I reanalyzed the top 1000 games using the following formula:
RAW AVERAGE x (2008 - YEAR OF RELEASE)
+ BGGIAN AVERAGE x NO. OF RATINGS ^ .42
+ 100 x 5.5
Divided by
2108 - YEAR OF RELEASE + NO. OF RATINGS ^ .42

(Ratings ^.42 normalizes the ratings at around 50 for the biggest game: Settlers, such that popular games still have some impact on the list).

Here's the new top 100:
1. Go
2. Shogi
3. XiangQi
4. Skat
5. Crokinole
6. Chess
7. Cribbage
8. Doppelkopf (Double Sheepshead)
9. Mah-Jongg
10. Puerto Rico
11. Bridge
12. Backgammon
13. Poker
14. Acquire
15. Tigris & Euphrates
16. Settlers of Catan, The
17. El Grande
18. Power Grid
19. Die Macher
20. Diplomacy
21. Euchre
22. Carcassonne
23. Princes of Florence, The
24. Caylus
25. Dune
26. Bughouse Chess
27. Gamut of Games, A
28. Ra
29. Strat-o-Matic Baseball
30. Civilization
31. Up Front
32. Modern Art
33. Advanced Squad Leader (ASL)
34. Ticket to Ride
35. Samurai
36. Squad Leader
37. Ninety-Nine
38. Tichu
39. Subbuteo
40. RoboRally
41. Lost Cities
42. Liar's Dice
43. Citadels
44. Memoir '44
45. War of the Ring
46. Age of Steam
47. San Juan
48. Twilight Struggle
49. Through the Desert
50. Goa
51. 1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons
52. Bohnanza
53. Cosmic Encounter
54. Oh Hell!
55. Tikal
56. Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage
57. Napoleon
58. Rommel in the Desert
59. BattleLore
60. Taj Mahal
61. Magic: The Gathering CCG
62. Ticket to Ride: Europe
63. Space Hulk
64. Pit
65. Titan
66. Railroad Tycoon
67. Republic of Rome, The
68. Strat-o-Matic Football
69. Britannia
70. Paths of Glory
71. Empires in Arms
72. Werewolf
73. Amun-Re
74. Game of Thrones, A
75. Wallenstein
76. Civil War, the
77. Lines of Action
78. Blokus
79. Can't Stop
80. Formula Dé
81. Hex
82. Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition
83. Sleuth
84. For Sale
85. Russian Campaign, The
86. Torres
87. Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
88. EastFront
89. Battle Line
90. Ingenious
91. Scrabble
92. Tales of the Arabian Nights
93. Napoleon at Leipzig
94. Medici
95. Third World War, The
96. Shogun
97. Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers
98. Panzergruppe Guderian
99. Junta
100. Blood Bowl - Third Edition

NOTE: Spades, Mus, Unpublished Prototype, 1000 Blank White Cards, Hearts, Pinochle, Carrom, Canvas Eagles and Schafkopf are not in this list at all because they do not have dates on BGG.

I like this list. Well done, maybe you should do a geeklist?

    Appears to vastly overestimate ancient and very old games. It is appropriate to place a cap on games at a certain age, since the score for a game that is ten or twenty years old likely has as much credibility for one that is 1000 years old.

             Sag.

I was just going to add that doing comparisons with things that have on one scale a decade or two and lumping them in with things that are measured in centuries (or more!) is nearly useless. Chess and Go would have to have absolutely horrid overall rankings to even begin to make up the difference.

An no wargames in the top 30. Bleh.

BGG already has an alternative ranking system that really gets it right:

http://boardgamegeek.com/browser.php?itemtype=wargame&sortby...

Yeah ... pretty pointless really after about 10 years .

Flattening out games using a logarithimic scale.
(Replace 57*LOG(2009-YEAR) for 2008-YEAR in both halves of the above equation. 57 gives Go an index value of around 200 which is the most "important" factor for this chart.)

1. Go
2. Puerto Rico
3. Tigris & Euphrates
4. Crokinole
5. El Grande
6. Die Macher
7. Up Front
8. Shogi
9. Skat
10. Power Grid
11. Settlers of Catan, The
12. Princes of Florence, The
13. Advanced Squad Leader (ASL)
14. XiangQi
15. Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage
16. Acquire
17. Gamut of Games, A
18. Dune
19. Ra
20. Bridge
21. Paths of Glory
22. EastFront
23. Doppelkopf (Double Sheepshead)
24. Tichu
25. Caylus
26. Modern Art
27. Rommel in the Desert
28. Age of Steam
29. Civilization
30. Bughouse Chess
31. This Hallowed Ground
32. Carcassonne
33. Samurai
34. Chess
35. Strat-o-Matic Baseball
36. Twilight Struggle
37. 1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons
38. Third World War, The
39. Ninety-Nine
40. Squad Leader
41. Southern Front
42. Barbarossa Army Group South, 1941
43. War of the Ring
44. Republic of Rome, The
45. Space Hulk
46. Breakout: Normandy
47. Roads and Boats
48. Taj Mahal
49. Mah-Jongg
50. RAF
51. Goa
52. Civil War, the
53. Pursue the Pennant
54. Wallenstein
55. RoboRally
56. Empires in Arms
57. Grant Takes Command
58. Tales of the Arabian Nights
59. Roads to Gettysburg
60. Diplomacy
61. Napoleon at Leipzig
62. On To Richmond
63. Cribbage
64. Thunder at the Crossroads
65. Ticket to Ride
66. Through the Desert
67. Enemy at the Gates
68. Memoir '44
69. Tikal
70. Hammer of the Scots
71. Barbarossa Army Group North, 1941
72. DAK
73. Napoleon
74. Blood Bowl - Third Edition
75. Lost Cities
76. Here Come the Rebels
77. Battle Line
78. Full Métal Planète
79. Stonewall Jackson's Way
80. Whistling Death
81. Citadels
82. YINSH
83. 18EU
84. San Juan
85. Britannia
86. We the People
87. Railroad Tycoon
88. Game of Thrones, A
89. Bitter Woods (4th Edition)
90. Wilderness War
91. BattleLore
92. Arctic Front
93. 1856
94. Amun-Re
95. Hornet Leader
96. Bohnanza
97. Magic: The Gathering CCG
98. Union Pacific
99. Torres
100. Titan

I prefer to rerate my games with the Cult of Cthulu.

#1 Arkham Horror and expansions
#2 Unspeakable words
#3 Creatures and Cultists
#4 Call of Cthulu RPG
#5 Hey, what's that coming out of the corner of the room....arrgghhH!!!!!!!!!




*burp*

Darilian

Although I don't like Go, I can get 'into' this list more then the first. It's interesting. I don't have a big problem with the current system, but it's always interesting to look at these things from different angles.

Skat is the one that really jumps out at me as 'hhhmmmm???'

Months ago, I thought BGG could gain some visibility by offering laurels for games from _past_ years rather than focusing on releases in the last year that other gaming awards (Spiel de Jahr, Games 100, etc.) were already covering. While current prizes would influence what games would be played in the following year, it seems that after awhile players would have chance to sample all games from a particular and maybe have a difference of opinion about which is really the better game and why.

Basically, have categories, like, Best 2-Player Abstract from (5 years ago) (10 years ago) (20 years ago) (50 years ago). Money-paying supporters of BGG would be doing the voting and it might be possible that, over the years, a game that people overlooked at the 5 or 10-year mark could be rediscovered on the 20th.

It has its problems: gamers might find it hard to find a gem from 1957, for example, to play to generate an informed opinion. But I think there's a way that gamers could look at games and offer kudos for worthy designs without "the cult of the new" influencing the decision-making.

If you take out anything that didn't really have a release date from the original list, you're left with:

Puerto Rico
Acquire
Tigris,
Settlers,
El Grande
Power Grid
Die Macher
Diplomacy.

Not much different. I'm personally biased in favor of Acquire, so I'm happy with any list that has it near the top. Now back to some Sid Sackson gaming...

I had posted a geeklist about this a few weeks ago

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/25388

Here instead of using release date, I used date added to the database...which makes intuitive sense because that is how long people would have had to rate any given game.

Top 20 were

Tigris and Euphrates
El Grande
Die Macher
Ra
Princes of Florence
Paths of Glory
Hannibal
Go
Settlers
Samurai
Taj Mahal
Modern Art
Tichu
Crokinole
Up Front
Dune
ASL
Power Grid
Acquire
Puerto Rico