Hacker News Reader

Comment by mysterydip | Hacker News Reader

Curious as I'm only a casual boardgamer now, but what would your 2016 list be?

Other than the choice of reissues, this might be my 2016 list, too, of what I've encountered. When I said "what a dire list," I probably meant "what a dire year."

The problem with year's best lists for board games is that you won't close in on what's best from 2016 until 2019 or 2020. Board games don't easily fit in with the typical revolving year of fashion; they're mathematical/economic constructs with lots of emergent characteristics, and their true values are only discovered over time, unevenly. All you generally get from a "best of the year" list is a "bestsellers of the year" list, which within the long development/marketing/shipping/marketing cycle of game production, boils down to a "preorders of the year" list.

I think boardgaming is falling into a cycle where (issued too soon) lists like these are falling into a harmonic cycle with game productions (because of their need to synchronize around yearly major gaming conferences) and informing the qualities to be looked for in next games to go into production. Luck is pushing the industry in a direction that optimizes for marketing and not quality or fun. Boardgaming has always been prone to this. Before hobby boardgaming, it was Christmas and the toy cycle.

To get a real best of list, you have to play a large selection of games from this year, and with the vast amount of games issued, you'll have to have that number filtered by lots of people whose opinions you respect before you can have a reasonable expectation that you've touched most of the best games from this year. The only people who do this are the Spiel des Jahres jury. They're going to issue the best quick recommendations, and when their picks are not that fun, it probably means the entire industry was not that fun.

He asked for your list of best games, instead you gave a critique of the industry. So of what YOU have played, what do you consider the best?

No, I answered the question directly in the first sentence, then gave a critique of "best of the year" lists. I've played a thousand games; are you seriously interested in what I happened to play from this year and I liked, or do you just want to criticize people who criticize best of the year lists for board games and explain why?

I don't communicate in product recommendations.

edit: Looking at the list above, though, I did forget that Medici got a reprint. It's another of the Knizia auction trilogy with Ra, should always be in print.

Come back in 2019 and an informed list will be available.

I played a ton of games this year, but most weren't released in 2016. Of those that I played, I'd rank them as:

1. Pyramid Arcade 2. Quadropolis 3. Medici (reprint) 4. World's Fair 1893 5. Eko 6. Animals on Board 7. Control

That being said, I own several 2016 games I haven't been able to get to the table yet: Oceanos, 13 Days (Cuban Missile Crisis), Codex, Circular Reasoning, Glux, Santorini, Mechs vs Minions, and Imhotep. All of which I expect could possibly add to or replace something on the above list.

Not the OP, but I would have had Arkham Horror: The card game on this list. It came out fairly late and hasn't ended up on many best of 2016s, although Quinns from Shut up and Sit Down had it as his #1 this year. If you have any interest in the LCG format and/or coop games I would check it out.

Yes! The Arkham Horror LCG is one of the very few games (digital or physical) I've been excited to purchase the first day it was available. Pretty simple to play, but lots of fun depth with all the deck building options and campaign progression.

7 Wonders: Duel is a great game for 2 people. Simple, yet strategically complex, with varied gameplay.

my list (not op)

1. Scythe

2. Pyramid Arcade

3. Hands in the Sea

4. Energy Empires

5. Mechs vs Minions

6. Medici (reprint)

7. Via Nebula

8. Millennium Blades

9. Power Grid: The Card Game

10. Yokohama

Reply on news.ycombinator.com