"Has any area of culture changed as massively as board gaming has in the last ten years? In 2010, the hobby was too small to be a niche, and if you heard a reference to tabletop games in the mainstream media, it was probably mocking. Only Catan, then still called The Settlers of Catan, had any kind of audience outside of the hobby, and you couldn't find any of these games outside of your Friendly Local Game Stores or online retailers. Now you can find a well-curated selection of Eurogames at Target and Barnes & Noble, while FLGSs and board game cafes keep popping up in more and more cities. Gen Con, the biggest annual convention for board gaming in the United States, sets new attendance records each year, while PAX expanded into tabletop conventions two years ago with the first PAX Unplugged. If you haven't played any of these games yourself, by now, you know someone who has."
