Board games are alive and well (and innovating) … in Germany

While most people in the English speaking world would probably be hard pushed to be able to mention a new and innovative board game (in all honesty I’d have to say Upwords from my 90s childhood), Germany never stopped either being interested in board games or finding new ways to play, as Tim Harford of the Financial Times reports.

The article is from 2010, but caught the fancy of Hacker News readers a few months back. It’s not hard to imagine why (*cough* Dungeons and Dragons *cough*).

But why Germany of all places? There are a number of reasons (the article gives more), but the most hilarious explanation comes from Martin Wallace of Warfrog:

“There are two schools of thought as to why the Germans love board games…. The Germans are of the opinion that it’s down to their superior education system. We English are of the opinion that it’s because German TV is shite.”