The popularity of board gaming has steadily increased over the past two decades. Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, the sales of physical tabletop games broke records in many places. This, even though physical play was often impossible due to social isolation. Yet, with the help of digital technology and online communities, players found each other.
In his doctoral dissertation, Master of Science Ville Kankainen examines physical-digital hybrid play experiences and their design in the context of contemporary tabletop gaming. According to him, tabletop gaming is often considered as a disconnected respite in a fully digitalized society. Yet, it is the digitality, and the spreadability of media content, which have a central role in the ongoing tabletop gaming renaissance, and particularly in the diversification of tabletop gaming experience.
Building on Kankainen's master's thesis from 2015, the dissertation combines multiple datasets, reflecting them through a multidisciplinary theoretical framework combining central theories from the field of game studies with synergetic perspectives from closely related fields, such as consumer studies and media studies. Data sets include tabletop game hobbyist interviews, the diverse qualitative data collected in the Hybrid Social Play research project funded by Tekes (now Business Finland) in 2016–2017, as well as survey data on the use of online media by tabletop game enthusiasts, with 191 respondents.
Hybrid play expands tabletop gaming experiences
“Contemporary tabletop gaming is much more than just playing a physical board game,” Kankainen says.
According to him, it is often a holistic leisure experience, the physical and digital aspects of which are difficult to distinguish. A common example are so-called “hybrid board games”, in which typically a mobile application is used to introduce automated functionalities or video game-like elements to traditional cardboard, wood, and plastic elements of tabletop games.
“The blending of physical and digital in tabletop gaming creates a variety of hybrid playful activities, where consumption and media cultural practices become integral elements of tabletop gaming leisure and experience,” Kankainen argues.
“Yet, in their mundanity, many such practices and interactions easily turn invisible, turning the focus turns too much towards the typical attractions of tabletop gaming: tangible experiences and digital-free social interaction,” he continues.
In a connected society, however, intangible culture gets spread at an unprecedented rate. In its wake, also the material culture of tabletop gaming spreads.
“New players might get interested in the hobby by watching tabletop gaming videos in YouTube, and games purchased in online stores often travel physically half-way around the world,” Kankainen says.
Crowdfunding platforms have a pivotal role in tabletop gaming markets, and for some tabletop gamers participating in crowdfunding campaigns is a central part of the hobby.
Pictures and videos shared in social media open a window to tabletop gaming experience of others but can also be used as building blocks in identity work.
“In some cases, playing the games can even take a back seat in the hobby,” Kankainen says.
Tabletop games as tools for social debate
In addition to blending physical and digital element, tabletop gaming offers multidimensional experiences that go beyond the game itself, stretching over time and space by interacting and entangling with the rest of the contemporary media sphere.
“As physical board games become material for online content, they can also be harnessed for social debate, of which the Star of Africa is one example,” Kankainen says.
According to Kankainen, tabletop games as means of social debate is not a phenomenon brought about by digitalization. Nevertheless, in addition to more carefree playful interaction, their material aesthetics offer a good grip surface for social debate in the visual culture of the internet.
Public defence on Friday 21 February
The doctoral dissertation of M.Sc. Ville Kankainen, entitled Hybrid Play Experience and Design in Tabletop Gaming, will be publicly examined at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences of Tampere University on Friday 21 February 2025 at 12:00. The examination will take place at City centre campus, in the auditorium B1096 of the Pinni B building (Kanslerinrinne 1, Tampere). Associate Professor Souvik Mukherjee (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, India) will act as the opponent in the defense, and the custos will be Senior Research Fellow Thomas Apperley (Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University).
The doctoral dissertation is available online.
The public defence can be followed via remote connection.