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LAYTON — We always hear it's never too late to learn something new. But some things sure do take a lot of time.
Especially if you're learning to play the board game "Food Chain."
"Yeah, a little deeper than 'Connect Four,'" said Claudine Finlay.
It is a lot, but Finlay loves these in-depth kinds of games.
"When I say that I play games, people kind of look at you like, that's so dumb," Finlay said.
Then again, most people think of a board game convention as one big "Monopoly" tournament.
"Because when they think of games, they think of 'Life', they think of 'Payday,' they think of 'Monopoly,'" said Finlay. "And those are just, 'I'm going to throw these dice and move (games).'"
But that's not what SaltCON is all about. It is a board game convention, but it's so much more.
"You know, it's like playing games with 800 of your friends," said Dale Gifford, SaltCON organizer.
Gifford said board games are getting popular again, especially games that make you think. In fact, for the first time in its eight-year existence, more than 1,000 people came to the Davis Conference Center in Layton just to be a part of it.
"The sales are up. They're way up and with Kickstarter and all the board game companies, it seems like every month a new company is opening," said Gifford.
In a time when you can play almost any game on a cell phone, there's still something about a good old-fashioned board game.
"There's a level of interaction and you're talking with people and you've got those ah-ha moments where you think, 'I've got the perfect move,'" said Finlay.
It's just a matter of finding the right game, which is why these types of conventions are becoming more popular.
"People don't realize these games even exist," said Finlay. "Then, when they're introduced to them, they go, 'Wow! Now that's a game!'"
