Why Board Games Are Better Than Video Games

Shawn Davison
3 min readJun 13, 2017

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Monopoly Board Game

In the past, board games have been an important part of every child’s life. However over the years, things changed and kids started spending more of their time with video games. But there is a lot of difference between what both types of games teach them. We’ve listed some reasons why board games are beneficial for your child’s future.

If you are thinking about buying your child a new game, you have two options, the new and trendy video games, and then there are traditional board games.

Video games, at least the single-player ones, just teach them that they are the best. It’s easy for them to forget that they aren’t always the winner and that they are playing against actual people when they play online. With board games they are taught just the opposite. No matter if they win or lose, it makes them aware that other people matter. It teaches them to be civil, work together and to be patient.

We have listed some reasons why you should choose board games for your children’s next game:

Facing Your Opponents

With video games it is easy to think of the opponent on the other side of the internet as a faceless drone. But at a game table, they can’t do that. They know that fellow players are people. They face them in real life and learn to deal with different types of people.

The Power of Persuasion

Generally politics play a major role in any board game. It gives players conflicting goals, and this is possible only with board games. While at times this is completely overt, like when the players gang up to stop someone from getting to greater level in Munchkin.

Math You Can Manage

There are several games which can be boiled down to math and this is very true for board games. The reason being in board games players can handle a lot of the math in their head. For instance, in case of Settlers of Catan, the player with settlements on wheat fields numbered four and six will have a two in nine chance of gaining that good.

Social Tension

Betrayals are a part of the game and it can happen in video games too. But in video games, their betrayer is always a faceless opponent in a digital avatar. In a contrary, in the case of board games they will deal with the betrayer in real life. This means that they will be able to see his or her actions and consequences. They learn to face challenging circumstances and overcome their fear.

Board Games can help children to learn self-control. Plus they learn how to share with others as well as how to interact. It will be fun way for your children to relax and just enjoy the company around them.

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Shawn Davison

Shawn Davison is co-owner of Level One Game Shop . Level One is a small game store devoted to board, tabletop, and card games located in Kansas City.