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Category Archives: Commentary
Kickstarter Skepticism: Why we’re not eager to play that game you backed…
By: Chris Wray and Jeff Lingwall Game night begins, and everybody stands around waiting for somebody to nominate a game. These days, most large groups have at least one Kickstarter enthusiast, and he or she always seems to speak first. … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary, Kickstarter
Tagged Analysis, Are Boardgames Getting Better, BGG Data, Commentary, Empirical Analysis, Endowment Effect, Kickstarter
67 Comments
The Opinionated Gamers discuss the Spiel des Jahres award nominees / recommendations
OK – so each year, we predict the award nominees, and some years we look pretty good… and some years (like this one), we look like a bunch of hacks. The reason? Well, none can really be given other than … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
3 Comments
The Opinionated Gamers Take Their Best Guess at the 2017 Spiel des Jahres lists
It’s that time of year again… on Monday, the jury will release the nominated (and recommended) lists for the Spiel des Jahres, the game of the year award. There is a pretty complicated process through which the jury members … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
5 Comments
Play These Games First: Other Recommendations
What games would we recommend that aspiring (but wholly inexperienced) gamers play first? This is the final article in a three part series, and today we discuss our other recommendations that didn’t make the top 10. We ran through details … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary, Reviews
Tagged board games, Gateway Games, New Gamers, Play These Games First, reviews
3 Comments
Play These Games First: An Introduction to Gaming (Games #5 – #1)
What games would we recommend that aspiring (but wholly inexperienced) gamers play first? This is the second article in a three part series, and today we discuss the top five most recommended games. We ran through details of the project … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary, Reviews
Tagged board games, Gateway Games, New Gamers, Play These Games First, reviews
8 Comments
Play These Games First: An Introduction to Gaming (Games #10 – #6)
A few weeks ago, a former coworker with little gaming experience asked me for a list of recommended board games. He loved the classics as a child, and he had tried a couple of modern titles, but he wanted to … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary, Reviews
Tagged board games, Gateway Games, New Gamers, Play These Games First, reviews
4 Comments
The Opinionated Gamers discuss the 2017 Golden Geek Awards
The winners of the voting for the 2016 BGG Golden Geek awards were just announced. We’ve been talking about the winners amongst ourselves – and we thought it would be interesting to bring this discussion to the blog. The … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
6 Comments
Postcard From Berlin: Games That Tell Refugees’ Stories
By Jeffrey D. Allers The current refugee crisis is not a game. There are no clear rules, the information is often untrackable, there are hidden variables that lead to utter chaos, and there is no endgame in site. And yet, … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
6 Comments
FINALISTS FOR THE 2016 INTERNATIONAL GAMERS AWARDS ANNOUNCED
The International Gamers Awards committee is extremely proud to announce the finalists for the 2016 IGA in the General Strategy category. Games released from July 1, 2015 – June 30, 2016 are eligible for consideration. This complete list of this … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
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The Opinionated Gamers (Try To) Predict the Spiel Des Jahres and Kennerspiel Des Jahres
The Opinionated Gamers (Try To) Predict the Spiel Des Jahres and Kennerspiel Des Jahres For the past few years, our group of gamers has taken their best guess at trying to read the minds of the Spiel des Jahres jury … Continue reading →