OLD FAVOURITES
Pictionary
And talking of which, this is the traditional version for the rest of the world who isn't a small Lego-obsessed boy, and it's still good fun.
Where www.woolworths.co.uk
How much £28
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Independent Minds« Back to The 50 best board games
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Comments
We're wondering if your choices are limites by UK importers...I found the choice at Hamley's very pathetic a few years ago. In Switzerland we have many specialty shops which vie to get the most wonderfully crafted board games with historical contexts, creative rules and often beautifully crafted pieces and card design. OK, we can be disappointed, when Africa turns out to be just a simplified version of Diplomacy and Richard the Lion-hearted less strategically interesting than Joan of Arc, but why have you favoured so many fact or word-guessing games?
My favourite is one I found in Germany. It's called Geistertreppe (spooky stairs). The concept is simple: you each have a pawn, and you have to get up the stairs. Problem is, if you throw a ghost, your pawn gets covered by a ghost and you can no longer see it. Once everybody is a ghost, throwing a ghost means you can swap with someone. So after a while nobody can remember where their pawn is, unless they've been paying close attention!
Cue lots of: "YAY, I got there first! Oh darn, I was playing with your pawn all along ..."
I had high hopes for this list after Tim Walker's excellent article on Tuesday which covered the board games show, Spiele, held in Essen a few weeks ago. I know that if I were writing a top 50 list, it would be dominated by games that have been published in German over the last 10 or 15 years. But instead of giving the task to Mr. Walker, it has gone to someone who seems to shop only in the UK high street, where she will see only mass market games. Mass market games, largely from US-based mass market publishers, that simply cannot compete with games that have been designed for a modern, discerning audience. Unfortunately that is a by-product of the fact that here in the UK, games are bought to be given away as presents, rather than actually played by anybody.
The majority of these games are based around simple commercialism, i.e. give a game a big box, a glossy cover and a recognisable name and it will sell. That does not make it a " Best Board Game ". If anything it is an insult to anybody buying that game who is expecting something other than a roll a die and move variant.
If your journalist had done any proper research she would have looked at Boardgamegeek.com which has over 350,000 members and lists, in some detail, virtually all the board games ever designed and published. Written by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, your author would have been able to discover what exactly defines a great board game. A list based on proper research would have done all your readership a huge favour and, hopefully, avoided the inevitable disappointment that Christmas gifts such as these would have brought.
A great way for the beginners among us to get into the game with cards that tell you who goes where. "
I actually had to check that this wasn't a joke: are people so damned stupid these days that they can't remember how six different pieces move?
I thought packets of grated cheese were the zenith of lamness, this is in a class of its own.
Seriously, if we're at a stage where dumbing down has become so normalised that the basic moves in chess are considered too 'hard' for people, we're in a very, very sorry state indeed,
Oh, I note the almost complete lack of any kind of covereage of the Kasparov v Karpov matches a little while back too. For shame...
Overall, I thought the list was resonable and was delighted to see Hexago Continuo and Where is Moldova in the list. I would have preferred a wider selection of lesser known games.
I hope no one takes this list seriously and makes a purchase based on this laughable list. Kate Watson-Smyth ... don't quit your day job.
The highest any of the games in this unplayed top 50 can make is 65 in the list by people who actually play games!
Hardly even a winner of Spile des Jahres (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiel_des_Jahres)
It is a huge disappointment that the opportunity to stimulate more interest in high quality family, strategy and hobby games has been squandered. At least 90% of the games on this list are 'commodity' games relying on marketing budgets, Christmas gift sales and the merciful release that no-one will actually play them (at least not more than once).
Honourable exceptions include Carcassone, Ticket to Ride (but the card game, not the board game?), and Ingenious, the last one written up as suitable for younger children, demonstrating an astonishing lack of knowledge. I would also except the sole piece of kookiness, War on Terror. No mention of recent Spiel des Jahres and Kinderspiel des Jahres winners, which have sold hundreds of thousands if not millions of units across Europe, including the UK, and in the United States, and which are generally available in many languages, including English.
See http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ for the path to enlightenment, or at least to some far better games than the vast majority on this list.
I found this site www.toysdirect.com very good for toys and board games.
Nobody round here is going to be fooled by a spurious link to a shop selling xmas decorations.
Marketing Fail.
However, if I weren't intimately involved with the design and production of this game, I would definitely understand some of the frustrations here. It does seem like an opportunity missed to get the good word out there about the many games that never get the mainstream attention they deserve.
* Our game is better than snakes and ladders. That's the only real mistake.
However, all the good that was done with that article has been cast into doubt with the publishing of your top 50 boardgames. The journalist involved obviously failed to read the article by Tim, failed to carry out anything more than the minimum amount of research, and to be honest failed to live upto the standaards expected of a quality newspaper such as The Independent.
If you wish to support a flowering hobby such as boardgames, then you obviously need Tim rather than the person who write this.
Go professiona's earn on a par with top tennis players in the West. There have been professions since much longer than chess. It's reckoned that in Korea alone there are 5 million players, but there are probably more in both Japan and China. Find the British Go Association's website for more information. Onegaishimasu.
I am a big fan of games and, like many who have made comments, it's disappointing not to see my favourites on the list. The biggest omission in my mind, however, is go (igo, baduk, wei qi, etc.) - a game with such a history and such popularity seems like it should be on any list of 'best games'. I suppose it has yet to enjoy the same popularity in the West as it does in the East, but surely it's a game that is on the radar of anyone with even a passing interest in games!
I suppose I would feel less annoyed by this article if it were entitled '50 games for your Christmas list that you can find in every other shop', but I suppose a title of that length becomes a bit cumbersome.