For many people, there's no better time to lock yourself in a dungeon with a dragon or accuse Colonel Mustard in the pool hall with the gun.
In the case of Janet Gutierrez and Katy Cadman, this is the ideal time to place an X or a W piece on a space tripling its value.
“It’s the human touch,” said Ms. Gutierrez, looking up from a recent lunchtime Scrabble battle with Ms. Cadman at D6 Table Top Café in Calgary, Alberta.
“We spend time together and I know her interests and she knows mine… You don't see that very often, do you?”
Between games, the two can gaze at more than three walls of 650 games advertised in brightly colored titles, divided into categories for young adults, for the whole family, for beginners and for experienced players.#
“It’s a nice atmosphere,” Ms. Gutierrez said. It’s not noisy and they have food available that you can buy and stay all day.”
Ms. Cadman usually plays video games, but sometimes likes a change of pace.
“We are regulars here,” she added. We just come to play games. Just to kill time.”
The board gaming industry remains at the mercy of economic and geopolitical peaks as well as troughs.
Solomon Kwan, 30, who opened D6 Table Top Cafe with his older brother Michael, mentioned that he and his family have always played board games, especially when public gatherings were canceled during the COVID pandemic -19.
“During confinement, I played a lot of board games with my parents. We had a lot of time and, funnily enough, my mother said to me, 'If you want to buy another game, you better make a business out of it,'” he said with a laugh. “That’s what we did.”
“We just wanted to bring people together, especially after lockdown, and board games were the perfect way to do that,” he stressed.
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Mr. Kwan's favorite game is Ark Nova, which involves putting animals in a zoo and releasing them into the wild.
On a busy day, the café can accommodate around 85 people. There are also three private rooms for fans of the ever-popular Dungeons and Dragons.
“One thing that a lot of people like about this room is that we have dungeon lighting. We want to create a space that, as strange as it may seem, makes you feel like you're playing in your own basement,” said the owner.
“We named our store D6 Tabletop because of a six-sided die—a D6 is what's commonly used in Dungeons and Dragons—but it's also the die most people would recognize.”
Even more popular at Christmas
According to him, Christmas is the busiest time of the year. A number of families have already made reservations, businesses have hosted holiday parties and the cafe has even hosted a wedding.
At Across the Board Game Cafe in Winnipeg, Manitoba, some 1,800 games stretch from floor to ceiling, including classics like Cluedo and strategy games like Kingdom Builder.
“We’re at capacity for December,” said co-owner Clinton Skibitzky.
The cold months are very good for us, because it is an option to get out of the house that is not cold.”
– Clinton Skibitzky, co-owner of Across the Board Game Cafe,
In December, the space is packed day and night for corporate events, family parties and customers looking for gifts for the gamers in their lives.
Skibitzky said the cafe's clientele ranges from children to seniors looking to play games from their youth.
He argued that “party games” are in high demand at this time of year – games that don’t take a lot of time to explain or play and can accommodate groups of all sizes.
Just One is a popular game, which tasks players with discovering as many mystery words as possible using single-word clues.
Also affected by inflation
In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Roberta Alton, owner of Breakout Escape Rooms and Board Game Lounge, says affordability has a negative impact on gaming.
According to her, sales are down compared to last year, but up compared to two years. She mentioned that there have been fewer holiday parties and individual client visits due to economic pressures.
“Christmas celebrations have decreased significantly this year compared to previous years, and it seems that businesses have less money to spend,” she said. I think companies are seeing fewer sales this year and are therefore cutting back on their own spending.”
Ms Alton added that she had noticed the board game cafe industry had declined in recent years.
“It’s a very difficult business model,” she said. There are a lot of days where I think I should just throw in the towel and overhaul the entire escape room space in order to move on. But we have a pretty loyal board gaming community here in Saskatoon that is fantastic. We always do well.”
And even when things seem at their darkest, there are always dragons. According to Ms Alton, these fire-breathing mythological beasts are popular for games. “Dragons are fun,” she judges.
