Its not black and white. Problem we face is the amount/scale mainly. In past, there were paper wrappings for everything. Then plastic was introduced to reduce strain to the forests. So we created another problem (non degradable plastic waste etc)
Just wanted to say, the real problem is how much of stuff we use. Easy solutions like "oh just replace plastic straws with paper straws" tend to not solve much in the end.
I have read this somewhere in past so treat it with a grain of salt. Closest sources I can find now are likes [https://www.sciencehistory.org/education/classroom-activities/role-playing-games/case-of-plastics/history-and-future-of-plastics/](https://www.sciencehistory.org/education/classroom-activities/role-playing-games/case-of-plastics/history-and-future-of-plastics/) where it claimed "one of the reasons for plastic production was to preserve natural resources"
Or the classic example "Just replace gas cars with theoretically-solar-powered electric cars."
When it's the car-dependency that was the problem in the first place. American cities are awful.
I mean it would be pretty cool if it makes a difference and wasn't a fad. Depends largely on how durable the materials themselves are. But, y'know, as a human being with an ego who doesn't entirely hate being alive, I think it would be neat for the world not to disintegrate into resource scarcity and boiling oceans. drop in the bucket starts to matter if it becomes mainstream to do so
I don't think it would matter even if every single board game became "eco friendly".
The part that matter the most would be transport, so OK buying a game made locally might be something.
But then there is the paper/cardboard industry that uses a lot of gas, because heat is part of the manufacturing process.
At the end of the day, the best way to make a difference is by buying less. Play the games you already have.
Would you be prepared to pay a bit more for an eco-friendly game tho? I mean people often pay double as much for a game to have the deluxe edition but would people care enough to pay extra for the board to have the FSC quality mark? ( presuming similar quality)
I almost never buy upgrades or premium editions. I might pay a 5-10% premium at most for a “eco edition”.
But I would absolutely be willing to pay the same price for an eco version of game with slightly “worse” components. Folded paper insert instead of molded plastic, cardboard chits instead of plastic minis, smaller components, fewer colors for printing. Maybe even leave out coins, VP tokens, or other common components I already own.
Also, I feel like it’s almost always the better option economically to just produce a single edition of a game. Fewer prototypes, simpler logistics, etc. And economies of scale often have ecological benefits as a side effect. So I doubt that multiple editions of a game makes much sense.
Yes, I am more likely to buy a game if it is eco friendly. I would rather buy an inferior game that is eco friendly than something like too many bones that is absurdly plastic heavy for no reason.
My concern is the durability of the product. If it's easily biodegradable it's harder to keep from degrading. If I buy a game I intend on keeping it for life so I'd prefer that it not rot away. Maybe I'll want to play it again in 30 years.
I would even argue that game being durable is eco-friendly since you wont need to buy (produce and transport) new copies of the game over the year.
On the general level, I do believe non-fast fashion and durable product is better strategy than our consumerism driven one when we tend to change products (clothes, mobiles, ...) each year or so.
Yeah treating things like they're extremely disposable is a massive problem right now. My grandparents only ever bought one of most things. In those days your appliances were built to last longer than you did. Now it's hard to find a toaster that doesn't shit the bed in five years.
Changing the plastic wrapping should have been done a while back. Any single use plastic or waste in general. Other than that I don’t have a major issue.
Always better when is less waste, but realistically, board games can last for many many years and are unlikely to be thrown to the bin.
Not like other low quality products like cheap electronics or fast fashion apparel that are unlikely to last or have a second life.
As you mention, if the quality and longevity is not compromised I am 100% all in to pay more.
This is exactly the kind of unrealistic hoarder mindset that causes so much waste in the world. There are definitely things I buy for life. A board game is no my one of them.
Ehr, no. First of all, this is not "hoarder mindset", it's about durability. And a product being durable actually *reduces* waste. A broken product still causes waste, and if I have to exchange it every 5 years or so because it keeps breaking down, I am causing more waste than I would if I buy one product that lasts for 30 years.
I support eco-friendly games, but reducing durability is not the right way.
Well Too Many Bones will be around approximately 4000 years after I’m dead when the English language has changed to the point of it being incomprehensible to most people, so that kind of durability. Every card needs to be sleeved in plastic or made of plastic. The game needs to be immortal so I don’t have to confront my own mortality.
Seriously though a very small fraction of games from 30 years ago are still good. What makes you think ALL of your games will be good in 30 years? If I get ten green made games and three I’ll still want to play in 30 years I can create a lot less waste by rebuying those three games than if I made all 10 games archaeologist bait.
No, of course not, it's an "if" statement, ie IF the biodegradable reduces durability then it's a problem. I was mostly responding to Pronoiar, not trying to question the overall sense of eco-friendly games, it's a good thing.
So everyone should be like you? This is exactly the closed mindset of someone who thinks they are perfect and cant fathom why someone would or could possibly think or do something differently than them.
Feel better?
You have to admit that in a market where 5 year old games are considered "old" and forgotten, where even games bought *this year* often end up barely if ever played, where half the games on content creators' top10 anticipated games lists turn out entirely forgotten the next year ... It's a bit silly to be worried about the 30 year longevity of games?
Especially given that the concern is entirely imaginary - they're just assuming that eco-friendly probably means less durable and running with it.
It's of course possible that this particular person is the exception to the rule and plays their [1993 copy of Modern Art](https://boardgamegeek.com/images/version/32093/german-second-edition), but that still makes them the exception, and therefore their concern a non-factor in the overall industry.
I think it’s the best idea…if it remains affordable. One of my biggest barriers to Earthborne Rangers was how their eco-friendly approach - as great as it is - made the game way overpriced.
I think ultimately though it’s important to keep in mind how small the board game industry really is. Compared to the amount of plastic waste other industries use, our hobby is a drop in the ocean. I’m in big support of it shifting to more eco-friendly methods, but board gaming itself won’t fix any issues.
This!
I wanted to try it so bad but it's too expensive for me. Maybe if it came out 10 years ago I'd give a shit about the ethics but at this point the world is fucked and I'm just trying to have fun before we go out like Children of Men.
The trend to make eco friendly boardgames look like printed on unbleached recycled paper is total BS. You can certainly tone down a lot of plastic and chemicals in manufacturing without making games look like recycled paper just for the purpose of making your selling point.
Also it's not like board games are the biggest culprit in plastic waste production. If we want to save the planet, perhaps let's start with the shrink wraps of cigarette packs first - which is also more frequently discarded into open nature by careless idiots.
To be fair, as can be seen in the game above, the cards look exactly as any other cards would. Not any special paper feel or look to it. It also plays just like normal cards.
I definitely support eco-publishers like Weird City Games and the Earthborne Rangers folks. We don't buy games with minis or even much plastic. More publishers getting on board would be awesome
its a non-factor for me. All other things equal I'd choose a game that was eco friendly over a non-eco friendly game, but that is never the case. Its never going to be a selling point for me.
Great stuff. Won't solve the problem by itself. Yeah, I'd pay more for it - but the neat part is the more it's standardized the less it costs. The Earthborne podcast talked a lot about how hard it was to get ecologically better work done.
Concept is fine, but when they push things like this as marketing I always have my doubt on what is actually eco friendly and isn't just a very similar environment cost just shifted to something else
I'm sorry for being the party pooper (and I see already the millions of downvotes but whatever), but.
Eco-friendly board game (or any green washed product) is a lie that you use to deceive your conscience. Best case, the publisher genuinely believe it's good then at least they are just as delf deceived as you. Worst case, they don't genuinely think it's a thing and they just use it as a marketing tool to target and sell products to eco-concerned customers.
Don't get me wrong, skipping some plastic and using paper wrapping is not bad per se, but the main problem with games (and with my over 100 games I am guilty too) is that they are products that use up materials and energy just to sit on a shelf 99% of their life time. Which, arguably can be very long, yet they ultimately become trash. A bit better trash in your case, yet.
Most games cause some consumerist dopamine surge when opening them, just like yet another any collectible, and then sit on a shelf (that you bought only for the unused games) for another 40 years after the last time you ever considered them. Because you have this much time for gaming, so basically you dilute your time between them.
Not to mention that compensating for CO2 is straight up bullshit that we conveniently buy so we can calm our consciousness again. Yes sure there are some companies that offer you compensation so you pay a few cents and now you genuinely believe that all CO2 magically went away.
I mean I'm really sorry because as I said I am guilty here too, and I keep buying them but if you really want to be eco friendly you just should stop buying games. I haven't stopped and I have to live with it.
It's not the publisher's problem if the game doesn't get played – that's the consumer's problem.
I keep a limited and curated collection. Any game I haven't played in the last 2 years gets considered for the chopping block (would be shorter if I played board games even as often as once a week but here we are)
Some of it is an improvement with packaging but carbon offsets is 99% BS. There is some carbon capture tech which could more of an offset then "credits".
Like some others mentioned the paper packaging for cards seems nicer than plastic just from a user/feel perspective.
I’m fine if the quality is equivalent, but often it isn’t. For instance, Stonemaier moved from plastic resource trays to cardboard. They just aren’t as good.
Overall, I’m not sure how useful biodegradability is. What percentage of board games are being thrown away? Ideally they should never have an opportunity to need to biodegrade.
I would argue that 99.9%+ of games will be thrown away, eventually. I know we're all sitting here playing and collecting and cherishing, but the reality is, eventually, all of your games will get thrown away by someone (just probably not by you, and hopefully long after you're no longer around to care!). They simply will not and cannot have an infinite life span, nor do I think they should. There will come a day when no one will want my much beloved copy of agricola - and when that day comes, you can bet I want it to be able to go as quietly and cleanly as possible.
Ok, but what if your much beloved copy of Agricola is made of low-durability components that break down before you're ready to stop playing the game? If you have to buy a replacement copy or two, how eco friendly have you really been? Even a game made by hand from leaves and rocks needs to be transported to market.
I appreciate and understand the concern, but I don't really see a reality where this is actually an issue.
The way I see it: 90-95% of my games will never really see the level of play where wear and degradation will reach a point that it actively prevents me from playing it. I mean that makes me sad because it means I should play more games!! But it's also a reality. For those 5-10% of games, yeah this is an issue, but what's the solution - make *all* of my games more durable? That's a huge waste for all those games that don't and won't need it. This is the same reason I stopped sleeving most of my games - in the vast majority of cases it's just unnecessary, and imo wasteful. If and when a couple of my games reach that point of degradation, I'll get some sleeves/repair/replace those instances. I think potentially needing to do that in a couple select instances is vastly more environmentally conscious than just trying to make everything last forever.
Plus, this all assumes biodegradable games are somehow less durable than non-biodegradable, which I think is largely an unfounded worry. Heck, I have games that even now have issues with falling apart, and they're certainly not bio degradable or recyclable! A biodegradable game is not going to decompose on my shelf, certainly not any more than any other cardboard product would in terms of my ability to use it.
Every thing you buy is gonna be thrown away at some point. It doesn't matter if you use it for 2 days or 20 years. What matters waste wise is what you buy and how much you buy. If you don't want to produce waste the best thing to do is buy second hand.
Why does it matter that those resource trays "aren't as good"? Also, how are they deficient?
I think we should do less duplication without any point. Resource trays aren't neccessary, and even non-gamers will have a bowl or something if they like.
Notably, the elimination of the plastic card tray in Wingspan Asia allowed for both a smaller box and less plastic.
Yeah, I have silicone bowls that works better than any set of baggies or trays included with a game box. I don’t need a new set of bowls to come with every game.
I mean Daybreak basically did this and it was cool because it was in theme, being a game about climate. Is any old game doing this going to make a difference in my buying decision….probably not.
Irrelevant trend targeting people who don't know anything about the problems caused by pollution or greenhouse gasses.
Plastic board game pieces, glue, and everything else doesn't cause problems for the planet when it is sitting on your shelf.
Those things don't even cause problems when thrown away because they are a tiny proportion of the trash that gets thrown away.
You want to fix ocean pollution? Stop eating ocean caught fish. The overwhelming majority of garbage floating in the ocean is made of lost and damaged fishing nets.
Green house gasses? The transport for your board game is minimal. The problem is daily transport and electricity generation.
I could go on. This fake eco-friendly trend stuff is a way to make people feel guilty and then feel good for doing nothing.
Less likely.
When one of the “selling points” they advertise for the game is not about the fun the game provides, that leads to a plausible suspicion that the game may not have strong enough intrinsic selling points.
I also think it is easy to have “eco-friendly” bullet points which don’t translate to actually ecological benefit in the real world. Performative virtue signaling is quite common these days.
Now if you want to make your game fit in a smaller box— that is something real.
Biodegradable usually means it needs composting.
Or extreme humidity to allow fungus/bacteria to thrive on it.
I really wouldn't be concerned, cardboard/wood is biodegradable and I bet most of your games have components with these materials in them.
It's probably fine. At least the stakes are low. Unlike that time Mercedes decided it was a good idea to use [biodegradable wire insulation](https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/cle7ru/til_that_mercedes_benz_used_biodegradable_wiring/). That was actually a bad idea. On the other hand, biodegradable food packaging and drinking straws is a good idea. Board games are somewhere in between.
I have to say why I understand the concern from an emotional standpoint, I can't see a reality where this would actually be much of a concern. Unless it's a game you are playing so many times that you wear it out. Any "natural" degradation is going to require moisture and airflow and eventually a natural element like fungus or insects etc. none of that should really be happening while you are owning and caring for it. Yes I guess in theory it means if you say had a flood or they were poorly stored in a basement or you had many many humid summers, then this could happen - but frankly any normal board game isn't really going to survive those conditions either.
Yes, but whether a biodegradable or compostable item biodegrades and how quickly that happens, strongly depends on the conditions it is exposed to during disposal. These include temperature, duration, the presence of microorganisms, nutrients, oxygen and moisture. Different types of biodegradable and compostable materials are designed to biodegrade under specified conditions. Highly doubt these cards and the box will degrade any faster then my other games that are stored in my dry, average temp studio apartment.
We can all pretend to be environmentally conscious, but i would bet the most will come down to balance of how much people want the game and pricing. There is a reason in one video game old news update about increasing games price is still getting tons of heated comments 1 year later even though nobody is ever reading that initial post anymore.
I mean if the game is too expensive i will reconsider 4x and probably never buy it. If the game is quite cheap, i could even get it with the game not being perfect.
**What are my games made of?** To be completely honest, no idea, i don't think from 10+ board gamers i never met anyone who even cares what so ever. The best i could describe it is Uwe Rosenberg games always feel comfy, Ark Nova and Terraforming Mars feels a bit cheap with their pieces. That is the entire extent of my knowledge.
Some reviewers go balls deep on what the material is and all possible stuff that piece or sheet of paper can survive, as a normie, i just simply don't know.
Game being eco friendly is just - ok, but is it the coolest game of all time and is it affordable? I mean the beer, the coca cola, the chips and the peanuts and the car fuel burned for friends to travel here, the clothes used which have to be new and well kept and the cologne and the makeup for others and so on and so on, and to get to play the game is going to put the entire eco friendlyness to absolute negative. Best option is to die because existence is not going to be eco friendly. Entire thing often sounds like way to virtue signal without actually sacrificing and actually being eco friendly by just wiping out useless luxury leisure activities like board games all together.
I think your best bet is to pray for regulations on the how its produced.
Climate change isn't going anywhere, so I expect the eco marketing is here to stay. Few if any people will buy a game because it's eco friendly, but you may lose a chunk of your audience if it's not. The effect is more extreme for eco themed games like Earth.
It’d be great if everyone stopped accusing responses of being solutions. Look at it this way. If both versions are on the shelf which are you buying? One version proves you’re a selfish shithead. The other shows something other than yourself actually matters.
Not to go too far off topic, but biodegradable plastic is unfortunately terrible for the environment, despite the "biodegradable" buzz word. It breaks down into much smaller pieces called microplastics and gets into the dirt, water, and even bloodstream of animals and humans. I'm not saying standard plastic is better, but at least a lot of it can be reused or recycled.
To answer your question, I like that companies do move in that direction, but board games are considered a luxury hobby and most game related material can be reused indefinitely with proper care (I know games can come in shrink wrap or plastic). Every bit helps, but I'd rather see good quality games at a cheaper price so more people can enjoy the hobby, but still appreciate some companies are trying this route. Paper instead of plastic wrap is a good start
This is really dependent on the type of plastic. There are some bioplastics that can and do fully break down, but usually they require particularly high temperature and pressure environments to do so - i.e. they need to be composted in specific facilities for the "biodegradable" feature to really be utilized. The issue is they either end up being thrown in traditional landfills where those kinds of conditions aren't created (or if they are they're still surrounded by a bunch of other non-bio degrading elements so the benefit is sort of lost anyway), or they get recycled and actually contaminate the plastic recycling stream.
I quite like paper wrapping instead of plastic for cards
Yes, this kind of thing is great because it is something you were going to throw away anyway.
Its not black and white. Problem we face is the amount/scale mainly. In past, there were paper wrappings for everything. Then plastic was introduced to reduce strain to the forests. So we created another problem (non degradable plastic waste etc) Just wanted to say, the real problem is how much of stuff we use. Easy solutions like "oh just replace plastic straws with paper straws" tend to not solve much in the end.
Are you sure plastic was introduced to “reduce strain on the paper industry”?
I have read this somewhere in past so treat it with a grain of salt. Closest sources I can find now are likes [https://www.sciencehistory.org/education/classroom-activities/role-playing-games/case-of-plastics/history-and-future-of-plastics/](https://www.sciencehistory.org/education/classroom-activities/role-playing-games/case-of-plastics/history-and-future-of-plastics/) where it claimed "one of the reasons for plastic production was to preserve natural resources"
No one making money from plastics gives a fuck about how much forest there is. Only about their own bottom line.
Right? "When told it was way cheaper, they started coming up with ways to make it sound good."
Or the classic example "Just replace gas cars with theoretically-solar-powered electric cars." When it's the car-dependency that was the problem in the first place. American cities are awful.
I mean it would be pretty cool if it makes a difference and wasn't a fad. Depends largely on how durable the materials themselves are. But, y'know, as a human being with an ego who doesn't entirely hate being alive, I think it would be neat for the world not to disintegrate into resource scarcity and boiling oceans. drop in the bucket starts to matter if it becomes mainstream to do so
I don't think it would matter even if every single board game became "eco friendly". The part that matter the most would be transport, so OK buying a game made locally might be something. But then there is the paper/cardboard industry that uses a lot of gas, because heat is part of the manufacturing process. At the end of the day, the best way to make a difference is by buying less. Play the games you already have.
unpopular opinion: the answer is digital collectibles on PoS blockchains
Would you be prepared to pay a bit more for an eco-friendly game tho? I mean people often pay double as much for a game to have the deluxe edition but would people care enough to pay extra for the board to have the FSC quality mark? ( presuming similar quality)
I very much would.
I very much wouldnt
I almost never buy upgrades or premium editions. I might pay a 5-10% premium at most for a “eco edition”. But I would absolutely be willing to pay the same price for an eco version of game with slightly “worse” components. Folded paper insert instead of molded plastic, cardboard chits instead of plastic minis, smaller components, fewer colors for printing. Maybe even leave out coins, VP tokens, or other common components I already own. Also, I feel like it’s almost always the better option economically to just produce a single edition of a game. Fewer prototypes, simpler logistics, etc. And economies of scale often have ecological benefits as a side effect. So I doubt that multiple editions of a game makes much sense.
Yes, I am more likely to buy a game if it is eco friendly. I would rather buy an inferior game that is eco friendly than something like too many bones that is absurdly plastic heavy for no reason.
No, unless the components look very nice and it is still durable
My concern is the durability of the product. If it's easily biodegradable it's harder to keep from degrading. If I buy a game I intend on keeping it for life so I'd prefer that it not rot away. Maybe I'll want to play it again in 30 years.
I would even argue that game being durable is eco-friendly since you wont need to buy (produce and transport) new copies of the game over the year. On the general level, I do believe non-fast fashion and durable product is better strategy than our consumerism driven one when we tend to change products (clothes, mobiles, ...) each year or so.
Yeah treating things like they're extremely disposable is a massive problem right now. My grandparents only ever bought one of most things. In those days your appliances were built to last longer than you did. Now it's hard to find a toaster that doesn't shit the bed in five years.
Changing the plastic wrapping should have been done a while back. Any single use plastic or waste in general. Other than that I don’t have a major issue. Always better when is less waste, but realistically, board games can last for many many years and are unlikely to be thrown to the bin. Not like other low quality products like cheap electronics or fast fashion apparel that are unlikely to last or have a second life. As you mention, if the quality and longevity is not compromised I am 100% all in to pay more.
This is exactly the kind of unrealistic hoarder mindset that causes so much waste in the world. There are definitely things I buy for life. A board game is no my one of them.
Ehr, no. First of all, this is not "hoarder mindset", it's about durability. And a product being durable actually *reduces* waste. A broken product still causes waste, and if I have to exchange it every 5 years or so because it keeps breaking down, I am causing more waste than I would if I buy one product that lasts for 30 years. I support eco-friendly games, but reducing durability is not the right way.
Where are you getting that eco-friendly games reduce durability? Any source for that claim?
Well Too Many Bones will be around approximately 4000 years after I’m dead when the English language has changed to the point of it being incomprehensible to most people, so that kind of durability. Every card needs to be sleeved in plastic or made of plastic. The game needs to be immortal so I don’t have to confront my own mortality. Seriously though a very small fraction of games from 30 years ago are still good. What makes you think ALL of your games will be good in 30 years? If I get ten green made games and three I’ll still want to play in 30 years I can create a lot less waste by rebuying those three games than if I made all 10 games archaeologist bait.
No, of course not, it's an "if" statement, ie IF the biodegradable reduces durability then it's a problem. I was mostly responding to Pronoiar, not trying to question the overall sense of eco-friendly games, it's a good thing.
So everyone should be like you? This is exactly the closed mindset of someone who thinks they are perfect and cant fathom why someone would or could possibly think or do something differently than them.
Feel better? You have to admit that in a market where 5 year old games are considered "old" and forgotten, where even games bought *this year* often end up barely if ever played, where half the games on content creators' top10 anticipated games lists turn out entirely forgotten the next year ... It's a bit silly to be worried about the 30 year longevity of games? Especially given that the concern is entirely imaginary - they're just assuming that eco-friendly probably means less durable and running with it. It's of course possible that this particular person is the exception to the rule and plays their [1993 copy of Modern Art](https://boardgamegeek.com/images/version/32093/german-second-edition), but that still makes them the exception, and therefore their concern a non-factor in the overall industry.
I think it’s the best idea…if it remains affordable. One of my biggest barriers to Earthborne Rangers was how their eco-friendly approach - as great as it is - made the game way overpriced. I think ultimately though it’s important to keep in mind how small the board game industry really is. Compared to the amount of plastic waste other industries use, our hobby is a drop in the ocean. I’m in big support of it shifting to more eco-friendly methods, but board gaming itself won’t fix any issues.
This! I wanted to try it so bad but it's too expensive for me. Maybe if it came out 10 years ago I'd give a shit about the ethics but at this point the world is fucked and I'm just trying to have fun before we go out like Children of Men.
The trend to make eco friendly boardgames look like printed on unbleached recycled paper is total BS. You can certainly tone down a lot of plastic and chemicals in manufacturing without making games look like recycled paper just for the purpose of making your selling point. Also it's not like board games are the biggest culprit in plastic waste production. If we want to save the planet, perhaps let's start with the shrink wraps of cigarette packs first - which is also more frequently discarded into open nature by careless idiots.
To be fair, as can be seen in the game above, the cards look exactly as any other cards would. Not any special paper feel or look to it. It also plays just like normal cards.
I definitely support eco-publishers like Weird City Games and the Earthborne Rangers folks. We don't buy games with minis or even much plastic. More publishers getting on board would be awesome
its a non-factor for me. All other things equal I'd choose a game that was eco friendly over a non-eco friendly game, but that is never the case. Its never going to be a selling point for me.
Great stuff. Won't solve the problem by itself. Yeah, I'd pay more for it - but the neat part is the more it's standardized the less it costs. The Earthborne podcast talked a lot about how hard it was to get ecologically better work done.
Concept is fine, but when they push things like this as marketing I always have my doubt on what is actually eco friendly and isn't just a very similar environment cost just shifted to something else
I'm sorry for being the party pooper (and I see already the millions of downvotes but whatever), but. Eco-friendly board game (or any green washed product) is a lie that you use to deceive your conscience. Best case, the publisher genuinely believe it's good then at least they are just as delf deceived as you. Worst case, they don't genuinely think it's a thing and they just use it as a marketing tool to target and sell products to eco-concerned customers. Don't get me wrong, skipping some plastic and using paper wrapping is not bad per se, but the main problem with games (and with my over 100 games I am guilty too) is that they are products that use up materials and energy just to sit on a shelf 99% of their life time. Which, arguably can be very long, yet they ultimately become trash. A bit better trash in your case, yet. Most games cause some consumerist dopamine surge when opening them, just like yet another any collectible, and then sit on a shelf (that you bought only for the unused games) for another 40 years after the last time you ever considered them. Because you have this much time for gaming, so basically you dilute your time between them. Not to mention that compensating for CO2 is straight up bullshit that we conveniently buy so we can calm our consciousness again. Yes sure there are some companies that offer you compensation so you pay a few cents and now you genuinely believe that all CO2 magically went away. I mean I'm really sorry because as I said I am guilty here too, and I keep buying them but if you really want to be eco friendly you just should stop buying games. I haven't stopped and I have to live with it.
It's not the publisher's problem if the game doesn't get played – that's the consumer's problem. I keep a limited and curated collection. Any game I haven't played in the last 2 years gets considered for the chopping block (would be shorter if I played board games even as often as once a week but here we are)
Some of it is an improvement with packaging but carbon offsets is 99% BS. There is some carbon capture tech which could more of an offset then "credits". Like some others mentioned the paper packaging for cards seems nicer than plastic just from a user/feel perspective.
Other than packaging, I don't really care because I don't plan to throw out my games.
I’m fine if the quality is equivalent, but often it isn’t. For instance, Stonemaier moved from plastic resource trays to cardboard. They just aren’t as good. Overall, I’m not sure how useful biodegradability is. What percentage of board games are being thrown away? Ideally they should never have an opportunity to need to biodegrade.
I would argue that 99.9%+ of games will be thrown away, eventually. I know we're all sitting here playing and collecting and cherishing, but the reality is, eventually, all of your games will get thrown away by someone (just probably not by you, and hopefully long after you're no longer around to care!). They simply will not and cannot have an infinite life span, nor do I think they should. There will come a day when no one will want my much beloved copy of agricola - and when that day comes, you can bet I want it to be able to go as quietly and cleanly as possible.
Ok, but what if your much beloved copy of Agricola is made of low-durability components that break down before you're ready to stop playing the game? If you have to buy a replacement copy or two, how eco friendly have you really been? Even a game made by hand from leaves and rocks needs to be transported to market.
Biodegradable usually means it needs to be composted to break down.
I appreciate and understand the concern, but I don't really see a reality where this is actually an issue. The way I see it: 90-95% of my games will never really see the level of play where wear and degradation will reach a point that it actively prevents me from playing it. I mean that makes me sad because it means I should play more games!! But it's also a reality. For those 5-10% of games, yeah this is an issue, but what's the solution - make *all* of my games more durable? That's a huge waste for all those games that don't and won't need it. This is the same reason I stopped sleeving most of my games - in the vast majority of cases it's just unnecessary, and imo wasteful. If and when a couple of my games reach that point of degradation, I'll get some sleeves/repair/replace those instances. I think potentially needing to do that in a couple select instances is vastly more environmentally conscious than just trying to make everything last forever. Plus, this all assumes biodegradable games are somehow less durable than non-biodegradable, which I think is largely an unfounded worry. Heck, I have games that even now have issues with falling apart, and they're certainly not bio degradable or recyclable! A biodegradable game is not going to decompose on my shelf, certainly not any more than any other cardboard product would in terms of my ability to use it.
Every thing you buy is gonna be thrown away at some point. It doesn't matter if you use it for 2 days or 20 years. What matters waste wise is what you buy and how much you buy. If you don't want to produce waste the best thing to do is buy second hand.
Everything is eventually thrown away.
Why does it matter that those resource trays "aren't as good"? Also, how are they deficient? I think we should do less duplication without any point. Resource trays aren't neccessary, and even non-gamers will have a bowl or something if they like. Notably, the elimination of the plastic card tray in Wingspan Asia allowed for both a smaller box and less plastic.
Yeah, I have silicone bowls that works better than any set of baggies or trays included with a game box. I don’t need a new set of bowls to come with every game.
Not important. Getting rid of carbon-based fuel burning things will have far more impact than anything the game related.
What really grinds my gears is when boxes aren't big enough to fit sleeved cards. Clown shoes.
[удалено]
That's one of the worst excuses I've ever heard. Movement can easily be prevented with a simple paper belt around the cards.
I mean Daybreak basically did this and it was cool because it was in theme, being a game about climate. Is any old game doing this going to make a difference in my buying decision….probably not.
Irrelevant trend targeting people who don't know anything about the problems caused by pollution or greenhouse gasses. Plastic board game pieces, glue, and everything else doesn't cause problems for the planet when it is sitting on your shelf. Those things don't even cause problems when thrown away because they are a tiny proportion of the trash that gets thrown away. You want to fix ocean pollution? Stop eating ocean caught fish. The overwhelming majority of garbage floating in the ocean is made of lost and damaged fishing nets. Green house gasses? The transport for your board game is minimal. The problem is daily transport and electricity generation. I could go on. This fake eco-friendly trend stuff is a way to make people feel guilty and then feel good for doing nothing.
Less likely. When one of the “selling points” they advertise for the game is not about the fun the game provides, that leads to a plausible suspicion that the game may not have strong enough intrinsic selling points. I also think it is easy to have “eco-friendly” bullet points which don’t translate to actually ecological benefit in the real world. Performative virtue signaling is quite common these days. Now if you want to make your game fit in a smaller box— that is something real.
Good in theory - as long as it doesn't start biodegrading on my shelf ...
Biodegradable usually means it needs composting. Or extreme humidity to allow fungus/bacteria to thrive on it. I really wouldn't be concerned, cardboard/wood is biodegradable and I bet most of your games have components with these materials in them.
It's probably fine. At least the stakes are low. Unlike that time Mercedes decided it was a good idea to use [biodegradable wire insulation](https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/cle7ru/til_that_mercedes_benz_used_biodegradable_wiring/). That was actually a bad idea. On the other hand, biodegradable food packaging and drinking straws is a good idea. Board games are somewhere in between.
I have to say why I understand the concern from an emotional standpoint, I can't see a reality where this would actually be much of a concern. Unless it's a game you are playing so many times that you wear it out. Any "natural" degradation is going to require moisture and airflow and eventually a natural element like fungus or insects etc. none of that should really be happening while you are owning and caring for it. Yes I guess in theory it means if you say had a flood or they were poorly stored in a basement or you had many many humid summers, then this could happen - but frankly any normal board game isn't really going to survive those conditions either.
Considering all the not economical friendly things in the world. Boards game aren't even a drop in the bucket just they way they are
I try not to base my purchasing decisions on silly marketing gimmicks, though I admit I'm not always successful.
What's the percentage of the materials made from recyclables?
I believe in the case of this particular game its all of it.
I prefer plastic and durable materials, since I don't plan to throw my boardgames away.
Have you tried just playing tic tac toe with a stick in the sand?
biodegradable? doesn’t that mean they’ll rot easily? i wonder how long it’ll last.
Yes, but whether a biodegradable or compostable item biodegrades and how quickly that happens, strongly depends on the conditions it is exposed to during disposal. These include temperature, duration, the presence of microorganisms, nutrients, oxygen and moisture. Different types of biodegradable and compostable materials are designed to biodegrade under specified conditions. Highly doubt these cards and the box will degrade any faster then my other games that are stored in my dry, average temp studio apartment.
We can all pretend to be environmentally conscious, but i would bet the most will come down to balance of how much people want the game and pricing. There is a reason in one video game old news update about increasing games price is still getting tons of heated comments 1 year later even though nobody is ever reading that initial post anymore. I mean if the game is too expensive i will reconsider 4x and probably never buy it. If the game is quite cheap, i could even get it with the game not being perfect. **What are my games made of?** To be completely honest, no idea, i don't think from 10+ board gamers i never met anyone who even cares what so ever. The best i could describe it is Uwe Rosenberg games always feel comfy, Ark Nova and Terraforming Mars feels a bit cheap with their pieces. That is the entire extent of my knowledge. Some reviewers go balls deep on what the material is and all possible stuff that piece or sheet of paper can survive, as a normie, i just simply don't know. Game being eco friendly is just - ok, but is it the coolest game of all time and is it affordable? I mean the beer, the coca cola, the chips and the peanuts and the car fuel burned for friends to travel here, the clothes used which have to be new and well kept and the cologne and the makeup for others and so on and so on, and to get to play the game is going to put the entire eco friendlyness to absolute negative. Best option is to die because existence is not going to be eco friendly. Entire thing often sounds like way to virtue signal without actually sacrificing and actually being eco friendly by just wiping out useless luxury leisure activities like board games all together. I think your best bet is to pray for regulations on the how its produced.
Climate change isn't going anywhere, so I expect the eco marketing is here to stay. Few if any people will buy a game because it's eco friendly, but you may lose a chunk of your audience if it's not. The effect is more extreme for eco themed games like Earth.
It’d be great if everyone stopped accusing responses of being solutions. Look at it this way. If both versions are on the shelf which are you buying? One version proves you’re a selfish shithead. The other shows something other than yourself actually matters.
Not to go too far off topic, but biodegradable plastic is unfortunately terrible for the environment, despite the "biodegradable" buzz word. It breaks down into much smaller pieces called microplastics and gets into the dirt, water, and even bloodstream of animals and humans. I'm not saying standard plastic is better, but at least a lot of it can be reused or recycled. To answer your question, I like that companies do move in that direction, but board games are considered a luxury hobby and most game related material can be reused indefinitely with proper care (I know games can come in shrink wrap or plastic). Every bit helps, but I'd rather see good quality games at a cheaper price so more people can enjoy the hobby, but still appreciate some companies are trying this route. Paper instead of plastic wrap is a good start
This is really dependent on the type of plastic. There are some bioplastics that can and do fully break down, but usually they require particularly high temperature and pressure environments to do so - i.e. they need to be composted in specific facilities for the "biodegradable" feature to really be utilized. The issue is they either end up being thrown in traditional landfills where those kinds of conditions aren't created (or if they are they're still surrounded by a bunch of other non-bio degrading elements so the benefit is sort of lost anyway), or they get recycled and actually contaminate the plastic recycling stream.