''Going Cardboard: A Board Game Documentary'' is a 2012 documentary about the American adoption of

German-style board game A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, (generally just referred to as board games in Europe) is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical componen ...

s, and includes coverage of the 2009 board game event ''

Spiel Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day boardgame trade fair which is also open to the public held in October (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen ex ...

'' in

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, as well as interviews with many prominent game designers. The film was written, directed and produced by Lorien Green, who was introduced to board gaming by her husband. It was financed through the

crowd funding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by cro ...

service

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

Summary

Lorien Green shows how modern board games became popular in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. This includes interviews with influential

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

s, fans, collectors, shop owners, specialized journalists and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

s who explain how, of all things, the internet promoted the success of non-digital games. It's been suggested that it's a useful tool to introduce newcomers to organized board gaming.

Reception

The ''Geeks Playing Games'' website called it a "must see for anyone interested in the people behind the games and the process behind the production", although German newspaper ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' criticized it for being somewhat dated, as the film spent several years in post-production and only covers games up to 2009.

Interviews

Designers

Klaus Teuber Klaus Teuber (born June 25, 1952) is a German former dental technician and designer of board games. He is best known for designing the strategy board game Catan. Career Teuber won the Spiel des Jahres ("Game of the Year") award four times: for ...

(''

The Settlers of Catan ''Catan'', previously known as ''The Settlers of Catan'' or simply ''Settlers'', is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber. It was first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag (Kosmos) as ''Die Siedler von Catan''. Pl ...

'') *

Reiner Knizia Reiner may refer to: *Reiner (crater), a crater on the Moon, named after Vincentio Reiner *Reiner Braun, a fictional List_of_Attack_on_Titan_characters, character in the anime/manga series ''Attack on Titan'' People with the given name Reiner *Rein ...

(''

Keltis ''Keltis'' is a board game designed by Reiner Knizia that won the Spiel des Jahres The Spiel des Jahres (, ''Game of the Year'') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design ...

'') *

Alan R. Moon Alan R. Moon (born 18 November 1951) is an author of board games, born in Southampton, England. He is generally considered to be one of the foremost designers of German-style board games. Many of his games can be seen as board game variations on ...

('' Ticket to Ride'') *

Friedemann Friese Friedemann Friese (born June 5, 1970) is a German board game designer, currently residing and working in Bremen. His trademarks are his green-colored hair and games whose titles begin with the letter "F". The majority of his games, self-publish ...

(''

Power Grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...

'') *

Donald X. Vaccarino Donald X. Vaccarino (born 1969) is an American board and card game designer. He published the card game ''Dominion (card game), Dominion'' in 2009, which won the ''Spiel des Jahres'' award along with many others, and has had 15 expansions. ''Domin ...

(''

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...

'') * Nick Kellet (''

Gift Trap ''Gift Trap'' is a 2006 indie party board game, invented by Nick Kellet (based on an idea inspired by his eldest daughter in 2004). ''Gift Trap'' is billed as "The hilarious gift-exchange party game". Gift Trap relies on the players' personal ...

'') *

Matt Leacock Matt Leacock is an American board game designer, most known for cooperative games such as Pandemic (board game), Pandemic, Pandemic (board game), Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, Forbidden Island (game), Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert. Early l ...

(''

Pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

'') * Mac Gerdts (''

Imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texa ...

'') * Kory Heath ('' Zendo'') * Stephen Glenn (''

Balloon Cup ''Balloon Cup'' is a two-player card game designed by Stephen Glenn and published by Kosmos in 2003. The object of the game is for a player to win three of the five available trophies for flying hot air balloons. To do so, the players take turns ...

'') *

Christophe Boelinger Christophe Boelinger is a prolific game designer and game artist from France. His most famous game is ''Dungeon Twister''. Boelinger is credited as the designer of over 60 board games or game items. He is known as a fan of theme, unique styles, an ...

(''

Dungeon Twister ''Dungeon Twister'' is a strategy board game with a fantasy theme. ''Dungeon Twister'' was created by Christophe Boelinger, who published other French games such as ''Halloween Party'', ''A Dog's Life'', and ''Snowboard''. ''Dungeon Twister'' was ...

'') * Corey Konieczka ('' StarCraft: The Board Game'') * Bryan Johnson (''Island Fortress'')

Publishers

Jay Tummelson Jay Tummelson is the founder of Rio Grande Games. Career Jay Tummelson was the top-ranked RPGA Judge, when Don Bingle and Linda Bingle brought him on as a third owner of their company 54°40' Orphyte after they purchased the product rights for Pac ...

(

Rio Grande Games Rio Grande Games is a board game publisher based in Placitas, New Mexico. The company primarily imports and localizes foreign language German-style board games. History In 1995, Jay Tummelson began working for Mayfair Games. At that time, May ...

) * Mark Kaufmann (

Days of Wonder Days of Wonder is a board game publisher founded in 2002 and owned by Asmodée Éditions, Asmodee Group since 2014. Days of Wonder distributes its games to 25 countries. It specializes in German-style board games and has branched out to includ ...

) * Alexander Yeager (

Mayfair Games Mayfair Games was an American publisher of board, card, and roleplaying games that also licensed Euro-style board games to publish them in English. The company licensed worldwide English-language publishing rights to ''The Settlers of Catan'' ser ...

) * Zev "Z-Man" Shlasinger (

Z-Man Games Z-Man Games is an American board game company, incorporated in 1999. It was named after its founder, Zev Shlasinger. The company is known for their ''Pandemic'' series of board games, as well as being the sole publisher for the English editions of ...

) * Derk Solko (

BoardGameGeek BoardGameGeek (BGG) is an online forum for board gaming hobbyists and a game database that holds reviews, images and videos for over 125,600 different tabletop games, including European-style board games, wargames, and card games. In addition to ...

) * Nick Medinger ( Funagain Games)

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 2229165
Lorien Green interviewed by Jonathan H. Liu
at

Wired.com ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fran ...

Documentary films about fandom Board games Kickstarter-funded documentaries American documentary films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films