Gaming has become a way for people to connect with friends and family, maintaining a feeling of community despite social isolation and lockdowns. Obviously, digital games are becoming more popular and trying to replace the position of physical games. But at the same time, when we look deeply into the history, it also happens a movement once the traditional sports are being replaced by the physical group games.
The New Games movement was popular in the 1970s and early 1980s which sought to replace competitive sports with cooperative ones, and spectator sports with participatory ones. Its roots were in two movements from the 1960s, the anti-Vietnam War movement and the Human Potential Movement. Whole Earth Catalog publisher Stewart Brand and Esalen Institute head George Leonard were early proponents and popularized the concept through books and several New Games tournaments, the first in Marin County (San Francisco Bay Area) in 1973. Outside of the Bay Area, the other center of the early movement was in Pennsylvania.
--- The History of the New Games Foundation, jergames, February 14, 2008
Overall, Squid Game became an overnight sensation after its release, receiving critical acclaim worldwide. To some extent, the physical games, especially collaborative group games may again be all the rage. Therefore, It cannot say for certain that physical game is decaying. Most importantly, our collected data demonstrations the large potential in digital games. Therefore, it may be a mission for people to figure out how technology can be adopted into the group game gradually, to discover a new genre of entertainment.