In January of 2000, board game lovers Scott Alden and Derk Solko created the website www.boardgamegeek.com as a resource for boardgame news, articles, tips, session reports and ratings. The site was an overwhelming success, with 250,000 active members discussing 30,000 different games and regularly contributing to the site. Members can find online board games, games to buy, bulletin board topics of interest and reviews on new or existing games they may not be familiar with. The site is free to join and users who post content can earn “GeekGold,” which is a form of virtual currency that enables them to purchase avatars, badges and other items for their community page.

One reason why gamers come to www.boardgamegeek.com is to find new a strategy board game to buy. As of December 2008, the top-ranked game was Agricola. The average playing time for this game is 2 hours with 3-4 players. Agricola players start out as a farmer with a wife and from there, they must build a life for themselves. Using cards and double-sided tokens, players will try to build a house, grow crops during different harvest seasons, feed the children, raise livestock and survive. The countless strategies that may be employed in this game are what truly make it fun. The top game of 2007 (and #2 game on the 2008 list) was Puerto Rico. This 90-minute game is best played with four players, who act as colonial Puerto Rican plantation owners who must grow indigo, corn, tobacco, coffee and sugar better than their competition.

Another reason to visit www.boardgamegeek.com is to buy games. The BGG Marketplace works very much like eBay, where individual sellers offer up games for sale. Many of the games on the site may be hard to find, out of print or from other countries, which makes shopping here practical. Prices of some games are as low as for near-new games. There are some expensive games that cost as much as 0,000 (for a rare complete collection of vintage Magic: The Gathering cards). Most games are very reasonably priced, however, and there is also a BGG Trade section where players can get rid of the old and buy the new to make their dollars stretch.

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In 2008, the sale of boardgames jumped 23.5% to 8 million. This may sound odd, considering that we’re in a recession and all, but it seems that Americans are cluing into the fact that a Scrabble board game costs a third of the price of a new video game and can provide just as much entertainment, and more social entertainment to boot! Video game sales have been growing too, but only by about 7% each year. Given their higher cost, they’re bringing in .4 billion annually. Families operating on tight budgets are realizing that now is a great time to set their sights on affordable family fun with some classic board games. Here are some selections for the “Best Games of 2009.”

According to Games Magazine, the “Best Game of the Year” is Tzaar, a game about making choices, using three different game pieces to form a trinity and force your opponent out of one type of piece. The “Best Abstract Strategy Game of the Year” is Ponte del Diavolo, which has you building stone bridges over Venice canals to score the most points. Key Harvest won the “Best Advanced Strategy Game of the Year” as you win points by placing tiles on your country board. The “Best Family Game” is Pandemic, which has you racing to cure four diseases before mankind is wiped out. The “Best Family Card Game” is called Palastgeflster, which involves courtyard martials, kings and magicians tangled in a royal mystery. The “Best Party Game” is Go Nuts, which awards players points by rolling dice and adding up acorns. Additionally, Doris won the best of the puzzle board games and Jumbulaya won the best of the word board games.

The 2009 American International Toy Fair in New York City introduced some great new boardgames this year. Pants on Fire (3 or more players, ages 10+) is a fun story-telling game, where a player writes brief stories about each of the three topics revealed. For example, a “bad date” or a “first job,” and the other players have to guess if the story is “true or false.” Another fun boardgame, Pressure Point (3 to 8 players, ages 10+) has players racing against the clock to give answers down a list of questions as quickly as possible, while other players bet on the number of correct answers they think the player will give. Masters of Venice (2 to 5 players, ages 10+) uses games strategy where players must act as 15th century Italian merchants trading spices, silks, gems, iron and grain, while playing alternate characters like thieves, harbor masters and gondoliers. Time’s Up: Title Recall (4 to 8 players, ages 12+) is a fun party game that asks players to guess the famous person associated with famous books, movies, songs and albums. A new 10th anniversary edition of Time’s Up has also been released this year.

The Dice Tower Game Awards has identified some of the top boardgames of 2009. Their site says, “The BEST GAME OF THE YEAR award goes to a game that is the ‘cream of the crop’… this is a combined result of the games’ physical presentation, strategic choices, and most of all – a sense of fun.” This award goes to Agricola, Battlestar Galactica, Dominion, Pandemic and Stone Age. One of their goals is also to reward SMALL PUBLISHER awards to new up-and-coming developers who may get overlooked in the shuffle because they have five or fewer published games. This award goes to Galactic Emperor, Snow Tails, 2 de Mayo, Pizza Box Baseball and Tinner’s Trail. Even more cutting edge is the NEW DESIGNER award given to someone with just one or two hits published, including Ghost Stories, Timber Tom, Dominion and Conflict of Heroes. BEST GAME REPRINTS were awarded to Formula D, Chinatown, Chicago Express, Cosmic Encounter and Talisman. Some of the MOST INNOVATIVE games to come out this year are Android, Battlestar Galactica, Dominion, Snow Tails and Space Alert. BEST FAMILY GAMES include: Formula D, Pandemic, Say Anything, Sorry Sliders and Stone Age.

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