Can board games improve mental health? I think so. I am a total board game geek, and we have a good chunk of a bookcase bursting with them. We are also in the process of ‘up-geeking’ our kids (favourites at the moment include Catan Junior and Castle Panic if you are interested 😉 ). They are a fun way to spend time, give you small, solvable problems to engage with and a sense of reward (or loss of course!). But is there more to it?
Board games and mental health
Although I love playing games, I never really thought of the effect that they can have on mental health before. But I recently stumbled across a blog from a board game developer which explores just this – from a very personal and insightful perspective. It is a powerful piece and makes a strong argument that board games – or more accurately the opportunities they provide – can improve mental health in a fairly unique way. To me, it also highlights the importance of social connections and made me think of other collective activities I’ve written about before, like gardening, singing, and others. These are all things which are tougher or impossible to do at the moment for many of us, and that makes me sad. It also reminds me we need to find meaningful substitutes for these forms for connection and psychological nourishment.
Anyhow, you can check out the blog which triggered these musings via the link below.
Blog post from ITB, who also develop cool games!
Take care till next time
Dan
