Analog Games on Digital Tabletops

Digital adaptations of tabletop games, while predating the COVID-19 pandemic, became popular among tabletop gaming hobbyists during pandemic-associated lockdowns. This study analyzes analog, tabletop games and their digital adaptations. Using observations of gameplay sessions, analysis of game rules and components, and interviews with players, it assesses the media environment of tabletop games both in-person and online (via digital adaptations). It theorizes the agentic capacities of human players and media entities (the games themselves; the various other media that constitute the media environment) as existing in a productive tension that shapes the media environment. Findings highlight the specific media environment of in-person tabletop gameplay; the specific media environment of digital tabletop gameplay; the ways in which players work with and against commercial entities (e.g. game publishers) to access digital adaptations; the power of the game-as-media to shape the media environment; the importance of players' socialized identities and the ways in which these shape the media environment; and the negotiation that players must undertake to navigate game and interface rules. This study sheds light on the particular qualities of tabletop games, both in-person and digitally adapted, and proposes areas for further research on this understudied topic.