As anyone who's read my blog knows, for my gaming experience, tabletop is king. There's nothing I enjoy more than having a few friends over to sit around a table and play card or board games late into the night. Microsoft has repeatedly appealed to my interests by introducing several of the tabletop games that I love to the Live Arcade. I instinctively buy all of the more off-beat titles that hit the service because I want to support the practice with my hard-earned dollars.

I realize I'm not alone in this. The popularity of Catan is evidence enough that people enjoy having these sorts of games available. It can be really hard, particularly as we become older, to coordinate the schedules and make time to enjoy board games. So, it's natural that we would want to use Live to play with our friends without having to meet in a central location or even to find a pick-up game amongst people we don't know just to get a tabletop fix. It's a great use of the service. It could be better and it could net Microsoft more money than it already does just by implementing a simple feature. The worst bit? The idea is already being used by the redheaded stepchild of online services: Wii.





While coverage of video games is massive, board games get considerably less press. It's a pastoral form of entertainment, far from the cutting edge and perfectly happy to live in its own niche of appreciative fans. But when was the last time you bought a board game based on a review on a website? How long has it been since you actively sought out a new card game to play? No, the vast majority of games are sold as much through word-of-mouth as word-of-experience. One person who really likes games finds a new one, buys it and plays it with their friends. One or two of them might enjoy the experience enough to buy themselves or, at the very least, tell their own friends who might then pick up a copy.

XBLA has part of this formula in effect. The "Tell a Friend" feature is useful for recommending titles to those on your friends list, and a demo can give you a decent impression of play mechanics. I think we all know there's a difference between playing against an AI opponent and competing with an actual human. They're worlds apart. There is no psychological game being played against a computer, as it coldly calculates and removes emotion from the equation. It doesn't thrill at victory or wallow in defeat. And you can't talk smack to them.





So, how can Microsoft and board gaming devs secure themselves greater revenue with little effort? Allow limited multiplayer for Live Gold accounts on these games. Give players who have downloaded the demo the capability to play the game with someone on their friends list a few times. Dr. Mario Rx for WiiWare is utilizing an inverse demo system that allows people to download a multiplayer-only demo of the game from someone they have traded friend codes with. This capability is what Microsoft should consider encouraging developers to do for games like Lost Cities and the upcoming Ticket to Ride.

When we have fun with people we enjoy the company of, we're more likely to buy into the experience. Giving players who have already paid to enjoy multiplayer on the service an opportunity to combine that aspect of Live with the discovery of new games could lead to a wealth of new sales on the platform.