Growing up in the sixties, there were only board and card games, as a rule. This influence on my life has only further gained greater strength as I have aged and grown.
The big thing when I was a kid was a game called Risk. Risk is probably one of the premiere simple dice world take over games, which even in its modern form has changed little. Sure, you can buy Risk variants, with different pieces, but the concept is the same.
The thing with card and board games is they give you a sense of tactile response. You have to move chess pieces in your mind before you touch them, and then swiftly tap the clock to put the timer in your opponent's ballpark.
Scrabble is much the same way, the jingle of tiles in the bag, the heft of them in your fingers, the curiosity and wonderment that comes from a random action that you are controlling. The laying out of tiles, and if you're playing on one of the older boards, trying to read it upside down.
Card games are similar. I don't need to remember to charge up my Nintendo DS to play a game of solitaire at the kitchen room table. Playing real, live cribbage and jumping on your opponent's mis-counted score.
That's not to say that I don't enjoy video games, but the video games I enjoy are often based a great deal on existing models of board games.
An example of this would be Front Mission. I have several variants of Front Mission, but the one I am playing now is the port for the Nintendo DS. All of these games, of course, based upon the tabletop game Battletech. Pilots and Gunners in giant, walking machines.
The board game franchise can extend in other ways. The gaming company, FASA for example. For a very long time had the rights to a tabletop game called, 'Star Fleet Battles' which had several expansions and took a lot of my babysitting money as a kid. You had chits resembling various starships, firing arcs, calculation.
Often times in board games the player is required to do a little more critical thinking than in video games. Critical thinking is becoming a lost art. How can one understand the concept of out-psyching your opponent in a game of chess when you cannot even see their face?
While I certainly do believe that board games are far, far superior to video games, I believe they both have there place. One must understand that the egg begot the chicken. Board games will always have their place in many people's hearts. As such should be looked on with fondness.