Jianying Ji wrote on Fri, Apr 18, 2008 12:58 AM UTC:
Intellectual games does better in Germany, the low countries, and Asian
countries such as Korea, Japan, China. They do terrible in the US. The
only new abstract game to make headway here is Blockus. Look at the uptake
of GIPF games and the Korean game 'cafes'. Some German bars are stocked
with various abstract games.
The key seems to be whether a game become a social past time. If games has
this social aspect then they will be played much more widely. Go and
Xiangqi in china was like that, and still is to a degree.