Bruno Patatas, Studio Product Director at Goodgame Studios in Hamburg (one of Germany’s largest videogaming companies), is also a freelance fiction writer. He defintely lives in two worlds and he’s fond of both of them.
ilgiocointavolo.it: What do you think is missing from board games today to spread?
BP : For a long time there?s been a talk about a board games renaissance, but I think that we have been truly living it during the last couple of years already. You see quite frequently in mainstream media articles about it?s popularity and how more and more young people are playing them. D&D (in the tabletop RPG medium) has been particularly successful with their strategy around 5Ed. The way WotC (n.d.r. Wizards of the Coast) is using social media, YouTube and Twitch is a perfect blueprint for other tabletop companies to follow. Companies need to have a strong presence on those channels if they want to be/stay relevant and continue expanding their reach of new players.
ilgiocointavolo.it: Do you agree with the philosophy of our website that it is important to spread the use of board games in all age groups and aggregation occasions?
BP: That is incredibly important. There are board games for pretty much every age group and for every occasion. That?s the beauty of this medium; you are always able to find a game that fits your group.
ilgiocointavolo.it: What is your favorite board game?
BP :I have quite a few favorites, but to keep it simple I will say two: Agricola (board game) and D&D 3.5Ed (tabletop RPGRPG è l'acronimo di Role-Playing Game (gioco di ruolo), un tipo di gioco in cui i partecipanti assumono il ruolo di personaggi immaginari e interpretano le loro azioni e decisioni all'interno di un'ambientazione di gioco specifica. I giocatori creano personaggi con abilità e caratteristiche uniche, e attraverso la narrazione del... Leggi). Both of those games were quite big disruptors in the industry and expanded the medium in a way that we still continue seeing their influence in new products.
ilgiocointavolo.it: How do you manage to find the time to play with it?
BP :I don?t have that much time to play nowadays. I especially like to play videogame adaptations of board games (n.d.r. we’ll have something to say about this matter in a few weeks), that fits better with the time I have available for playing.
ilgiocointavolo.it: Can you tell us about your first experience with boardgames ?
BP : If I can recall I believe the first board game I played was Monopoly, but where things really clicked was when I played for the first time D&D. Being a voracious fantasy reader from a very young age, I was blown away with D&D and how it made me feel like I was living the adventures that I had read so many times. D&D was the game that changed it all for me.
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