Congratulations to all the Finalists! Winners will be announced on 11/17 at BoardGameGeek.CON in Dallas, TX.

Also, we're doing an overall Game of the Year from these finalists. Voting for the Golden Geek Game of the Year will close on Midnight November 11th, 2007.

Vote here!
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekawards.php

The Finalists are... (listed in alphabetical order)

Gamer's Game
Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery
Imperial
Shogun

2 Player
BattleLore
Commands & Colors: Ancients
Mr. Jack

Card
Caylus Magna Carta
Great Wall of China
Iliade

Children's Game
HeroScape Marvel: The Conflict Begins
Qwirkle
Zooloretto

Party Game
Ca$h 'n Gun$
Santy Anno
Wits & Wagers

Wargame
Combat Commander: Europe
Commands & Colors: Ancients
Here I Stand

Family
Thebes
Yspahan
Zooloretto

Artwork/Presentation
BattleLore
Cleopatra and the Society of Architects
Pillars of the Earth

No surprises here! I didn't expect Through the Ages to show up... barely anyone has played it.

//Not surprised. But gave it the old college try.

    So one of the finalists for kid's game is an expansion, in a year when there were some truly remarkable games were released. How did that happen?

             Sag.

If you are referring to Marvel Heroscape - it's a stand alone game.

So, are any of the "kids games" actually specifically for children--ie, they have an age range that ends? To me, a kids game would say something like "Ages 4-8" or "Ages 6-12", not "Ages 12-adult" or "Ages 6 and up" or "Ages 9-99".

    It's a pretty thin distinction.

    There were some great games available for the under-8 set this year, and it appears that the nature of the award doesn't give them the opportunity to compete. I suppose I was expecting too much.

             Sag.

D: None of the above.

Actually, Marvel Heroscape is a true stand-alone game. It is complete in the box, with rules, all the components needed to play, etc. It is a re-implementation of an existing system, but so are (to varying degrees) Shogun, C&C:A, BattleLore, Caylus Magna Carta, Zooloretto, and Here I Stand.

It's true there were some great kid's games that came out this past year. However, the "kid's game" fans on this site are definitely the minority. It's no big deal, just the demographics of the BGG user group.

Exactly. I would hope that the winner of the best children's games here on BGG are games that I would want to play (with or without children), and not necessarily the games that are best for the children.

Congrats to DoW for having two finalists in artwork/presentation.

I think you mean "it's a freakin' awesome stand alone game."