| The newest games are fiendishly complicated—but so is the world we live in.  Illustration by Josie Norton Board games have come a long way from the likes of Candy Land and Sorry!—a long-popular segment of the industry that connoisseurs have branded “Ameritrash,” for its emphasis on randomness and simple conflict. As the board-game business has exploded in popularity, players have come to seek out games that are organized around more complicated mechanics, and that reward ingenuity, coöperation, and even empathy. And with greater complexity has come greater artistic exploration. “Not everybody enjoys killing monsters in dungeons,” one designer explains. What about a game that centers on the women’s-suffrage movement or the struggle to end slavery? Or one that explores the Indian caste system under colonialism or sixteenth-century Cherokee economics? How about one based on the Shackleton expedition, except in this case most of the crew dies? In a deeply inquisitive new piece, Matthew Hutson writes about the designers who are exploring the outer limits of game night. Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » | 
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