It seems I've neglected to actually post anything about my third primary topic so far, which is a pretty glaring oversight all things considered. Unfortunately, I don't have anything specific to talk about at the moment so I'm just going to give a (Very, very) brief overview of the modern hobby and introduce the greatest directory/community for boardgames that I'm aware of; boardgamegeek.
Alright, types of boardgames. Now, you can break down and analyze each of the following groups, you can find countless examples of crossover games and traits, you can spend so much time thinking about this that the skimpy descriptions I'm about to provide will seem inadequate to the point of being useless. That's alright, because once you reach that point you won't need to be told about these particular distinctions anyways.
Family Games: A really, really broad category, one that doesn't really have a defining characteristic other than "be light and be accessible." We've all heard of Monopoly, Scrabble, Sorry, etc. Those are family games, games that aren't necessarily wells of deep strategic thought but make up for it by being easy to learn and low enough in intensity that everyone at the table can join in on the fun while still carrying on off-topic conversation and knitting.
Abstract Games: Another broad category, in that all games are essentially abstractions to some extent. However, this title is generally used for games that are intended to be almost purely abstract, like Chess or Go. Lot's of strategy heavy brain-burners in this category, but the core idea behind the games is generally well understood in the public consciousness due to the extremely high profile of a select few entries. If someone sees you playing Pentago or Symbol they might not have any idea what's happening but they'll probably get the gist of it by relating it to something like Connect Four or Chess.
Ameritrash: Originally intended as a slang insult for a certain family of games, this has grown to be a badge of honor for many. Ameritrash is characterized by being very theme-heavy, having lots of rules and components (Many of which tend to be made of plastic) and having direct competition between players (Often with player elimination). Risk is probably one of the most well known titles in this genre, which most people seem to have some idea about, but this category is mostly made up of games that almost nobody who isn't already somewhat aware of the modern hobby would be aware of.
Eurogames: Generally hailing from European descent (Gee, really?), euros are almost the opposite of ameritrash. Theme often takes a backseat to mechanics ("Pasted on" themes are a common complaint used by people who dislike euros), and less action-oriented territory is usually covered like farming, buying things or buying land to farm. Player interaction is also reduced in many titles (The term "multiplayer solitaire" also gets thrown around a lot), and player elimination is extremely rare, at least to my knowledge. If any game would be the "well-known" one of this group it's probably The Settler's Of Catan, which is apparently quite a huge hit in Europe and has managed to make it into stores like Toys R Us and Target in the U.S. Still, if you ran a poll I'd be willing to guess that a great many people have never heard of that game, so the genre is a bit more alien and "hobbyistish" (Totally a word) than the others we have covered.
Wargames: Ah, wargames. Risk is an early implementation of this line of thought but it's abstract and "gamey" (Turning in sets of cards to get more armies when you need them and such) to the extent that it doesn't really resemble what some would consider more "proper" wargames. Hex-tiled maps and square counters representing units is common fare here, as are thick rulebooks and charts for events and combat. Really, wargames are more like "war simulations" than other boardgames, which is where they diverge from ameritrash takes on war-themed games. Historical accuracy and detail is the name of the game here.
Dexterity games: Pretty simple concept, these are games in which dexterity plays a large role. I think everyone has an idea of what that means, games where you flick, throw or roll components to accomplish something. Of course, there tends to be a fine line between where something is a "lesser activity" sport and where it is a boardgame of sorts. Ping Pong seems to be clearly a sport, Darts is in a gray area and Sorry Sliders is clearly a boardgame.
And that's a very simplistic picture of the modern boardgaming hobby. Like I said, there is a lot of crossover between these styles both in shared traits (Victory points are a staple of eurogames but are also found in many ameritrash games and have equivalent mechanics in some family games and wargames) and in true attempts at a stylistic merger (From what I hear, games like Cyclades and Chaos In The Old World are a perfect blend of euro and ameritrash, and we're seeing lots of dexterity mechanics showing up in dungeon crawl and empire building games like Catacombs and the soon to be released Ascending Empires). Don't take this as anything more than a very quick reference to help you get a basic idea of where things are right now. Which leads us to...
Boardgamegeek! http://boardgamegeek.com/ This website is absolutely amazing, with a great community and an extremely large database with volumes of information. If you're at all interested in boardgaming as a hobby this would be the place to start.
And that's that. Hopefully I'll have something a bit more specific come to mind in the future, if not I'll have to cobble some excuse together to keep posting arbitrary nonsense... not that I do that. If you have any questions feel free to ask me, and if you're anywhere near me (Hoover or Mobile in Alabama, depending on time of year) and would like to give a game a try I'm up for it (My collection is still small, however. The only two categories I'm really missing a strong title for are wargames and dexterity games at the moment though).
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