What Video Games Can Learn from Board Games  What Video Games
Can Learn From Board Games  Video games already owe a lot to
board games and tabletop RPGs. Most of the language we associate
with digital entertainment – hit points and health potions,
perks and buffs, special moves and levelling systems – can be
traced back to Dungeons & Dragons or its kin. The classic pen
and paper role playing game created a vernacular not just for
fantastical settings, but for the way players interact with
those settings.  Video games took that language and ran,
building systems based on the D20 mechanic that D&D popularised.
But moving away from the table inherently changed the nature of
gaming; choices narrowed, stories became less fluid and
experiences became lonelier.  While there are still obvious
connections, board and video games are now two disparate
entities, linked by a common ancestor but built on fundamentally
different foundations. In a time when some claim the video game
industry is beset by a malaise, trapped in