Best of Board Games

This image of Dutch Blitz is one of the best I’ve ever seen in the Geek: it captures the feel of the game really well. Great shot, and it sure makes me want to play the game (for some people, the effect might be the exact opposite).

Scoring a major scoop, Yehuda managed to wrangle an interview with The Designer. He gives good interview.

Larry Levy asks–or, more correctly, answers–the question: What games will be around one hundred years from now? Interesting answers, particularly for “our” games–recent, proprietary, designer games. I’m not sure any of them are going to last, personally. The Cult of the New is strong in our little world. Sometimes I think the whole hobby suffers from “bash the leader syndrome,” where the very popularity of the game ensures its eventual destruction.

Mario at Boardgamers’ Pastime discusses games that lost their luster–typically unexpectedly. It’s interesting that, for me, there’s also a big gulf between a “6″ and a “7.” I’ve never thought about games quite like this–although surely we all have several games that fall into the category described by Mario–games we used to think were pretty good, but after a little while…meh, for no reason except psychology. Ursuppe’s one for me. I used to think it was pretty nifty; nowadays, I’d as soon play…I dunno, all sorts of games. It’s weird.

If you don’t get Tigris & Euphrates, try reading Why, why, why can’t I “get” this game? and maybe you’ll just figure it out. Yehuda’s reply in particular is a good crash course to Tigris & Euphrates strategies. There’s also a link to a pretty good review of T&E.

Everyone take note of Alan Moon’s Favorite Games of 2005. If someone had come up to me and said, “Guess what Alan Moon’s favorite game of last year was,” I doubt I’d have gotten it in twenty tries. I’ll have to look into that one a little closer. I’m especially intrigued by the notion of him working on a game along the lines of Decision’s “Lightning” series.

This picture of Around the World in 80 Days is subtle, yet funny.

I urge you to check out Mike Doyle’s blog, Mike Doyle’s Art of Play. Doyle is probably best known of his redesigns of board game art: the blog features an interesting redesign of Settlers of Catan (part 2, part 3).

Over at Habergamer, Mark Haberman goes into the mathematics of once-around auctions. Great stuff!

Nominations have closed for the 2005 BGIAs over at Gone Gaming. You can check out the nominees here.