Apparently, two years ago there was a major exhibition sponsored by the 
Asia Society in American museums called "Asian Games:  The Art of 
Contest."  I have been fortunate enough to get a copy of the exhibition 
book.  I found a quote there that I would like you to comment on:

        “We hope that this exhibition, in addition to persuading visitors of 
the historical importance of games, will also stimulate an interest in 
playing board games.  As computer gamers sit in solitary oblivion 
frantically pressing buttons to manipulate images on screens, it is 
worth considering how such games could have succeeded, to a large 
extent, in eclipsing real board games.  The answer may be that they have 
appropriated much of the best of traditional board games.  But it is 
also worth pointing out that the appeal of most electronic games is 
ephemeral.  Ask a teenager if he still plays the same game he played two 
years ago, and the answer will inevitably be no.  We can predict with 
confidence that twenty years from now, of the electronic games currently 
in fashion, it is only those versions of classic board games—chess, 
weiqi/go and perhaps backgammon—that will still enjoy widespread popularity.
        Does the future of chess, weiqi and backgammon, then, lie solely in 
electronic media?  We hope not.  However convenient it may be to play 
chess or weiqi on the internet, nothing can replace the face-to-face 
social interaction of real games playing—and indeed the attraction of 
such games as spectacle.  It is no coincidence that there is a trend now 
among jaded electronic games players to return to board games.  This 
renewed interest undoubtedly reflects the need to compete with a real 
(as opposed to real-time) person.  But there may be another reason for 
this development.  The physical satisfaction of holding a well-crafted 
gaming piece or die, or of hearing the sonorous click of the pieces as 
they are placed on the board,  does not exist in an electronic universe. 
  No culture better understood the aesthetics of games than the 
Japanese, whose go, sugoroku, and shogi boards were not only objects of 
exquisite beauty, but were also designed to enhance the sound of piece 
struck against board.  If, in addition to stimulating more research on 
Asian games, this exhibition prompts some of its visitors to take up 
chess, xiangqi, or weiqi—or even better, to work out the rules of 
liubo—then we will be entirely satisfied.”
Colin Mackenzie and Irving Finkel, “Preface”, Asian Games:  The Art of 
Contest (Asia Society), p. 17