this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Spiel Des Jahres winners (www.spiel-des-jahres.de)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by pathief to c/[email protected]
 

Game of the year 2023

Winner: Dorfromantik: The Board Game

Other nominees:

Recomendations:

Kenner game of the year 2023

Winner: Challengers!

Other nominees:

Recommendations:

Children's game of the year 2023

Winner: Mysterium Kids

Other nominees:

Recomendations:

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[–] pathief 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Spiel des Jahres are without a doubt the most important boardgaming awards. They have a GIGANTIC impact in game sales. Huge.

I wish they had an actual "advanced" category, with heavier games. Their advanced cateogory is honestly a joke.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wish they had an actual “advanced” category, with heavier games. Their advanced cateogory is honestly a joke.

I guess my question is, why would they need to expand? The reason SdJ is so big is because you can hand off the nominations and winner to a generic family in Europe and they go "ok, this is what to play at the holiday season" which is why one of the criteria is "it's widely available in Germany." Heavy games aren't going to have that fit that purpose, and the Jogo de Ano already sort of covers that niche if you're just looking for casual recommendations.

[–] pathief 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Their current "advanced" category is often redundant, in my personal opinion. The winner of the "advanced" category is lighter than ticket to ride.

Jogo do Ano is an amazing award (my favorite, in fact) but it doesn't have nearly the same exposure or impact as SdJ.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

The winner of the “advanced” category is lighter than ticket to ride.

Challengers may have simple rules but it has plenty of strategic depth. That seems to be the sweet spot for Kennerspiel.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can understand that stance. I think what SdJ represents doesn't really equate to "this is the best game" so much as "this is a game that you should pick up and play over Christmas" because of the criteria that is involved in selection. That's why it has such sway in sales; because you have a bunch of families who are looking for a TtR level game and they run out and buy it for the rest of the year accordingly. Their advanced category is effectively "ok, you've already played a couple of boardgames, now here is the next level" which is still a far cry from Terra Mystica. How decipherable the rulebook is, stages at which planning for turns is done, all of that is criteria but on a culturally oriented level for just German families, not an abstract one for connoisseurs (ala BGG).

Something a friend of mine in Germany told me; you see more people playing boardgames, but a reduction in percentage of "heavy gamers" (which is an amorphous metric anyway once we cross cultures). SdJ meets their needs because that's what the populace by and large needs an award for (compared to heavy gamers who do their own research). That's why I also look at the Jogo; it's going to look at what Americans would consider "heavy" games.

[–] pathief 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think what SdJ represents doesn’t really equate to “this is the best game” so much as “this is a game that you should pick up and play over Christmas” because of the criteria that is involved in selection.

Oh absolutely. I own several SdJ winners such as MicroMacro, Just One, Azul, Codenames, Ticket to Ride.... They're great games to play with the family and most of the times they're big hits.

Their advanced category is effectively “ok, you’ve already played a couple of boardgames, now here is the next level” which is still a far cry from Terra Mystica

This is where I believe they often (not always) fail. If Challengers was in the Spiel des Jahres category no one would have thought it was odd because they're at the same level. The next level should be something around the 2.5 weight category. Even though I don't personally enjoy Wingspan, I think it was a great choice for a next level kind of game.

Good candidates for 2022, though I'm not sure they have a german version, would be Heat: Pedal to the Metal, Flamecraft, Turing Machine, Caper: Europe...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it even took them a while to introduce the „Kennerspiel“ category. Maybe we need something like an Expert category.

[–] pathief 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yep, they were introduced in ~~2016~~ 2011!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] pathief 2 points 1 year ago

You are correct, my bad!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Anybody play any of these games?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I've been playing Challengers a ton on BGA. There is a lot more to it than it may seem at first and it's a very fun game.

Yesterday I was mentioning Azul as an example of a game that's very easy to teach and a lot of fun when played casually but at the same has great depth at high level play. I think Challengers falls into this space too. The award is well deserved IMO.

The Decision Space podcast has just covered the game if you'd like some more in-depth discussion. They rated it very high too.

Edit: I totally missed that Sea Salt & Paper got a recommendation too! It's one of my absolute favorite small deck games, very addictive! And I'd highly recommend Next Station: London too if you enjoy flip & writes. It has quickly become one of our comfort games.

[–] spunkycomics 4 points 1 year ago

I’ve played Akropolis and Planet Unknown.

Akropolis is a competitive city builder where you’re having to make the choice of expanding outward or nullifying previous tiles by building on-top / upward for more points. I really enjoy it, my favorite new one of the year. (I tend to enjoy stylish, colorful, solo puzzley games)

Planet Unknown is a grid-planet that you’re terraforming with tetronimos. There are several tracks of environment types with different bonuses. I enjoyed the gameplay well enough but found it a little slow for my tastes; wife liked it more than I did.
What I did really appreciate is how replayable it seems. There are tons of planet variants, terrain tracks, and challenge cards that seem like you could really build the experience you want

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I've played challengers several times now and absolutely love it. My friends always ask to play it when I host a game night. I just don't like the art style that much, but the gameplay is great.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I really like Dorfromantik as a super relaxed solo game for when I need to calm down after work. Hopefully they'll do an expansion with more unlockables at some point.

On the whole though, everything covered by SdJ is way too light for me which is why I've rarely paid any attention to its nominees and awards.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Crazy to see Dorfromantik here. I played it on steam as a computer game, like 1 year ago, for a bit.

However, it was so … cozy … that I got bored while playing it and returned it. That’s not to say, if you like cozy games, this one is chill.

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