A year in the life of the St Louis Boardgames Meetup (2009 edition)
Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Another year passes, and the St Louis Boardgame Meetup Group has seen a number of changes - changes of venues, adding some events, and removing some events, and some changes in the Organizer team.
I'm making my comparisons here with the 2008 Geeklist
In 2009 we had 190 events, down by 5 compared to the previous year. We currently meet in 7 different locations, but those have changed somewhat throughout the year as various venues have closed and opened. At first glance it would appear that little has changed. However, total (estimated) attendance has grown from 1589 in 2008 to 1991 in 2009, an increase of about 25%.
We currently have 633 signed up members, which makes us the 7th largest meetup group in St Louis (ignoring the one political group that hasn't met in nearly 4 years...), and the 9th largest Boardgame focused meetup group. We remain an exceedingly active group, with all of our events well attended. If you're ever in St Louis, you're almost certain to be able to find somewhere to play.
Our growth has been from a number of sources: People finding us because we are a large active meetup group in St Louis, Gamers moving to the area, People bringing their non-gamer friends along.
According to our recorded stats, we played 413 different games, a total of 1848 times.
A number of these were unpublished prototypes, mainly because of the Rio Grande/ChiTaG game design contest. That was also a great success, with the St Louis winner being selected by Jay to be one that he'll publish.
Once again, thank you to my assistant organizers who help me plan and act as representatives of the group, especially to newcomers. Thanks go to Mark, Dave, Chris, Patrick, and especially Mike, who left us at the end of the year to take on a new job in Wisconsin. Welcome to Tony and Sarah who are helping out where Mike left off.
We are also fortunate to be sponsored by Game Nite, which means that we are completely free to attendees.
This Geeklist shows our dimes for the year. Interesting to note that last year had 33 dimes, and this year has 43, again, demonstrating the group's growth.
A note on the rankings. Where the number of plays is tied for the year, I've marked the game whose first play was later in the year as higher, as it's had less time to build up those plays.
For full details of our gaming in 2009, check out the year's stats. A note on those stats - expansions that get played with another game are recorded as 0.01 of a game, so that it's recorded that it was used, but doesn't misrepresent the total number of games played. That's what all the zeros are at the end of stats.
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3.
Board Game: FITS
[Average Rating:6.76 Overall Rank:556]
Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 43
First play of 2009: April 22
carlos hernandez
United States
St. Louis
Missouri
Carlos always seems to find some interesting little games before most other people do, and this was one that he brought and has been enjoyed by many.
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 41
First play of 2009: August 20
I'm not sure where
Mike Pokrzywa
United States
Appleton
Wisconsin
found this, but we're glad he did. It often comes out at the start of an evening, a we're waiting for people to arrive, and at the end, as we have limited time till the venue closes.
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7.
Board Game: Jet Set
[Average Rating:6.82 Overall Rank:886]
Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
-
Total plays: 35
First play of 2009: May 28
Another new game this year, brought to the group by
mark sellmeyer
United States
st louis
Missouri
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
-
Total plays: 25
First play of 2009: January 13
A great worker placement game, enjoyed by many.
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9.
Board Game: Money!
[Average Rating:6.63 Overall Rank:724]
Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
-
Total plays: 24
First play of 2009: January 25
The new edition has brought this game into the mix quite a bit this year, with some people bringing back their older edition.
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 22
First play of 2009: January 2
Another fine, simple game.
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 20
First play in 2009: January 2
Whilst it seems balanced on its own, the general consensus is that the Cylons have it easy when you add Pegasus.
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 18
First play of 2009: February 12
This is a wonderful quick game. The rules are so simple, but it's deeper than it looks.
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 17
First play of 2009: June 12
A riot with the right people. Enjoyed by many in the group.
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17.
Board Game: Brass
[Average Rating:8.08 Overall Rank:8]
Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 17
First play of 2009: February 13
One of my favourite games; Most of the above included me, and many of them were teaching games. I hope to get this on the table more this year with people who already know how to play.
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 17
First play of 2009: February 13
This has been played a lot fairly consistently over the life time of the group.
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19.
Board Game: Hive
[Average Rating:7.37 Overall Rank:111]
Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 17
First play of 2009: February 6
One of the few two-player games that gets a lot of play in our group.
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 17
First play of 2009: January 29
This seems reasonably popular.
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 17
First play of 2009: January 16
My acquisition of this is largely responsible for the recent bump in plays. It's another great game to start the evening with, or when waiting for other games to finish, as people can just join in when they arrive (or finish the other game).
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 16
First play of 2009: April 10
Sometimes with expansions, sometimes without, depending on whose copy is played.
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 15
First play of 2009: November 6
Another of Carlos' games, this would rival the top spot if it had had that pace throughout the year. Does hurt the brain a bit though.
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Total plays: 15
First play of 2009: November 2
Also popular, but given its length, I'd guess it might not rival the top spot as I doubt that pace would be kept up for a year. I suspect there's still a bit of cult of the new with it.
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25.
Board Game: Oregon
[Average Rating:6.81 Overall Rank:526]
Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
-
Total plays: 15
First play of 2009: March 10
seems to have had some steady play throughout the year.
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