For our December blog, we decided to take a step back from
the technical theory that went into the development of Hexopolis,
and a step towards how it can easily fit into one of the
staple playing environments of the game: cafés.
side-quest
I recently started working full-time as a barista at a stylish coffee chain in Boston. In the time I’ve spent there, I’ve been learning the stories, techniques, and skills behind making a great cup of coffee consistently. I’ve always had a passion for coffee that brings with it the required attention and patience that most reasonable people don’t care to give. As I spent the last few weeks tinkering with a 20-year-old Italian machine I found at Goodwill and going down a rabbit hole of chasing the perfect espresso shot, I realized that my drive for learning and applying knowledge for coffee was unique. Getting to know my customers through this drink that we both to some degree care about somehow opened up —and even invited— a pathway for conversation from many fellow aficionados. As a result, I began to feel an effortless sense of belonging, which parallels my experiences in the board game community, most notably how those games have the power to temporarily change their players’ sense of purpose and the shared objective that those players aim to realize.
Image: A quick round of Hexopolis with a Peruvian-blend cappuccino
What do Coffee and Board Games Have in Common?
Something that’s become apparent in recent weeks as I grew accustomed to the frequent switch between digital marketer at Hexopolis and barista in Boston is that making great coffee and designing a quality board game have a lot more in common than both being prescribed processes of producing an outcome. One great comparison from the expert coffee platform Sprudge explained how the science of great coffee and well-designed board games both demand a very patient but thorough process, searching for details that must be uncovered only through trial and error. Much like how a proper espresso shot requires the right beans, grind, tamping, temperature, water pressure, and coffee knowledge, a board game with a quality experience for its players needs strategy, planning, and guiding principles that dictate future gameplay. Now the question is: how do coffee and gameplay mesh together in the real world?
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coffee as a performance enhancer
To understand the relationship between coffee and board games, you first have to recognize that the consumption of coffee is itself an important catalyst in human thinking and offers a dehydrating yet satisfying oasis of energy and concentration. As the legend goes, several hundred years ago an Ethiopian farmer named Kaldi took note of his goats becoming energetic after eating berries that were growing in a nearby coffee forest. Their eventual use by an abbot in a local monastery to keep him awake during evening prayer inspired others to do the same and pioneered its centuries-long use as a stimulant.
Caffeine inherently increases the adrenaline produced in your body which opens the esophagus’s airways and allows easier breathing. This increases your bloodstream’s oxygen levels and facilitates positive thinking, brain synapses, and clarity toward problem-solving. This combination of effects, when applied to a board game experience, makes your next move that much more strategic in your coming match. Coffee and board games therefore share a complementary relationship, as going to your favorite board game cafe with a friend or two means some friendly competition in the context of an adrenaline-inducing stimulant.
So why play in a café?
It’s not just the coffee you enjoy that sharpens your strategic thinking. Another key factor to consider as you get into a high-stakes game with a friend is the environment around you. According to a Harvard Business Review article on the common effect of focus in coffee shops, the ideal work environment for creative work has “a little bit of background noise.” It turns out that when humans are expected to think creatively, having a relatively noisy environment around us gives our brain the push it needs to think abstractly, because having one of our sensory inputs slightly muddled gives our brain the space it needs to engage with problems in new ways.
According to one study from the Journal of Consumer Research, at about 70 decibels of sound (comparable to a coffee shop), participants who were asked to make comparisons between seemingly unrelated words significantly outperformed other groups in both lower and higher decibel ranges. That means that while you calmly sip your cappuccino and wait for your opponent to play into your carefully-laid trap on their next turn, you can confidently know that you’re in the right place and sound level to anticipate their fate. So you’ll probably want to reconsider playing a game in total silence with someone and instead make the trip to your favorite nearby coffeeshop to find the increased adrenaline and ludic engagement that it holds.
Our Favorite Board Game Cafés
So, now that you have some context on why you should take a visit to your local board game café, what are some suggestions for places to try in the Greater Boston Area?
Knight Moves | Brookline, MA
2. Tavern of Tales | Boston, MA
3. The Castle | Beverly, MA
Thanks for reading our blog article! We hope you
enjoyed it and look forward to catching up with you
on our next blog post a month from now.
Sincerely,
The Hexopolis Team