I thought it would be an interesting exercise to look at the current Top 100 games on www.BoardGameGeek.com and see how well I'm doing in playing them all. I realise I have never done this before in 19 years of blogging about boardgames. Certainly the Top 100 looks very different from 19 years ago. No more Tigris & Euphrates today. I don't actually browse the Top 100 list often now. However it was important to me when I first got into the hobby. I was curious about all these games which were ranked so high by players from all over the world. I remember being appalled that Axis & Allies wasn't on the list. It wasn't even in the Top 200. I had thought it was the pinnacle of boardgames.
We should not simply take the BGG Top 100 as the best 100 boardgames in the world. It is an aggregation of what many boardgamers think. It is the product of how people use BGG, and it reflects specifically the tastes of people who bother to rate games on BGG. That means hobby gamers. When looking at the list, we should understand the context. Although it is not perfect, it is still a highly useful list for people who like this kind of games and want to explore other similar games.
I have played 56 out of the top 100. Considering that several games have their revised editions and 2nd editions also in the top 100 as a separate entry (Agricola, Mansion of Madness, Great Western Trail, Eclipse, War of the Ring), I'd consider myself as having played 61. That's higher than I expected. I thought I was further behind. There are some games which have spin-offs and reimplementations. I probably can consider myself as having tried them. These are not clear cut though. Maybe they are different enough from the originals to be considered separate games. For example Endeavor Deep Sea, Great Western Trail: New Zealand, Gaia Project, Age of Innovation (can these two be considered Terra Mystica variants?), and The Crew: Mission Deep Sea. Maybe Wingspan Asia can be considered just an expansion. I have played Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, but not Gloomhaven or Frosthaven. I have more or less seen the system, and I am not particularly interested to try the other games in the family. Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth is based on 7 Wonders: Duel. I'm interested to try it if I have the opportunity, even though I have played 7 Wonders: Duel.
One thing I notice about the top 100 is this is like Hollywood. So many games are spin-offs, variants and newer editions (remakes). How many Marvel movies can you watch before tiring of them? I wonder whether this should be interpreted as a sign of boardgame companies growing too big and losing the appetite for creative risks. Spin-offs and expansions are financially prudent. It's just that they are not so exciting for me. Or maybe we should see this in a more positive light. Publishers are making what their fans want. Perhaps this is mostly natural demand and supply.
Here are some notable games I still have not played and I am somewhat interested in. I'm curious about Dune: Imperium and Dune: Imperium - Uprising. Two games in the top 10! Star Wars: Rebellion is also a top 10 game and it has been around for a while. Two others I'm interested in are Slay the Spire and Grand Austria Hotel. I can't say I'm keen enough to want to buy a copy so that I can play them. I find that I rarely buy heavy Eurogames now, or any heavy game.
There are three games from the Clank! family in the top 100 and I have not played any of them. Cascadia is a popular game which I have not tried. There's also SETI, Kanban, Everdell. I have never played the classic Twilight Imperium. It's not a genre I'm keen about now. Crokinole has been in the top 100 for many years, and I have never come across a physical copy of the game. I guess it's not a thing in Malaysia.
My 10's among the top 100 are Pandemic Legacy Season 1, Through the Ages, and Race for the Galaxy. My 9's are Agricola, Power Grid, Le Havre, Maracaibo, and Darwin's Journey. For any game in the top 100 which I rate a 7 or below, I'll have plenty of people who disagree. These are the games which didn't work so well for me. My 6's are Anachrony, Great Western Trail, The White Castle, and The Gallerist. I have only one 5 in the top 100 - Harmonies.
Which are your favourite games in the top 100? Is your all-time favourite in the top 100? Mine is Innovation, and it is currently ranked 300+ on BGG. Which is your lowest rated game in the top 100?
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