Colloquium 'Board Games in Academia III'
After two colloquia at Leiden University in 1995 and 1997, the need among board games researchers to meet and exchange thoughts and research results remained unassuaged. The hesitation initially experienced about organizing such a conference in Florence has now been transformed to enthusiasm with multiple offers to host the fourth colloquium. After considering Vienna, Frankfurt, Barcelona and New York, it will be the University of Fribourg in Switzerland which will continue the tradition in 2001.By Alex de Voogt
The regular meetings and the academic journal 'Board Games Studies', which was launched in 1998, have created a field of research which is growing both in number of researchers and in academic significance. There was no doubt about this in Florence. There were lecturers from Italy representing the expertise present at the Fondazione Benneton Studi Ricerche, an Italian institute which publishes a journal and various books on games and culture. But lecturers new to the field, from Japan, the United States, and France, showed that offering a location different from Leiden is not the only reason for attracting new people to the field.The significance of board games research has shown itself repeatedly at the previous two colloquia. This time, a surprisingly interesting lecture on the game(s) of Monopoly and another on North American board games history showed that questions of distribution and development can be applied to both traditional and commercial games. A lecture on the theories of the development and distribution of Madagascar and South Asian mancala games demonstrated that progress in the field of board games studies may have a broader significance. The questions and methodologies presented in games research assist scientists who address similar questions in linguistics, cultural history, or even biology.
Asia has assumed a special place in the growth of board games research. Not only have new Asian researchers presented themselves at each colloquium, but the region itself also attracts particular attention. In 1995 and 1997, mancala games and historical records of games that used to be played in Asia attracted most of the attention. This time, commercial games also pointed towards Asia, in this case India. Pacheesi (also known under various other names) has been studied extensively through collections in Europe and fieldwork in India. This game was introduced to Great Britain where in the course of time its Indian origin was forgotten. It was also introduced to the United States where it was consistently promoted as a game from India. Gradually the name Ludo became more common in Great Britain and the Ludo version of Pacheesi was exported back to India as a commercial game. This has led to Indians playing a commercial version of their own traditional game alongside a still existing tradition of playing Pacheesi the Indian way. 
The Ludo boardgame, a commercial version of Pacheesi from India.
The diversity of participants extends beyond their various disciplines and countries of origin. An important part of the participants is collecting, manufacturing, inventing, or just playing games. This diversity has been particularly useful in research where commercial and traditional games come together such as research on Pacheesi, but also in the lectures on Astrological Chess or 'Dissemetrical Blockade Games'. The games collectors and manufacturers present a wealth of information on the distribution and development of games in the Western world, while historians and fieldworkers trace these games to other regions.
Research on board games has centred on their distribution and development. It appears that experts on cultures from a variety of disciplines contribute as much to this field as the experts on commercially produced games. The colloquia and publications show that distribution and development affect not just the games themselves but also extend to games research. Fribourg, Switzerland, will be yet another occasion at which to show the results of yet another step in the spread and development of board games research.
Dr Alex de Voogt is an affiliated fellow at the IIAS. E-mail: devoogt@let.leidenuniv.nl.