Cultural Legitimization - The Evolution of Authorship in Board Games in Europe and the United States (1845 to 1984)

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mabel

Examines how board game authorship gained recognition from 1845 to 1984, using analysis of a corpus of 3,700+ games from the Université Sorbonne Paris Nord’s Fonds Patrimonial du Jeu de Société. Traces how publisher credit for game authors has been rare historically yet increased over time, indicating a broader legitimization process. Compares differing author status in Europe versus North America and addresses author gender, transmediality, and the boundary between intellectual property and authorship.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Cultural Legitimization

The Evolution of Authorship in Board Games in Europe and the United States (1845 to 1984)

Authorship, Credit, and Status across Regions

Methodology and Protocol: Studying the Fonds Patrimonial du Jeu de Société (FPJS, Board Game Heritage Collection)

Cultural Legitimization The Evolution of Authorship in Board Games in Europe and the United States (1845 to 1984) • Vincent Berry and Annie Xiang The authors examine the evolution of board game authorship between 1845 and 1984, based on an analysis of a corpus of more than thirty-seven hundred games from the University Sorbonne Paris North’s Fonds Patrimonial du Jeu de Société, a board game collection of more than fifteen thousand titles. Overall, they show that game authors have rarely received credit from publishers, although they increasingly do so now, testifying to the existence of a legitimization process for board games. The authors also discuss the difference in the status of the author for games in Europe and North America, highlighted by the different proportion of games credited or in the terms used for such crediting. Finally, they explore the questions of author gender, transmediality, and the porous distinction between intellectual property and authorship. Key words: authorship; auctoriality; board game creation; cultural legitimation; game designer Since the mid-1990s, there has been an increased interest in board games in France and more broadly in Europe. This phenomenon is reflected in the growing number of titles available and the steady rise in sales of such games over the past fifteen years—around four hundred million euros for the French sector in 2017 (Berry 2017). In 1996 almost two hundred new games appeared on the French market, more than three hundred in 2006, almost five hundred in 2014, more than nine hundred new titles in 2017, while more than one thousand new titles were published per year beginning in 2021. Alongside the increase in production, we are also seeing a rise in the number of publishers and boardgame players. In 2015 nearly 75 percent of French people declared having played a board game in the past year, compared to over 80 percent in 2018 (Berry and Coavoux 2021) . Along with this increase in the number of new board games offered comes what a number of professionals see as a form of “cultural legitimization”(Bour- 246 American Journal of Play, volume 16, numbers 2 and 3 © 2024 The Strong [Contact Vincent Berry at vincent.berry@univ-paris13.fr](Contact Vincent Berry at vincent.berry@univ-paris13.fr) dieu 2015) . Board games are now the subject of specialized journals, where experts debate the quality of game mechanics and the gaming experience it provides (i.e. its intrinsic qualities and benefits) . More and more international awards acknowledge the originality of a game. Just as with film posters or book covers, the awards the game has received are now often printed on game boxes (Berry and Roucous 2021) . In the world of board game enthusiasts, a whole culture of authorship has taken root. A number of authors are indeed recognized by the public, sometimes for a particular creative style or for the importance their creations have had in the board game landscape (Barbier 2022) . A recent example is Klaus Teuber, author of the Settlers ofCatan, whose work is recognized by many board game enthusiasts for its importance in the history of the so-called modern boardgame (Price 2020), and whose death provoked a wave of tributes reaching the mainstream media. As Melissa Rogerson, Martin Gibbs, and Wally Smith point out (2016): “Gamers value the artwork of a game and the design of the box. Boxes of modern European board games typically credit the artist as well asthe designer with some—Doris Matthaüs, Franz Vohwinkel, Michael Menzel, Klemens Franz—now household names for hobbyist”(3961) . This article looks at the development of a system of authorship in the world of board games in Europe and the United States and studies its evolution. The notion of authorship as we use it refers to the recognition of an authority atthe origin of a work (Foucault 1979; Neeman and Clivaz 2012), which may be legal (moral or property rights) or symbolic (simply credited by text or a pic

FAQs

What is the time span and data source used to study board game authorship?

The study covers 1845 to 1984 and analyzes a corpus of 3,700+ games from the Université Sorbonne Paris Nord’s Fonds Patrimonial du Jeu de Société, a collection with 15,000+ board game titles.

How does the article describe changes in whether game authors receive publisher credit?

It finds that game authors were rarely credited by publishers in earlier periods, while credits increasingly appear later, supporting the idea of a cultural legitimization process.

How do Europe and North America differ in the status of authors in board games?

The article highlights differences in credited proportions and in terminology used for credit, and frames European perspectives as more centered on directors or writers, while English/North American contexts more often emphasize publishers and producers.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mabel