
Players Have Crowned a New Best Board Game – And It May Be Tough to Topple - scottie_m
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/players-have-crowned-a-new-best-board-game-and-it-may-be-tough-to-topple/
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kevinwang
Well, I don't really understand the conjecture in the headline, that this game
will somehow be harder to topple. Since its newly released and a niche game,
only people who suspected that they would like it and would pay $200 for it
have obtained and rated it.

Wouldn't we expect the rating to degrade over time as more people other than
the most passionate try it?

Although, if the game gets a reputation as a niche game, I can see how people
would continue to self-select for playing the game, and it would continue to
be a top-rated game, but with a significantly lower volume of ratings.

~~~
jsnell
Not really. First, it already has over 14k ratings, which is pretty
substantial and 24k people who have marked it as "owned". E.g. when Twilight
Struggle made it to #1 in 2010, it had just 7k ratings.

Second, rating decay from the voting population of a game doesn't seem to be
that big an effect on BGG. To use TS as an example again, you'd expect that a
two player wargame about the cold war would have huge problems as the more
general gaming population started playing it. But as the voter numbers for
Twilight Struggle increased from 7k to 30k over the years, the rating has
actually gone up (8.18 to 8.20).

That isn't to say that there's no rating decay in place. But I think the
source is when a game is perceived as "obsoleted" by newer games.

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jellicle
This is a similar problem to the ratings of religious books on Amazon and
similar sites. Appeal to a very narrow niche, disappeal to anyone else,
satisfy that niche, and your percentage ratings will be very high (even though
almost all customers know, correctly, that they dislike your product).

This is also what allows targeted attacks against products - annoy (instead of
appeal to) a limited segment of the population, they all come and rate your
book a "0", now your rating has dropped to near-zero despite it APPEALING
(instead of disappealing) to most of the population.

Rating systems should try to figure out if a product is being boosted or
attacked by a narrow slice of fans/haters.

~~~
Jedd
It's not really that similar -- Amazon and similar sites have an audience that
is mostly not interested in religious books.

BGG has an audience that is mostly interested in board games.

~~~
Pinckney
Suggesting all boardgames are similar? Those are fighting words.

Personally, I write off Gloomhaven because it's a tactical miniatures game
(something I've never cared for). There are other high ranked games, like
Caverna, which I write off for similar reasons.

~~~
Jedd
> Suggesting all boardgames are similar?

Entirely not what I suggested.

Amazon has a large registered user base (who can apply ratings), and only a
tiny percentage of those are interested in religious books (or, these days,
you could probably say only a v.small percentage of Amazon customers are
buying books of any sort).

BoardGameGeek has a user based almost by definition exclusively of people who
are interested in board games.

GP's suggestion that niche product ratings could / are skewed by people
unfamiliar with the topic doesn't apply so well to _niche communities_ ,
especially ones with effective moderation.

Disclaimer - I've been on BGG since 2012, own Gloomhaven (but haven't played
it), and consequently haven't rated it.

~~~
Pinckney
My comment was meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek. Sorry I didn't convey that
well.

I do think the boardgame community has enough subniches that it's not immune
to this problem, though.

~~~
Jedd
Ah, okay - apologies that I didn't pick up on that.

I wouldn't self-describe as a board gamer. I monitor the forums & reviews a
bit, and have been going to a local meetup for a little while.

But it does feel like board gamers _tend_ to be quite familiar with games
outside their 'preference zone' \-- perhaps more so than other work & hobby
areas I've experienced. Anecdotal, to be sure.

------
BrandoElFollito
I tried to au board games with my children (11 and 13 yo) but we somehow never
managed to get really into it, despite trying.

They all look repetitive and limited in the possibilities (story, physical
space,...). It would seem that they have no chance against video games
(Civilization, Skyrim,...) and still this is, as the article pour it, a golden
age.

The only one which was fun (with my father, not children) was "Concept"
([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_(board_game)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_\(board_game\)))
where the board is merely a medium but everything happens outside it.

~~~
PurpleRamen
Videogames are also very repetitive and limited in their possibilities.
Limitation and how the player masters them is the major point of most games.

Board games have some advantages over videogames. They have shorter gaming-
sessions, a healthier multiplaying and a far stronger flexibility for game-
execution and rules-modifications. Boardgames are played with the family and
friends on a table and it's up to the players how they handle things.

~~~
BrandoElFollito
Yes, this is also what I was looking for. The thing is that I did not find a
game which would be captivating enough for the children to go beyond one
session or two.

Monopoly: everybody hates everyone afterwards.

Settlers of Catan: very repetitive, I believe that we did not grasp the key
intent of the game.

When they were younger games such as "Mille Bornes" ( a French board game)
were OK, but these are really games for small children.

They read a lot, do not play videogames very much and do not watch TV, enjoy
chess, etc. -- so they seemed like good candidates for board games.

I may try D&D (with a real MD) someday, who knowns.

~~~
Doxin
In my experience with board games variation is key, Much like most people
don't just play one computer game forever either.

And yes monopoly is terrible. Catan is mostly something to keep you occupied
while conversations happen.

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db48x
The best board game is obviously High Frontier, so clearly this one will turn
out to be a fad.

~~~
adamredwoods
You'll have to bring that up with this Heroquest fan:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx8sl2uC46A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx8sl2uC46A)

~~~
db48x
Wow. Although he is wrong, I may have trouble topping his arguments, or his
presentation.

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PhasmaFelis
> _The BoardGameGeek list is valuable real estate in high-end board gaming,
> and the No. 1 spot is, of course, the prime position — Boardwalk, if you
> will._

Forced Monopoly references are the board game equivalent of "Bang! Zoom! Pow!
Comics aren't just for kids anymore!"

~~~
Jedd
Especially as I didn't even get the reference on the first reading -- I've
never played the US version of Monopoly.

I'm assuming Boardwalk is the equivalent of Mayfair or Park Lane in the
UK/euro version of the game?

I guess it's even funnier given the way to consistently and reliably win
Monopoly is to not go after the most expensive property, but rather simply
hoard all the houses.

------
roflchoppa
looks like another munchkins derivative. ha

~~~
jack9
Looks like they finally got it right. Hah? The last line of the article...
"Board games are evolving as well, standing on the shoulders of the great
games and iterating on them."

