GARDEN CITY, New York — Digital games may dominate pop culture nowadays, but out on Long Island thousands of dedicated table top enthusiasts pack the halls for a strictly analog arrangement.
The Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City hosts the annual Long Island Tabletop Gaming Expo, an event that features and celebrates games from the board, card, dice, miniature war and role-playing varieties.
Volunteer Debra Mann explains how the event includes, “standard table top games, games that have been handmade by people that you won’t find anywhere else. We have RPG’s, what they call role-playing games, where you’re playing the game and play various different adventures.”
There’s also classic standards like chess and checkers.
The Giordano brothers are showing off (and selling) their first game, “Growth.” The three used their different individual skillsets, engineering, design and game design to collaborate on the project. The result is a carefully handcrafted and handpainted tabletop game.
Anthony Giordano, the engineer, says, “each player plays as a different flower and they compete with each other to take over the garden,” and stresses how, “what was really important to us while making it is how it feels in your hands. It’s a very special feeling to have something that’s satisfying to hold and satisfying to play, satisfying to interact with.”
Designer Robert Giodano says the tactile quality of table top games make them stand out compared to digital games. “There’s something really special that we grew up doing and love to still do. Playing with physical pieces that are in front of you, that I don’t think you can experience the same way through a screen.”
