This article is going to get physical, Olivia Newton-John fans. No offense to any Steam gift-code givers out there, but things have to get physical. They just do.
When it comes to gifts, something needs to be wrapped. Something physical needs to be handed over. The recipient has to unwrap the thing. There is a whole tradition of thing-ness that goes with gift giving.
For all the wonderful good that technological media has done us, they’ve also really wrecked gift-giving. It wasn’t that long ago that a couple CDs were a solid gift, pun certainly intended. Although it must sound (again, the puns) nutty to the youngsters, the idea of physically giving someone a chunk of polycarbonate plastic with music on it was a thing. (It gets even weirder, whippersnappers: That chunk of plastic had its own durable plastic case with a little paper pamphlet inside where all the metadata was printed!)
Such Christmases probably seem as distant to Kids These Days® as those physical days of yesteryear when Laura Ingalls got her corn cob doll and fresh orange, then sincerely and voraciously thanked her Pa for it.
But music, movies, books — these were go-to gift categories, and they served humanity well.
Now what? Your dad picks a book out for you and you just notice it already on your Kindle or some such nonsense. Nothing to unwrap. The machines failed to make our offices paperless, so they came for our gift exchanges! It’s some bull malarkey, is what that is! Then again, would you rather he gave it to you physically printed out on paper and bound, like how the neanderthals used to read?
Here’s how we fix this: It’s boardgames.
Below are some boardgames with the best physical components. Wrapping paper not included.