Board games constitute a category of non-digital games traditionally defined as being played with pieces on a specially arranged surface. The accelerated growth of the hobby games industry since the mid-20th century has challenged the definition and the ways in which board game scholars approach their subject. While studies of traditional board games still tend to focus on questions of identification, classification, transmission and reconstruction, studies of contemporary board games are increasingly informed by the theoretical and analytical underpinnings of digital game studies. This article discusses the history of the term board game and its definition, and tracks changes in scholarly attitudes to board games since their emergence as an independent field of study in the late 19th century.