Not all are as blessed as we are by the gift of truly original thought, and so many turn to others for inspiration. Whether it’s Newton standing on the shoulders of giants, or stealing from our rich neighbour Xerox, many great ideas are born from what has come before. Before we make the inspired choice, we talk about Masters of Renaissance: Lorenzo il Magnifico – The Card Game, Innovation Ultimate, and Dawn of Ulos.
After much consternation at his exclusion from our Mount Rushmore of games, we’ve decided to honour legendary designer Sid Sackson elsewhere – a BGB Designer Spotlight! I think these used to be called BGB DOGs but even Mark forgot about that bit of branding. Oh well. Before we make amends, we talk about Magicalligraphy, Hamlet: The Village Building Game, and Tournament at Camelot.
We’ve reached the end of our fantasy draft series, the last in this increasingly dire list of games from which we pluck five gems each, and then get you to vote on your favourites. There’s a (potential) $50 gift card in it for you! Before the last dance, we talk about Seas of Havoc, Whale to Look, and Dorfromantik: The Board Game.
We’re veering into the dark roads of board game classification, but this time with a goal in mind – how to best highlight games that feature strong interaction. Shouldn’t BoardGameGeek have a scale for that somewhere? And while we’re at it, BGG … Before we put our thoughts in the suggestion box, we talk about Guatemala Café, and Ride the Rails.
Are we living in a golden age of board games? It’s a simple question, but there’s a lot to unpack – what even qualifies as a golden age, have we already had one, and if we are living in one, when does it end? Before we go for gold, we talk about That’s Not a Hat, Pulsar 2849, and Barrage.
We’re lucky to have covered wide swathes of the board game world, but there was a time when some of those things were aspirational. Like achievements to cross off on the great board game check list … or like that Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson movie. You know they invented that phrase? Wild. Before we make our list, we talk about Municipium, and Yucatan.
Kellen’s away, so we turn our attention to the burning questions that you’ve been asking us, in a feature we’re calling Topic Talk Back. This is not to be confused with the format we’ve used before, mailbags are old news now, and we’d appreciate it if you’d stop bringing it up. Before we do anything but rustle in the cloth sack, we talk about By Stealth and Sea, and Undaunted: Stalingrad.
It’s the penultimate draft of the BGG Top 1000 series, and all of these games are garbage … but it’s up to us to sift through that garbage, and each find a collection of five games that’s worthy of you. Vote for your favourite, and you could win a $50 gift voucher! Before we find diamonds in the rough, we also talk about Paperback Adventures, and Woodcraft.
Any creative work is built on a lot of conventions – things that we take as granted, the unspoken rules that must be followed. We get a lot of really great games by following design conventions, but some times, in order to innovate we have to break them. Before we try to find the balance between convention and innovation, we talk about Darwin’s Journey, Aleph Null, and Rome in a Day.
We can all agree the Golden Geeks peaked last year, but I suppose we can continue the facade if we must. Nominees are out for BoardGameGeek’s annual awards, and as the presiding champions of taste, we’re declaring our favourites. Before we prognosticate, we talk about Spots, Big City, and Horseless Carriage.