Many folks who play board games will provide a year-end report of games they played, often in a form known as a "5 & 10" or "five and dime" report. This is because the report will list all games played 10 or more times and those played 5-9 times - this is obviously an indicator of what people are playing frequently. It does tend to skew results towards lighter fare since longer games don't come out as often.

I didn't keep terribly accurate data on my gaming this year. I was pretty good at keeping things up to date in my GameTracker software, but fell off in the July timeframe. Fortunately this weblog provides a decent log of what I played with groups outside the home; unfortunately many of the games that get brought out casually at my home are missing. Therefore I will estimate some of the numbers.

I will also include online games that I played with other human beings, some in real-time, some via email or play-by-web. In case you are interested, this is what I played online last year:

So here goes the list:

Total Games Played: 309

Total Unique Games Played: 98

Games Played 10 or More Times

  • Settlers of Catan (16) - About half of these were played online.
  • Euphrat und Tigris (15) - All but two of these were played online.
  • Fluxx (15) - Many plays while sitting in a restaurant with the family.
  • 7th Sea CCG (14) - I got back into this after getting some deals on eBay. I also played in a couple of online, casual tournaments.
  • Apples to Apples (14) - Very popular with extended family and non-gamer friends.
  • Carcassonne (14) - Popular intro game, plus I played online 5 or 6 times.
  • Can't Stop (12) - A favorite to bring out just before bed for Matthew and Jacob.
  • Magic: the Gathering (11) - Still one of my all-time favorite games. I still just play with decks I built 8 years ago or pre-constructed decks for new expansions.
  • Liar's Dice (10) - Another family favorite.

Games Played 5-9 Times

  • Balloon Cup (8) - Matthew's favorite 2-player game. He beats me at least half the time.
  • Puerto Rico (7) - This would definitely be in the top 10 if I would learn to play it on BSW. Any volunteers to mentor me?
  • Wyatt Earp (7) - My favorite rummy game.
  • Alpha Playing Cards (6) - Didn't get played very much in the second half of the year.
  • Fresh Fish (6) - I wish my family enjoyed playing this more.
  • Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation (6) - This has been played 3 more times in the past 2 days in our household. Great 2-player game.
  • Piratenbucht (6) - Probably our favorite heavier family game.
  • Samurai (6)
  • Battlecards (6)
  • Chrononauts (5) - One of Jacob's favorite games. Very creative.
  • Dragon Delta (5)
  • King of the Elves (5)
  • Mystery Rummy 4 (5)
  • Wallenstein (5)
  • Zendo (5)

Commentary

I rediscovered board games about exactly one year ago. The fun I've had this year is immeasurable - and I can't stress enough how good this has been for our family. I want to thank a number of people who welcomed me into their gaming groups and homes over the past year:

  • Kevin Graham
  • Doug and Mimi Walker
  • Ken Rude and family
  • Andy Christensen in Redmond
  • Angela Gaalema in Colorado Springs
  • The Card Benders in Dallas, TX
  • Mikael and Jonathan in Brooklyn, NY
  • The Arizona Boardgamers
  • Scott Alan Woodward in Burbank, CA
  • Greg Schloesser and the Westbank Gamers
  • The RipCityGamers

Stay tuned for some of my awards and top "n" lists for 2003.

Updated:

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