March 18, 2006

BoardGameGeek is an insanely comprehensive site at the vanguard of the quiet renaissance in the world of table-top gaming. Browse its vast board game database, read a myriad of reviews, discover new suggestions on how to play old favorites, uncover long lost holy grails of childhood, chilling reminders of world views thankfully fading, and quite a few surprises.

Perhaps the coolest innovation that this site offers is the Geeklist, a catch-all framework for user submitted content, ranging from the informative and useful, to the political, to the humorous and downright peculiar. I myself have wasted many hours on this site. Perhaps one or two of my monkey friends will also.

posted by Nickdanger 18 years ago
  • I bought Power Grid because of that site. Unfortunately, no one will play it with me. Also Elfenland, not nearly as cutsey as it sounds.
  • I love board games, and I don't know anyone else who does. I can't get anyone to play with me. One of the main reasons I have for wanting to get married and have a family is that there will then be a group of people who have a legal obligation to play board games with me. They can't say no.
  • I played this at TenaciousPettle's recently, and I can vouch for it. An amazingly simple game -- you have to argue that your answer is the best one, no matter how ridiculous, and that's pretty much it -- but you will be howling by the end of it. Particularly if you drink while playing, of course, but that's optional. Awesome game.
  • I have that! and it's never been out of the box. RRARR I want to play! fucking friends
  • I am in the same boat as Mr Knickerbocker - except that my best friend likes games too, and I don't see her enough (she has a very, very tight schedule: single mother, full-time job, full-time student). My fiance, on the other hand, will play occasionally, but doesn't really like to all that much. I have a few games still in their wrappers, and a really fun game, Dread Pirate, which has only been played once despite the fact that everyone enjoyed it that one time. It has usually been rated in the low-middle on board game sites, but the fact that it's mostly luck-based will keep players who don't like serious strategy interested: you get to use your pirate voices, but it's not overly mentally-taxing. Perfect summer-evening-on-the-patio game. NOT for hardcore gamers. Occasionally I can coerce my mom into Scrabble at a coffee place, which she generally loses. But that's it. That Lord of the Rings RISK Trilogy Edition is doomed to suffocate in plastic, I think, even though the Two Towers edition was such fun! *weeping* My deepest love is for Talisman, which I don't actually have a copy of. Best with several expansion sets. I think it pretty much accounts for the entire summer of 1996, along with the Whist vs Spades debate. (See, they're basically the same game, only the trumps are set in Spades, and Spades scores in 10s whereas Whist scores by single points. Best friend declared her preference for Spades because "it feels like you're getting somewhere: 70 points are obviously WAY BETTER than 7 points.")
  • There can be only one!
  • Ha! what a fine selection of table games of all sorts! Good stuff! (Hurray! -- this is the weekend so I can get through at some of the brief history of Cataan, which gets played fairly often in this and neighbouring households. *drools* O what to look at first? Well worth a huge hand of ))), thanks, Nickdanger.
  • OK, I'm a board game freak too. When I was in high school, I had friends who'd play with me. Now they've all moved away. I think maybe we monkeys need to form a board game club or something. Board games via web conferencing? I think I'm probably gonna spend hours on that site too.
  • I think maybe we monkeys need to form a board game club or something 1. g4
  • 1.      e5
  • 2. f3
  • 2.      Qh4#
  • Shit.
  • I always feel stupid after playing with myself.
  • Apples to Apples is our favorite. I love it because you can get everyone, anyone, to play it and they will all enjoy it. Too bad you need a larger group to play. It's so easy and fun. A long time ago someone put Apples to Apples online and you could multiplayer-game with other people. They took it down pretty quick. I go looking for it now and then hoping someone else is trying it again. I love board and card games and I trawl BBG now and then - but mostly it just makes me frustrated - so many games I want to try and I don't have enough people to play with. I should start up a game night. If you love games/gaming check out Defective Yeti. He does Best Games of 200X every year, and features on Best Games for Small Children, Best Games for Parties, etc. Lots of good recommendations.
  • That is a great post, Nick. That Juden Raus thing is pretty creepy.
  • Yeah, I figured a few of you monkeys were closeted BGGs. This is my current favorite. It's a cooperative game, which seems really weird but actually works out quite well. Because everyone is working toward the same goal, there's a real feeling of camaraderie that I haven't experienced in any other game. Of course, there is an optional traitor rule that I haven't played with yet that could undoubtedly change that camaraderie to an atmosphere of paranoia and baseless accusation, which also works for me.
  • I'd love to be a BGG but I have no one to play with apart from #2. And he even bought me Settlers of Catan for Christmas!
  • Every board game I play with my family becomes a cooperative game. Against me! *Sobs, shakes fist, writes tell-all* Anyhoo, very cool site. I wish I had folks to play board games with, too. HeroQuest, TIME Magazine: The Game, and The Bible Game are all gathering dust.
  • Er... TIME Magazine: The Game AND The Bible Game? Boy, that sounds like enough fun to kill a man in only a few short hours...