Pretty good article. I think it should have been split in two. Ancient games and modern games (possibly even three with the current age of KS/youtube gamsessions etc.). It's really hard to compress the history of board games into such a short post. Germany is often credited as "the board game country" (somewhat unfairly in my opinion there's other countries with very strong board gaming traditions) but I've always wondered why games are so popular here. My working hypothesis is that it is somewhat related to the post WW2 social climate (escapism?). I'm also curious if a widespread "gaming tradition" has positive effects on other areas of life. Games tend to require critical thinking, creativity and most importantly create interesting social situations.

Disclaimer: I'm a very avid board gamer (collection stands at around 210 games and 75 expansions). I guess that was inevitable since I'm German and a graduate of the University of Essen (Duisburg-Essen these days) with an AI focus in my degree. We always skipped classes to attend the Spiel :D

Oh yeah and just in case someone doesn't know it, the leading board game site is https://boardgamegeek.com (their UI is pretty "interesting")