Board Game News

The web site Geekosystem offers up an interesting look at 30 Great Gaming Geeks. The list is populated primarily of video game designers, but a number of famous board game designers make the list as well, including:

Klaus Teuber
Well, you see, Klaus Teuber made this game called Settlers of Catan. Well, you don’t really play against the other players, you sort of play with them. Yes, well, you can build armies, but you just use them to move the robber, and… Oh, yeah, there’s a robber. He lives in the desert. Did I mention that? Anyway, there are these dots on each space on the board. And these produce resources, see, but only on certain die rolls, and you can trade things – like “I’ll take one wheat for two sheep.” Does that make any sense? Any at all? Oh, I forgot to tell you; the world is generated randomly every time… You know what? Screw this. Let’s just set up the board.

Sid Meier
Civilization: ever heard of it? From Azteca to Zululand, Sid Meier is renowned the world over as the man who introduced us to Wonders of the World, shields as units of productivity, and the race to Alpha Centauri, which just so happened to be the site of yet another engaging strategy game. Meier holds the pretty awesomely-named Guinness World Record for “Person With the Most Video Game Accolades.”

Reiner Knizia
More than almost anyone else, Reiner Knizia has led the way in creating the Eurogame genre. What’s a Eurogame, you say? How about: a workable middle ground between drool-spattered Candyland-alikes and 5000-piece behemoths designed to recreate the Boer War on the level of individual soldiers? Plus, he used to to a highly successful banker! He’s a Quant Made Good! There’s hope for all of us with a sordid history of abusing our gifts!

Steve Jackson
One of the longest-standing problems with tabletop role-playing games has been their stifling genre-specificity. Going outside of whatever Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian Cyberpunk, or High Fantasy box a game happens to exist in has usually been difficult at best. For example: D&D is about elves and sorcerers and ONLY elves and sorcerers, and, oh, I’m sorry, did you want your adventurers to maybe rule over a small kingdom and deal with the Keynesian implications of dumping sacks of dragon gold into the economy every week or so?

What do you mean, “It’s not in the rules?” Or: We’re playing Call of Cthulhu, but suddenly the players are challenged to a round of midget submarine jousting by Jacques Cousteau. Um…maybe we’ll all roll against Wits, or Hand-Eye-Coordination, or something?

Steve Jackson developed GURPS to get around these restrictions, and…pretty much any restrictions, actually. Want to have a footrace between Charlemagne and Aleister Crowley? Yeah, GURPS can do that. Want to load up a bazooka and go stegosaurus hunting with Natty Bumppo? Do you even have to ask?

Jackson’s free-form approach to game design arguably (weasel words!) served as a precursor to the modding communities of the past 15 years. Don’t like a particular restriction? Why not take out out? Want a rule system that doesn’t currently exist? Why, there’s a book for that! Plus, Evil Stevie’s Pirate Game is the best possible use of Legos, besides feeding them to younger siblings.

Great list!

Do you have a favorite game designer not included?

Days of Wonder, a board game publisher founded in 2002, has sold over 1.5 million copies of its games to date, many of which have won multiple board game industry awards. The name of the company evokes the “sense of wonder” we all experienced as children when we first fell in love with playing games, and that we get to experience anew each time we learn a new game.

Days of Wonder is responsible for three major board game series:

• BattleLore – The world of BattleLore meshes history and fantasy together — putting players in command of a vast array of miniature troops on the battlefields of a Medieval Europe at the outset of the Hundred Years War.

• Memoir ’44 – Memoir ’44 is a unique historical game where players command a horde of little plastic Army men facing-off in dozens of World War II battles on an oversizes hex game board.

• Ticket To Ride – One of the most popular games ever designed, Ticket to Ride is a beautifully-illustrated coast-to-coast railroad journey, a simple yet strategic game of connecting cities with trains.

Board Game Central now features information about the entire line of Days of Wonder games. Enjoy!

Each year, the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design (AAGAD) presents the Origins Awards recognizing the gaming industry’s top achievements and products released during the previous year. 2005′s nominee list included games from both large and small companies across the industry. Winners of the 32nd Annual Origins Awards have been announced and include the following:

Board Game of the Year

Parthenon: Rise of the Aegean – Immerse yourself in an exciting, competitive world filled with aggressive trading, perilous voyages, and the construction of grand monuments. Parthenon is a game of commerce for 3 to 6 players set in the islands of the Aegean Sea. The time is 600 B.C. and mainland Greece stands on the threshold of glory. The Aegean attempt to share in that glory and to thrive in an increasingly profitable (and dangerous!) world.

Gamer’s Choice Best Board Game of the Year

Shadows Over Camelot – A unique collaborative game featuring a malevolent twist! As the incarnation of the Knights of the Round Table, you join forces against the game itself in an attempt to protect Camelot. Your victory hinges on the successful completion of legendary Quests, such as the search for Excalibur, the Holy Grail, or Lancelot’s Armor; the tournament against the Black Knight; and numerous wars against the Saxons and Picts. But beware … all is not as it seems among these noble Knights. One of your number might yet turn out to be a traitor-in-waiting, biding his time while sowing havoc and destruction from the Shadows!

Read the entire list of award-winners in categories including Collectable Card Games, Traditional Card Game, Role-Playing Games, Miniatures Games, Historical Games, and many more.

In addition to this site, here are some other blogs that cover board gamers and the board game industry. Most of these blogs are fairly hard-core, covering German games and strategy games, rather than the traditional abstract and family board games we tend to favor here, but they’re all very well done, and well worth your time to explore.

• Best of Board Games – A collection of interesting links to various board game resources in the web: blogs, BGG threads, whatever.
• Boardgame News – Hey, that name sounds familiar! Good Resource.
• Chris Farrell’s Gaming Blog – Board game reviews and information.
• Gameblog – Mikko Saari’s blog on all things boardgaming.
• Gamer’s Mind – Thoughts on boardgames, boardgaming, and other goodness.
• inconsequential ruminations – A minimalist blog, with a pretentious title, about strategy board games.
• Pawnstar – The irrelevant ramblings of a gamer who works in his spare time.
• Rick’s Boardgame Blog – A blog about boardgames, board games, card games, their playing, and the people who play them.
• The Game Table – Ward Batty’s weekly blog about boardgames and non-standard card games.

Many of these were mentioned in the Board Game Internet Award Nominations from Gone Gaming, a darn good gaming blog in its own right. There is also a comprehensive listing of board game blog feeds available from About.com.