In 2007, Erik Arneson published an article listing the 50 most historically and culturally significant games published since 1800; the latest version of that article, from 2019, can be found at http://boardgames.about.com/cs/gamehistories/a/timeline.htm. I last updated my take (https://opinionatedgamers.com/2013/01/18/the-50-most-historically-and-culturally-significant-games-published-since-1800/) twelve years ago. With the release of the BGG Hall of Fame, I’ve decided it’s time to update my list, to include more recent games and to reflect the change in significance some older games have had. (To be clear, though – this is _not_ a Hall of Fame; the intent of this list is different from that of BGG. There is inevitably overlap between the lists, but my aim is not the same. I also considered all games published through 2020, though with a higher bar for games published since 2015.) I am retaining the rule I had in 2013 – to qualify, the game must have its own entry on Wikipedia. And because there were questions twelve years ago – I have not focused on the originator of an idea or mechanism, but on the game which had the most influence.
1) Poker
Year: 1810
So, to be very clear – this list is _not_ a list of my favorite games, or anything like it; I can’t stand Poker, and never play it. But it _is_ a list of the 50 games I find most historically and culturally significant, and while it’s not clear to me that the game is as ubiquitous today as it was in 2013, there’s no question that it still qualifies.
2) Skat
Year: 1810
Skat doesn’t have the breadth of influence that some of the games on this list do, but it has had a sufficient cultural influence around Germany to bear inclusion here.
Dale: Skat is a perfectly fine choice here for an early trick taking game, especially if Joe wants to focus on German roots. I might also lean towards Dopplekopf as a suggestion for this spot, though it is more limited as I believe it is 4 players only. I lean towards choosing Dopplekopf myself as it is the one of these two that I learned first. Finally, as a Midwesterner, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least suggest Euchre to fit this slot. Though the rules about Bowers really does seem to confuse some folks making the game less inclusive, especially to beginners.
Craig: I think Skat is an excellent choice. Sheepshead (Schafkopf) is derived from Skat and is played all over Wisconsin, particularly Northeastern Wisconsin.
3) Kriegsspiel
Year: 1824
While wargames have never had great mainstream appeal, they have had great influence, and this one influenced them all.
4) The Mansion of Happiness
Year: 1843
The early history of board games in the United States is fascinating; this game played a key role in that history.
5) Mahjongg
Year: 1850
Who can forget the Mahjongg craze in the United States in the 1920s? Well, at this point, nearly everyone, but this game still has an impact – and gets played regularly – today.
6) Happy Families
Year: 1851
The BoardGameGeek page for this game is fascinating – there have been over 100 names for the game and over 100 publishers. And it’s listed as reimplementing The Game of Authors, in spite of having been first published a decade earlier.
7) The Checkered Game of Life
Year: 1860
This game effectively founded Milton Bradley, and was the inspiration a century later for The Game of Life.
8) Crokinole
Year: 1876
This dexterity game has had remarkable staying power – it’s about to celebrate its sesquicentennial…
9) Pit
Year: 1903
Every now and again, I uncover a little more information about Pit – but never enough to answer my primary question: was it published by one publisher as a new design and copied, or is there a common standard deck card game that led to all of the implementations?
10) 500
Year: 1904
Somehow, 500 hasn’t held the same grip in the US that it has elsewhere, in spite of having been designed in the US.
11) Contract Bridge
Year: 1925
100 years and going strong.
12) Monopoly
Year: 1935
I must admit that I don’t understand the hatred of Monopoly among gamers. I can understand preferring other games, but – of the 176 new-to-me games I played last year, I prefer Monopoly to at least 68 of them. I’ve also found that when following the rules, Monopoly can be comfortably finished in 75 minutes; I’ve seen a full game take at little as 45 minutes.
13) Hex
Year: 1942
I couldn’t decide between Twixt and Hex back in 2013, and I’m still not sure which is right now. So again I’ll go with the earlier game, without much conviction that it’s the right choice.
14) Cluedo
Year: 1946
There are few games that everyone is familiar with, and only one deduction game.
15) Subbuteo
Year: 1947
Of the few games on this list I haven’t played, this football (yes, _that_ football) simulation is probably the one I have the most interest in trying.
16) Scrabble
Year: 1948 (As Criss-Crosswords, 1938)
It’s amazing how far Scrabble took Anagrams – while other word games are still played, none to the extent of Scrabble.
17) Candy Land
Year: 1949
I wonder how many children have played this as their first game? It’s been around long enough to be a possibility for the vast majority of those alive today, and is sufficiently ubiquitous to be a real possibility for many globally. Hundreds of millions, perhaps?
18) APBA Pro Baseball
Year: 1951
Fantasy sports owe a great debt to APBA Pro Baseball – far from the first sport game, or even the first sport simulation (Ethan Allen’s All-Star Baseball precedes it, for example), but this is the game that really kicked things off.
19) Tactics
Year: 1954
One suggestion I had was to replace this entry with Tactics II. Which is certainly the more well-known and more played title – but not the one that innovated both a new concept for board wargames and kicked off Avalon Hill.
20) Yahtzee
Year: 1956
Setting aside the dice you want to keep and re-rolling the rest is nearly automatic for gamers, thanks to this design.
21) Diplomacy
Year: 1959
Diplomacy is, in many ways, unique; it really doesn’t fit with wargames before it or wargames after, but is its own thing – and a game that has fascinated many for decades.
22) Risk
Year: 1959
A simple, multi-player wargame with plastic pieces and simple rules has long had appeal, and in spite of the many variations to come since Risk still holds significant interest in the genre.
23) Acquire
Year: 1964
Bill Caruson’s greatest masterpiece. Yes, it’s also arguably Sid Sackson’s greatest masterpiece, depending upon your thoughts about Can’t Stop, but the Acquire we know is only the Acquire we know because of Caruson’s contributions – not dealing out shares before the start of the game, having equal numbers of shares in each company, and most importantly allowing players to buy three shares each turn.
24) Uno
Year: 1971
I’d never really thought about it before, but – is Uno a shedding game?
Dale: this game also has a spot in my heart as it is likely the greatest contribution to our hobby from my hometown, Cincinnati Ohio.
25) Dungeons & Dragons
Year: 1974
A most remarkable game, in no small part because more than 50 years after it originated a new genre of games, it’s still the gold standard.
26) Hare & Tortoise
Year: 1974
It’s interesting to picture the Spiel des Jahres jury back in 1979, sifting through decades of games and picking out Hare & Tortoise, among the many options, to be the first winner. The continued success of the game – particularly when compared to other early SdJ winners – demonstrates the wisdom of their choice.
27) Squad Leader
Year: 1977
A uniquely popular tactical level wargame, which has had – and continues to have – a huge impact on wargames since.
28) Cosmic Encounter
Year: 1977
Cosmic Encounter was a highly innovative game – but unlike many such games, was also highly approachable and wildly popular, an impressive accomplishment from the Eon team.
29) Civilization
Year: 1980
I have played many Civilization-like games over time – but none that holds my attention or continuously draws me back like the original.
30) Trivial Pursuit
Year: 1981
Responsible, more than any other game, for the enormous trivia game industry.
31) Warhammer
Year: 1983
Miniature wargaming might not _just_ be Warhammer, but the story certainly starts there.
32) Pictionary
Year: 1985
A recent game in the vein of Pictionary which shows how much can be done with the concept is Krakel Orakel.
33) Werewolf
Year: 1986
I must admit to being surprised by just how much Werewolf has held up over the years; the game might not be as ubiquitous as it once was, but that seems to largely be because of just how many games of its ilk it has led to.
34) 1830
Year: 1986
I’ve had 1829 on my honorable mention list from the start, but at the time I didn’t see the influence of 18xx as being sufficient to justify inclusion on the main list. Now – I see the case. But I think it has to be 1830 that’s included, for taking 1829 and rounding it into a game that both continues to be played, and which is looked to as a guidepost by folks building off of the system.
35) Magic: The Gathering
Year: 1993
The influence Magic has had _outside_ of CCGs is really impressive – worthy of a place here even if we ignore the whole CCG industry.
36) The Settlers of Catan
Year: 1995
It’s been interesting to watch over time as Settlers has joined Monopoly in being looked down upon – “Oh, yeah, we used to play that, until we found better games”. (To be clear, it’s still my single favorite game.)
Greg: I certainly don’t look down upon it. I still think it is an amazing game design and I still enjoy playing it.
37) Carcassonne
Year: 2001
I’m trying to think how many games I’ve heard described in terms of their relation to Carcassonne since that game was released. It was far from the first game where you had to align the edges of square tiles, but I’ve never heard the mechanism compared to, say, Entdecker – only to Carcassonne.
38) Ticket to Ride
Year: 2004
I am impressed at how much mileage Days of Wonder has gotten out of Ticket to Ride – the addition of the city games to the series was a brilliant idea, and then there is the legacy game, and the continued proliferation of new maps for the original.
39) Twilight Struggle
Year: 2005
The key question, for me, is whether We the People (or Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage) was at the start of the modern wargaming/semi-wargaming boom, or Twilight Struggle. And for me, it feels like Twilight Struggle was really the game to have set the tone for these games, and branched the notion of card-driven games out beyond the boundary of wargames.
40) Caylus
Year: 2005
While not the first worker placement game, Caylus is the game that brought the mechanism to the forefront.
41) Agricola
Year: 2007
One of the challenges of creating this list for me is that there are a lot of games which have had great historical or cultural impact which I never cared for, or soured on over time. Agricola falls into the latter category for me; by early in 2008, the game was becoming less fun with each succeeding play, and it’s been 17 years since I last played it, or had any desire to. But I cannot deny the impact the game has had.
42) Pandemic
Year: 2008
Unlike Agricola, I like Pandemic – though being a cooperative game, that’s really the limit for me; I haven’t played it in many years, but unlike Agricola I certainly would. But the Pandemic Legacy games and their popularity show the strength of this gaming system, and its influence.
43) Dominion
Year: 2008
Dominion was easily the most recently published game I included in 2013, and I’m pleased that I guessed correctly; its historic and cultural impact has only continued to grow since then.
44) 7 Wonders
Year: 2010
One key, for me, in looking at the impact of games is their impact outside of gaming hobbyists. A non-hobbyist friend from work picked up this game, and while playing it with him reminded me that it’s really not a game for me, it also showed me the breadth of its impact.
45) Love Letter
Year: 2012
Japanese games have had a growing impact for many years now, but perhaps none more than Love Letter, in many ways the perfect example of the genre. It’s very small, but also a very clever design, and one which can be enjoyed by most anyone.
46) Codenames
Year: 2015
It’s been interesting to watch as party games have moved from something initiated by the Hasbros (or published independently and picked up by such publishers) to something put out by hobby publishers, more regularly focused on gamer’s games. Codenames stands out to me as the breakthrough among these games, influencing many designs since and gaining an impressive level of recognition outside of the hobby.
47) Terraforming Mars
Year: 2016
In many ways, this is where the gaming hobby is today. A clever design that catches on and enjoys success beyond the usual limits of the hobby. While it owes something to Agricola, it’s clearly moved beyond that, and has influenced many designs since then.
48) Gloomhaven
Year: 2017
The start of a new genre of games, and an impressive breakout hit in its own right.
49) Ganz Schön Clever
Year: 2018
The game that brought roll-and-write to the forefront, _and_ the game that kicked Wolfgang Warsch’s career into high gear.
50) Wingspan
Year: 2019
While Wingspan has had many influences, to me the greatest has been the proliferation of nature-theme games, a space which had received scant attention previously.
Honorable mentions:
Euchre – 1848
Banking – 1883
The Amusing Game of Innocence Abroad – 1888
Tiddlywinks – 1888
Touring – 1906
Little Wars – 1913
Battleship – 1931
Anagrams – 1934
Canasta – 1939
Stratego – 1947
Eleusis – 1956
Concentration – 1958
Mouse Trap – 1963
Twister – 1966
Quebec 1759 – 1972
Empire Builder – 1980
Axis & Allies – 1981
Illuminati – 1983
Adel Verpflichtet – 1990
Cranium – 1998
Lost Cities – 1999
Lord of the Rings – 2000
Puerto Rico – 2002
Through the Ages – 2006
Scout – 2019
Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers:
Greg S: Great list, Joe. Thanks for all your research. Of course, I will be like most folks and have some games that I feel should be on the list, including several in your Honorable Mention category (Battleship, Axis & Allies and Puerto Rico, for sure). I don’t see the same disdain for Settlers as you do, and still consider it to be an excellent game that I will play at any time.
Mitchell: Thanks for taking the time to put this together, Joe. It’s a great list. The only game I would add is Innovation. Perhaps it’s too much of a cult game to be “historically and culturally” significant, but it brought many brilliant new mechanics to card play and spawned dozens of similar type games, none of which are as good.
Rick Thornquist: A very good list, but please permit me to suggest one game that deserves to be on the list: Puerto Rico. To me, Puerto Rico easily meets the criteria of games that are historically significant and would be one of the first games that comes to mind if I made such a list. When released it was highly praised, endlessly played, and influenced an avalanche of other games. It was the number one game on BGG for crying out loud! And I still see it played today. I must admit, I’m surprised it made neither your list nor BGG’s Hall of Fame list – but that’s me. :)
