Games as a social driving force
By facilitating play, Ludovico has created a centre for culture in Graz
By Peter Budig
If you love board games and city breaks, here’s a travel tip for you: why not visit Graz, the capital of the state of Styria? Austria’s second largest city is a vibrant, young university town with almost 63,000 students, a historic centre protected as a World Heritage Site – and, with Ludovico, a games hub at Karmeliterplatz where play is celebrated as a way of life. This board and tabletop game library was established as a private initiative 39 years ago. It has grown to 100 square metres with seven game tables and 4,900 games housed in three rooms.
Ludovico established as a versatile place of culture
Today, Ludovico is much more than just somewhere people meet to play or borrow games. It’s an organisation that holds two game festivals a year and goes out into schools, communities and businesses to promote the value of play. Ludovico opens up new dimensions for play as a cultural asset. The association was founded in 1986 on the initiative of a committed group of women, with Elfriede Hofer as its first managing director. Her husband, Arno C. Hofer, succeeded her in this role in 2012. Sarah Ulrych took over from him at the helm in 2017 – two years after starting her career as a play educator. Ludovico has nine permanent employees, with entirely different professional backgrounds. “Our combined woman- and man-power amounts to five full-time positions”, clarifies Ulrych. She doesn’t feel comfortable being referred to as the boss because “it implies that our activities are based on hierarchy, power and work orders”. And yet it’s clear that she knows how to lead the way. This role has given her not only a job but also a lot on a personal level: “I’ve no doubt whatsoever that we’re right to experiment with this return to a more playful way of engaging with people. It makes almost everything better for us all.”
When Ludovico comes up in conversation, Sarah Ulrych is inevitably mentioned as well. Born in Graz in 1980, she completed a Diplom degree (roughly equivalent to a master’s) in German and History. She gained experience at the Austrian public service broadcaster ORF, in print media and at theatres, she served as a drama teacher and intercultural parent advisor and she worked as a trainer in violence prevention, diversity and bystander intervention. But it was only at Ludovico that she found her long-term professional home. “Ludovico is like a family business. I began working here as a play educator in 2015 and then became managing director in 2017.”
Sarah Ulrych has been playing her whole life long and is an enthusiastic fan of fun and entertaining games.
Relocation by human chain
The lending library has changed address twice since the association was founded. The move from Herrengasse to its present home was special and involved an incredible collaborative effort. With the help of school classes, a long human chain was formed from Herrengasse through Sporgasse to Karmeliterplatz, and the games were passed from hand to hand through the city. This also beautifully epitomised the association’s purpose: bringing people together through games.
Digital forms of play welcome
Amid much debate, video games were added in 2012. With this move, Ludovico has demonstrated that all forms of play, both real-world and digital, work wonderfully beside and with each other. People who love to play enjoy trying out the different media. Having a choice of video games does not mean the end of board games – rather, both get ever more people playing and help to put play increasingly at the heart of society.
Ludovico has been hosting the annual Festival der Spiele (Festival of Games) for over 35 years. The focus here is on board and card games, but there’s also a small digital game section for anyone eager to try those out.
2025 date: mid-November.
The Button Festival will follow in March, celebrating digital game culture at Messe Congress Graz, in Styria’s biggest gaming living room.
Game nights – a crowd puller
More and more people are keen to participate in the open game afternoons and nights. Having begun as just five-player sessions, these now often attract over 100 people who come to play together at Ludovico once a month. Ludovico is one of the foremost places for social interaction in southern Austria. And it will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2026 with lots of play activities throughout Styria and special scheduled events at both festivals.
About the author
Peter Budig studied Protestant theology, history and political science. He worked as a freelance journalist, headed up the editorial department of a large advertising paper in Nuremberg for ten years and was the editor of Nuremberg’s Abendzeitung newspaper. He has been freelancing again since 2014 as a journalist, book author and copywriter. Storytelling is absolutely his favourite form.
