This NYT article talks about the endurance of Strat-O-Matic baseball -- a fantasy baseball board game -- in an era of ever-more-sophisticated video games.

An excerpt:

Stan Suderman and 66 of his friends and acquaintances gathered in Las Vegas last night, eager to jump-start three days and nights of intense fun.

These men did not come for a long weekend of casino-roaming or nightclub-hopping. Instead, they will spend 16 hours or more a day shut inside a conference room at the Desert Rose Resort playing a board game.

Members of the mostly professional group of players, which includes doctors, lawyers, and teachers, have ponied up $200 apiece for the privilege of entering the world championships of Strat-O-Matic baseball, a game that has resonated for 45 years with sports-crazy kids and the adults they grow up to become.

Somehow, in a video-game age in which the landscape is ruled by John Madden, an old-fashioned sports board game stubbornly hangs on. Hundreds of thousands of people still roll the dice and check the cards of their chosen players as they re-create whole seasons or series, pit storied teams against one another, or draft leagues of their own.

The game's realism accounts for much of its longevity. But the competition and camaraderie it breeds, the social lubricant and taunting opportunities it provides, may be just as important.

"Guys just don't call up other guys and say, 'I'm lonely, let's chat,' " said Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts, the pre-eminent sports video-game maker, who still regularly plays Strat-O-Matic with friends. "It's really helpful to have something to talk about."