What are Thematic Games?

Thematic games are games that emphasize a highly developed theme, characters, heroes, or factions with individually defined abilities, player to player conflict, and usually feature a moderate to high level of luck." In gamer jargon, Thematic games have been called Ameritrash games since at least the year 2000, whether they were made in America or not. See the 'Controversy' section for more.

What is not a Thematic Game?

Thematic Games do not include the popular genre of Eurogames. In fact, many gamers find that these two genres focus on very different aspects of gaming. Simply put, Eurogames tend to focus on streamlined, well-balanced play, with a mimimal theme and more abstracted game mechanics, while Thematic Games focus more on theme and dramatic gameplay.

What About Hybrids?

Hybrid games are by definition have both Eurogame element and Thematic Game elements.

What About Waros?

Waro games are by definition part Eurogame and part Wargame. These can be difficult to classify. In general, most Waros would not be considered Thematic Game, especially those with very Euro-like themes and mechanics.

Thematic Game Publishers

The following publishers have published a significant number of Thematic Game titles:

• Games Workshop Ltd. - published a large number of Thematic Game titles in the 80's
• Fantasy Flight Games - currently the leading publisher of Thematic Game titles, some of which redevelop titles previously published by Games Workshop Ltd..
• The Avalon Hill Game Co - classic publisher of many Thematic Game titles. Purchased by Hasbro.
• Avalon Hill - the reincarnation of The Avalon Hill Game Co, which has published many of the more recent titles.

Controversy

Thematic Games have long been referred to as "Ameritrash" games. Some people feel that the term "Ameritrash" is unnecessarily negative and prefer not to use it. Others feel that the reference to America is a problem because not all of these games are published in America. Suggested alternative terms include Amerigames, Amerigold, and Ameritreasure. To date none of these has gained traction. BoardGameGeek has recently created a category system for games, and named the category for these games "Thematic Games", argueably a more professional name for the category and less offensive to the game publishers themselves.

Other Information

• BGG Wiki entry on Game Genres
• See entry on Ameritrash