The Rubik’s cube and the Dungeons and Dragons table game are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. Although everything separates them in appearance, the two games invented in 1974 have had similar journeys: triumphant beginnings, difficult adolescence, then rebirth in new forms in the 21st century.e century.
With the support of the Web and social networks, they are now more popular than ever. A cross look at the evolution of these two games which have not aged a bit.
Breaking your head at full speed
The most famous puzzle in the world, and perhaps the most complex with its 43 trillion (43 followed by 18 zeros!) of movement possibilities, was born from the brain of Hungarian architect Ernö Rubik.
First imagined as a challenge for his students at the Hungarian Higher School of Applied Arts, the cube was patented and marketed in the late 1970s under the name Magic Cube. The company Ideal Toy (to which we also owe the less transcendent KerPlunk) gave it the name of its creator before launching it on the American market. After a promising start encouraged by word of mouth, the Rubik’s cube achieved phenomenal popularity: it is estimated that between 1980 and 1983, 200 million puzzles found buyers across the globe.
Although the fervor subsequently ran out of steam, the total number of cubes sold since its creation today fluctuates between 350 and 400 million.
The Rubik’s cube has enjoyed a real second life since the creation in 2004 of the World Cube Association (WCA), an organization which manages cube solving competitions, also called speedcubing.
Indeed, if Ernö Rubik took a month to solve his invention for the first time (while the majority of people will never succeed), the rebirth of the Rubik’s cube has become a matter of speed.
Notice to those interested, the record for solving the classic cube is currently held by the American Max Park, who achieved it in… 3.13 seconds.
“Impressive performances like this are what gets people talking, and it’s a great showcase for our sport,” says Alexandre Ondet, WCA delegate in Quebec and coordinator of Speedcubing Canada events in Quebec.
But this is far from being the only attraction of speedcubing, explains the one whose personal best is 9.84 seconds.
“It’s first and foremost a competition with yourself. [Le temps], it’s an indication that is easy to understand, but that’s not all. We can find other reasons for satisfaction, for example when we make good resolutions, without pause, and when we succeed in “cubing” well. »
THE speedcubing is also an opportunity to have social interactions, discovered Florence d’Ivernois. With her son, a passionate disciple of the cube, six months ago she founded the small company Speedcubing Québec, which organizes monthly jams, where young players gather to try to solve these damned puzzles together.
“The virtual community is very active, people exchange tips and videos to improve themselves, but, physically, it is an isolated activity. This is why we want to bring them together as friends,” explains the mother.
The activity particularly attracts a number of children with astonishing talents, who are capable of solving a cube in a few seconds at a very young age. THE speedcubing requires extraordinary skills, particularly in terms of spatial memorization and a sense of anticipation.
“We have a lot of players with neuro-atypical or gifted profiles,” underlines Florence d’Ivernois. They are often very shy, reserved young people, not very social. At first, they are a little embarrassed, because they are not used to doing this activity in a group, but, the next session, we see them evolve and they begin to open up. »
According to Alexandre Ondet, it is largely this community that is created around the cube that explains its durability.
“The Rubik’s cube is part of this very select category of truly timeless games, thanks to its simple concept to understand, but also very difficult to solve. We can go in depth, but it is accessible to everyone. As long as the community around it is there, the cube has a bright future ahead of it,” he says.
From basements to the big screen
Just as the Rubik’s cube was making its way into every schoolyard, Dungeons and Dragons was emerging in the basements of North America.
Inspired by Tolkien’s universe, this adventure game which allows you to play as an elf, necromancer, cleric and other paladin also experienced its first hours of glory in the early 1980s. To such an extent that its popularity sparked a moral panic among some American parents, visibly worried that their offspring are exploring a fantasy world filled with demons and succubi, one roll of the dice at a time.
The anecdote, told in the popular series Stranger Thingssums up well the aura of mystery which surrounded this table game invented by the Americans Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
“There’s something special that happens when you play for the first time and realize that you can do absolutely anything, that anything is possible! » explains with wonder Pierre-Louis Renaud, host ofAre you game?a YouTube channel dedicated to tabletop and role-playing games.
Almost twenty years after his first adventure, the man who is also an actor still pursues quests alongside the friends he made while playing “DnD” in high school. And he is far from the only one.
The number of games sold has been increasing steadily for a decade. It climbed 33% in 2020 alone thanks to the pandemic. That same year, the revenues of Wizards of the Coast, the company that manages the Dungeons and Dragons universe, totaled 816 million US dollars. Hollywood smelled a good deal with the 2023 release of the megaproduction Dungeons & Dragons. Honor Among Thieves. Even Quebec cinema has thrown its weight behind it with Farador.
Several connoisseurs attribute this unprecedented craze to the arrival in 2014 of a new version of the game, the fifth, which opened the door to a simplification of the rules and gave greater room to the imagination of players.
Dungeons and Dragons has “changed monstrously” through the ages, says Tommy Chanthavinout, co-owner of two Randolph fun pubs.
“A lot of details have changed when it comes to the gaming experience, but the way people play it has also evolved a lot. Before, it was very tactical, very strategic. Today, it’s more focused on the human experience so to speak: the evolution of your character, the creation of a beautiful story. »
The game and its derivatives have themselves become objects of cultural consumption. Not only can you play Dungeons and Dragons, but you can also watch or listen to other people playing it. Critical Role, which has 2.2 million subscribers on YouTube, allows for example to follow vast quests narrated by professional actors over several episodes. The concept has been emulated on the podcast planet, particularly in Quebec with the adventurers of rock, paper, dragon and the team ofAre you game?
“It’s a great time to love this universe because there are so many ways to access it: games, films, podcasts, Facebook groups dedicated to it,” notes Tommy Chanthavinout.