On the occasion of International Tabletop Day (ITTD) which is celebrated in over 70 countries on April 28, the Mind Sports Forum at Iran Sport for All Federation has planned a nationwide program a day earlier in 24 cities where people can get together at 44 venues on Friday and have fun playing tabletop games for free all day.
ITTD is a worldwide celebration of tabletop gaming, launched by Geek & Sundry, a US-based multimedia production company, in 2012.
Tabletop games experienced a substantial growth in the 1990s especially in Europe and countries such as Germany. After the turn of the millennium, the board gaming industry registered significant expansion, with companies producing a rising number of new games for a growing audience worldwide.
This is the third year ITTD is celebrated in Iran. The number of gamers who attended the programs scheduled for the day doubled from 1,000 in 2016 to 2,000 a year later. Also last year, only seven cities hosted the event while the number has increased to 24 now.
Besides Tehran with 11 places (board game cafes, coffee shops and restaurants) this year, cities including Isfahan, Karaj, Tabriz, Mashhad, Abadan, Ahvaz, Shiraz, Kerman, Sari, Bandar Abbas and Hamedan have also joined the program.
Among the places in Tehran that will welcome gamers on Friday are Café Geek, Café Board and Fekrkade, a center presenting tabletop games.
Tabletop games are normally played on a table or any flat surface. Classified according to the general form, or equipment utilized, they include board games, card games, dice games, paper and pencil games, role playing games, strategy games and tile-based games. However, many games use various attributes. For example, Monopoly utilizes a board as well as dice and cards.
In an interview with the Financial Tribune, Amir Aien, who runs Café Board, talked about plans for Friday. He said his café will offer eight not-so-complicated foreign games so that people who are not familiar with such games can also enjoy.
Interaction Among People
Describing tabletop games, he said they are entertaining yet challenging (group) activities that cause people to interact and create an atmosphere for having fun together - at a time when people are isolated due to new technologies and spend much of their free time in social networks, surfing the Net or playing videogames.
Although a popular gaming industry in the world, there are still many people who are not familiar with such games in Iran and the event provides a great opportunity to introduce non-gamers to an incredibly enriching and rewarding hobby, or at the least come see what all the board game fuss is about.
On a normal day, a group of friends sit at a table and play together; however, on Friday, “we will separate friends who come together and seat them at different tables to play with others they do not know. This is a way to find new friends,” Aien noted.
Supporting Domestic Games
Following the popularity of the foreign games in the country, several local companies have started producing games that are compatible with Iranian culture, beliefs and lifestyle.
Café Geek is one of the sites in Tehran which will offer several local games to visitors on Friday. According the café’s program, some of the game producers will join the gamers as well to guide them about how to play the games.
Some games are based on pure strategy and depend completely on players’ skills, some need thinking and decision-making and contain an element of chance, while some are more like brain games that pose challenges.
About the influence of the games on the gamers, one of the managers of the café, Ashkan Rouhani, told the Tribune, “Playing the games enables the people to indulge in problem solving and decision making”.
The café has set no limitations on the choice of games for Friday and all the 200 games available can be selected.
Tabletop games production companies including Bahamzi (presenting the game Diwan), Baborka (with the game Bejeweled) and Farbod-Engareh (offering the newly-released game Zaar) will each have representatives at the café to help visitors while playing games.
There will also be Mafia Night created by Dorehami-Javaheri Company and Stogite by Hoopa Publication. Rouhani said the companies have also considered prizes for the gamers.
International Tabletop Day is an opportunity to find new friends and playmates with similar interest in such games, he added. “We will place people from different groups together at a table so they can play more and have more fun,” he said, and added that organizers have chosen “More Games, More Gamers” as the motto for the event.
