Exploring a board game wonderland

The wienXtra-spielebox is one of the largest board game libraries in the world and is mainly funded by the city of Vienna. It is the goal of the spielebox to promote and encourage the use of board games and make them accessible to children, teenagers, families and schools throughout Vienna. All of the offers of the spielebox are inexpensive or free of charge to make them available to everyone.

This presentation will focus on the services that the spielebox provides, how the library works and how it is organized on an employee-level. The spielebox is part of “wienXtra”, a non-profit organization mainly funded by the city of Vienna that works in close cooperation with the Department of Youth. WienXtra’s goals are to make meaningful and low-cost recreational activities available for Viennese families and young people and to provide information, as well as educational courses, for anyone living and working with children, teenagers and young adults.

The main services of the spielebox

The board game library

Here anyone can play games for free or take them home for a small fee. The library consists of over 6.500 different board games and over 14.000 games in total. These games are carefully selected with regard to their educational value by the spielebox-team. The team gladly assists anyone in the selection of suitable games for them and provides information on board games.

Different gaming events

These take place year-round and in different parts of Vienna, in order to build visibility of the spielebox’ services and to ensure that families of diverse cultural, social and educational backgrounds are aware of and can benefit from the gaming outlet.

Workshops for school classes and after-school care

The spielebox offers board game-workshops where children can try out new games, workshops where children and teenagers can design their own board games and workshops with digital games, where students can try out computer and console games and evaluate them based on different criteria.

Various courses for adults on board games and digital games

These include topics such as language learning through board games, playing in large groups, game design with students and many more.

By providing these board game opportunities, which are accessible to all, the spielebox strives to serve youth and family interests with fun and constructive recreation.

Author: Johanna France

Photo Credit: Photo by Miguel Dieterich

Interested in hearing more? Join us at the Child in the City Conference in Ghent, Belgium on the 7-9th November!