Bulldog Board Games: Tabletop inclusivity
FRESNO, Calif. – Board games have brought people together for thousands of years, and have remained popular despite new forms of entertainment, like video games, saturating the market.
Just last year one of the largest board game companies, Hasbro, generated $4.1 Billion in revenue.
The members and officers of the Bulldog Board Games Club at Fresno State represent this market on campus. To them, board games represent more than just pieces of cardboard on a table.
For people like Jarrett Register, a Civil Engineering student, the games can provide a brief respite from the fast-flowing waters of college-level coursework.
“Getting a change of scenery, I guess, from everyday school life,” Register said. “It lets people have fun with other students, kind of, connect with them, without having it have to be through a group project or something annoying like that. “
The club looks to provide students with a place on campus to come, play some board games, and have fun with other people without the burden of being in class.
The club has a seemingly limitless amount of board games, which has increased as the club has grown. Anyone can come into the meeting, pick up a game with their friends, and play.
Paige Mercer, an Ag Education Major and another member of the club spoke on how important it is to them that there are people from all over campus who come and play games. To them, seeing so many different people in one room all doing one thing is indicative of how inclusive this club can be.
According to Mercer, there are games for people of every interest. No matter your major, there will be something you’re interested in.
“You’ve never lost at Scrabble harder unless you’ve played against a couple of English majors. Really we have a ton of different games that cater to different interests. I mean I’m ag, like I said, and I just went out and bought like a chicken game.”
Graduate student Taylor Boyd, who is the Treasurer of the club, said that it was the Bulldog Board Games club that took them in three years ago, and showed them what it was like to be part of a community on campus.
“This club means a lot to me, it helped me be able to find my friends to this day so I want to be able to create a place where other people can fully experience the same thing I did.”
While most of the Club’s meetings take place on Fridays in the RSU from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., the best place to stay up to date is on the club’s Instagram, linked above and here.
You can watch the video story here.