Spiel des Jahres 2007 Nominees Announced
The Spiel des Jahres committee has announced its nominees for the 2007 awards, and in a change of pace no pure two-player was nominated and no nominee came out of left field (although one was playing shortstop). This year’s nominees are, in order from easiest to learn to most difficult):
- Der Dieb von Bagdad, by Thorsten Gimmler (Rio Grande/Queen)
- Zooloretto, by Michael Schacht (Rio Grande/Abacusspiele)
- Jenseits von Theben, by Peter Prinz (Rio Grande/Queen)
- Die Baumeister von Arkadia, by Rüdiger Dorn (Rio Grande/Ravensburger)
- Yspahan, by Sébastien Pauchon (Rio Grande/Ystari)
Firstly, one gets a limp Essen 2006 with crappy game titles. Nothing in Essen 2006 shouted out to me as a must buy. Nothing. Usually, there is a buzz as one or two games gets talked about a lot on the internet during Essen, but this phenomenon was not evident last year. This did not surprise me as there are no new game mechanics in Eurogames - just re-hashed stuff from older games.
From the list of stale 'new' games, come this list of nominees. Hey, even a monkey can pick up a list of nominees better than this. Going through the list:
Der Dieb von Bagdad -I did not hear of this game until my remote game buyer told me she noticed this game at a sale in an Australian games shop recently. Sheesh. Admittedly, I was not at Essen 2006 (and I'm glad I did not go), but if someone who spent much of his time in the internet looking specifically for games to buy during Essen on the net did not notice this game, what the heck is this game doing on the nominee list? OK, I am a majority of 1, but over at BoardGameGeek, this game has a rating of a paltry 6.38 out of 10, as of today. 'Nuff said.
Zooloretto-Zoo-what? Not heard of this either. But looking at the the game's entry on BGG, it is like a Zoo management game. Reminds me of O Zoo le Mio, a fave of my household.
Jenseits von Theben-whatever. According to the BGG entry, 'The game plays in 1900. The players try to find ancient relics in Greece and Near East to get 'fame' (which is needed to win the game). Knowledge about the ancient cultures and some objects to help digging are also needed to be successful and can be find and get while traveling through Europe.' But this was first published in 2004. Now, why did this not get nominated in 2004, on its first printing? My answer: because there were better and more original games then.
Die Baumeister von Arkadia-this I did hear about during my net-trawling in Oct 2006. Got a good initial buzz, but later, there were negative remarks about this. Those remarks stopped me from getting this. The hard-core gamers actually present in Essen must have known what they were talking about, right?
Yspahan-heard about this one too. Nearly ordered it. Ysatri games was one of fav publishers, with hits like Caylus and Ys. But I did not order it, 'cos this game has DICE! Now, Eurogamers dislike dice in games, but I don't mind. Yet, since they mentioned that this game has dice, I decided not to get it. I'm OK with dice, but getting an Eurogame with dice is tricky. There is randomness in this Eurogame. Nobody might want to play it.
OK, all the nominees commented on. But what happened to Die Säulen der Erde? That got lots of hype, the most hype, in fact. I don't have that either, but that's besides the point.
Which nominee do I think will win? I don't care, 'cos there is not much to choose from, and there were better releases in 2006 like Perikles.
