Board Games vs. Video Games. Which is better?

Before we begin this timeless debate, I just want to make it clear that I am coming from a very subjective perspective. I am no professional when it comes to video games; my skills range from Minecraft to The Sims and that’s just about it. So, when I make my conclusion, which I’m sure many of you will disagree with, keep in mind that I may not be the most experienced person out there when it comes to video games. Board games, on the other hand, bring out my wildest, most competitive side and I am not ashamed to say that I am a complete professional in all things dice, trivia, snakes, and ladders.

But first, I want to take you back to my childhood days when my sister and I would yell at each other from our neighbouring bedrooms something along the lines of, “CREEPER! THERE’S A CREEPER! HANNAH, THERE’S A CREEPER!” Can I just point out, that with only a wall separating us, my sister and I would yell at each other as though we were on opposite sides of the motorway, shouting over traffic.

In the days when Minecraft was arguably at its peak, my sister and I would sit at our respective bedroom desks from the early morning hours to late at night glued to our computer screens. For hours (although it seemed like a few minutes to us), we would build our own houses, spawn countless amounts of cats, and play games on servers until our brains could take it no longer…or until we’d had a good night’s sleep before getting up to do it all over again. Though my mum would probably disagree, I look back at this period of my childhood with great fondness. Though Minecraft possibly caused some of my most heated arguments I have ever had with my sister, I can’t help but think of this game as a defining part of my life.

Video games have a great power in allowing us to escape the monotonous routines of daily life

Minecraft aside, video games have a great power in allowing us to escape the monotonous routines of daily life. Open-world games in particular allow you to approach objectives freely and carve out your own path, something which sometimes feels impossible in today’s regulated and repetitive society. Games such as Minecraft, Red Dead Redemption, and The Legend of Zelda create vast, immersive environments where no two players will experience the world in exactly the same way.

When I look back at the days I’d spend playing video games with my sister, I can’t help but wonder whether games such as Minecraft actually helped bring out my creative and artistic side. Minecraft was where I first learned that you could make glass by heating sand, or that mutton came from sheep. Small things like these, really improved my awareness of the world around me even if they were in tiny, almost pointless ways.

While video games really do encourage you to improve your decision-making skills and expand your imagination, I think if you were to ask my sister, games like these really do bring out the worst in people, especially when it comes to my short temper. When things don’t go my way, you will be sure to know about it. I was never one to throw my controller across the room and dent a hole in my wall, but my sister can assure you that my verbal abuse was just as violent. Here, I think it would be suitable to talk about the age-old family-dividing game of Mario Kart. I’ll let you in on a little tradition that my family has upheld since the beginning of time…

Every year, without fail, my cousins would all gather for our annual tournament of Mario Kart. While our parents would celebrate New Year’s like normal people, we would all crowd together in one room, DS in hand, ready to compete for the title of the ultimate Mario Kart racer. Now, I was one of the youngest when it came to these tournaments and am no stranger to coming dead last in every race; I like to think of it as a character-building moment more than an ultimate loser moment.

You’d think, now that we’re all adults, we’d have stopped all this childish competitiveness by now. You thought wrong. Though we have had some dropouts over the years of those claiming to be ‘too old,’ the remaining few of us still gather together, squishing together on a single sofa, to re-claim the title. I don’t like to blow my own trumpet, but over the years I have climbed my way up the rankings, arguably to the top spot (talk about a character arc). Clearly, video games like Mario Kart remain timeless. As we’ve all grown older and taken our own paths in life, games like these really bring my cousins and I back together and remind us of a time when our biggest problem in life was getting hit by a blue shell.

It wasn’t until I joined university that I completely converted to board games. I have no shame in making this statement and now I will tell you why. As a kid, I loathed board games. Every Christmas Eve, I would visit my Grandad’s and have to spend several hours staring at a Scrabble board until words didn’t even seem like words anymore. My sister and I would slowly lose the will to live until words like TURD would send us into troublesome fits of laughter (our parents were never impressed). However, once I’d faced the loneliness and silence of sitting in my room during the first year of university, there was nothing I wanted to do more than sit around the table with my family and play a good board game. I had brought my Nintendo Switch with me to university and attempted to play Mario Kart and Animal Crossing on my own, but nothing would satisfy me. It just wasn’t the same.

You don’t need to have a big circle of friends or a fully functioning family to have a good time

Board games bring out an indescribable joy in me. Coming home for Christmas was always a highlight. I like to think that I am a master at Cluedo until my Mum and Grandma both completely prove me wrong. Nothing reminds me of how sly and manipulative my family really are until the Cluedo board comes out; I never knew my family were all secret villains. Pictionary is a classic, proving to me that Minecraft didn’t actually improve my creative or artistic abilities at all. Trivial Pursuit grounds us back to reality when we realise none of us are as intelligent as we think (some of those questions are ridiculously impossible though). And Connect Four is a classic way to bring back those heated arguments I used to have with my sister playing Minecraft. This year, a three-way chess board was brought out (yes, you heard me correctly). I remained an observer during this game, watching my aunt and cousins frantically reference the rule book every time they moved a piece. It was complicated but very amusing to watch.

Now, I hear all you video game enthusiasts, “But Hannah, don’t you need a tonne of friends to play board games? Isn’t that one of their biggest disadvantages.” Absolutely not. You don’t need to have a big circle of friends or a fully functioning family to have a good time. As I sit here, writing this article, I am proudly repping the merch of a popular YouTube channel ‘Smosh Games.’ They have been my saving grace during my lowest times and periods of loneliness, especially on my year abroad. Their channel is full of both video games and board games. From reacting to video games such as Five Nights at Freddy’s and Resident Evil 8, to playing board games such as Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly, this channel has it all. If you’re neither a fan of playing video games nor board games, sometimes just watching other people play them is enough to bring you joy. Both have their pros and cons, but there’s nothing wrong with not being entirely interested in either.

Video games were the pinnacle of my childhood, and board games were the saving grace of my university years. Both have played a significant role in shaping me as a player and a person. While my love for board games remains unmatched, perhaps the child within me will re-emerge one day and demand a game of Minecraft with my sister. Though I laugh at the thought, I would like to see us, two twenty-something-year-olds, get out our old laptops and shout at each other like we’re kids again.