV shows are made for much younger viewers. Movie franchises are also made for younger generations (in fact, increasingly I am having trouble differentiating among different actresses named Jennifer.) What’s a Boomer to do? Even before COVID-19, Baby Boomers were jonesing for appropriate entertainment options.
Boom Again® … right on cue. Forget trying to remember arcane material. It just isn’t going to be Boomer friendly at this age and stage of our life. We aren’t interested in an S.A.T. test. But memories of all of the “stuff” we touched, and all the experiences we had, are all right within reach.
The Ed Sullivan Show * JFK * Elvis * Vietnam * The Beatles * The Great Escape * The Ford Mustang * Martin Luther King Jr. * The French Connection * Muhammad Ali * Have Gun, Will Travel * Doris Day * Mickey Mantle * LBJ * I Love Lucy * Yahtzee * Bob Dylan * American Bandstand * Nixon * Saturday Night Fever * Watergate * The Cone Heads * The Cold War * Nancy and Sluggo * Spin the Bottle * Marijuana * Red Rover, Red Rover * Jackie Kennedy * Mary Poppins * Birth Control * Laugh-In * IKE * EST * Life magazine * Gomer Pyle * Twiggy * And so much more.
Every generation has a predisposition to a particular kind of gaming. My parents: card playing. Our kids: video and tech games. Baby Boomers: board games
Like I said … Boom Again is The Game We Were Born to Play. After all, we’ve already lived the answers!
– Brian Hersch
