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W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
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Once again, I'm catching up on non-Spiel-related news from the past week. Only 17 more days until Spiel 2011 opens, and things can somewhat go back to normal...
• Can Antoine Bauza retire now, or what? In addition to all the other awards that Bauza and publisher Repos Production have won for 7 Wonders, the game has now landed the 2011 multi-player International Gamers Award, with Stefan Feld's Die Burgen von Burgund doing second-best in the voting. Martin Wallace's A Few Acres of Snow from his own Treefrog Games won the two-player category by a wide margin, with Gryphon Games' new edition of Joli Quentin Kansil's What's My Word? getting the secondmost support. (You can view all the 2011 IGA nominees in this BGG News item from August 2011.)
• In related unsurprising news, 7 Wonders also won Juego del Año Tico 2011, the Costa Rican Game of the Year
• But wait, what's this? A prize that 7 Wonders did not win?! Yes, while Bauza's masterpiece was nominated for the 2011 Nederlandse Spellenprijs (all nominees listed here), the winner is actually Andreas Steding's Hansa Teutonica, published in the Netherlands by 999 Games. Coming in second was, yes, 7 Wonders with perennial runner-up Forbidden Island placing third in the popular voting results.
• And closer to home – namely elsewhere on the BoardGameGeek front page – you can see the nominees for the 2011 Golden Geek Awards for the various board game, role-playing game and video game categories. Lots of complaints about 7 Wonders appearing in multiple categories that complainers feel are not merited, but apparently more than a few people like the game. To make your opinions part of the tally (and if you're a BGG supporter, have an avatar or spend 20 GeekGold), head to this post, choose the domain (or domains) right for you, and start voting!
• In other news on the BGG front, the site has launched a video show, "All Thing Geek", hosted by Jess Damerst. Aldie posted the first episode a few days ago, and it's been viewed a few thousand times, so you might have already seen the show...
• Michael Mindes of Tasty Minstrel Games is running a Facebook-based giveaway that will incite gamers in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere – or maybe it won't since the giveaway isn't for gamers themselves but rather for children. TMG will donate $500 worth of games to Toys for Tots for every 1,000 "likes" it has on Facebook.
• The September 2011 issue of the Dutch gaming magazine Spel in Zicht can be downloaded for free from the publisher's website. Contents include a rave review of King of Tokyo (I second such raving), coverage of LEGO's Heroica line, and an interview with the dashing David Ausloos, designer of Panic Station.
• Designer Michael Schacht has unveiled his variant map for China for October 2011, one of a series of new maps that is creating over a twelve month period and adding as an option on the online gaming section of his website. The map this time, "AD 850", features a European land mass far more divided than we're using to seeing on the game board.
I've played this map a few times while Schacht was testing it; the small size of the regions typically leads to a low limit on the number of advisers in those regions, which leads to a lot of sharing – at least in those first plays. We'll see how players adapt over time.
With four of these map variants now available, it's interesting to consider how many design decisions are arbitrary – not random, mind you, and not capricious, but rather how open and adaptable designs can be. Schacht's game system works equally well in the various configurations now on offer, and the choice of intermediate scoring – present in Web of Power, removed in China, optional in these maps – isn't right or wrong, but something that players adapt to as they come to understand its effect on scoring. Dissenting thoughts?
• I'll bleed into the RPG world for a second to highlight this business-card-sized role-playing game from James Wallis. Intriguing. (HT: Steve Jackson)
• Are you ready for a Czech independent film inspired by Magic: The Gathering? Here's a preview of Tap: Max's Game from director/producer Kamil Beer:
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