I love keeping the statistics for the games I play. I like toying around with the numbers, seeing how they go. Of course, the biggest rewards come when you can make deeper, more complete analysis. Changing of the year is a natural time for that. I can make a fairly complete review of the past year from my numbers (and compare it to the previous year). Here it is, enjoy!
These numbers include all multiplayer real-time board games I played. So, that excludes PBeM (Go, Zèrtz, Britannia, Tigris & Euphrates) and solo games, but includes anything played in Brettspielwelt (lots of Puerto Rico, some Carcassonne, mostly).
Total number of games played: 351 (343 last year)
Different games played: 79 (66)
Games I played first time this year: 44 (43)
Games won: 140.5, 40% (144.5, 42.1%)
Best game released in 2002:
Puerto Rico — no doubt about it!
Best new game in 2002:
Three-way tie between Die Macher, Puerto Rico and Go.
Exactly what I was waiting for:
Die Macher had the greatest expectations, and it was all I expected and more.
Biggest disappointment:
TransAmerica — I expected more, but the game was too shallow for me.
Stars mark games that were new this year. There are lots of them!
10’s:
Lost Cities (34)
Puerto Rico* (30) — lots of BSW play, but also ftf
Carcassonne (24) — last year I got 33 games in two months
Zèrtz* (22) — plus at least 30 games PBeM
Web of Power* (18)
Go* (17) — mostly 9×9, some 19×19, plus lots of PBeM
Africa* (16)
Battle Line (14) — includes one game of Schotten-Totten
6 Nimmt (11)
Villa Paletti* (10) — best (and only) dex game of the year
5’s:
Ricochet Robot (9) — plus the daily on-line puzzles!
Majiang* (8) — all short one-round games (about 4-8 deals)
Vom Kap bis Kairo* (7)
Mexica* (6) — Mexica won both Java and Tikal (1 game each) hands down
TransAmerica* (6) — of those games I like the least I played this most
Bluff* (6)
Princes of Florence (5) — I will (again) promise to play more next year
Trivial Pursuit (5)
Canal Grande* (5)
One time games: 34
There was very much recycling in the lists, lots of new games came in and lots of old games were played only once or twice if at all. Bigger losers included Dragon’s Gold (from 15 to 0), Tigris & Euphrates (from 14 to 2), Fluxx (from 14 to 0) and Alcatraz (from 10 to 1). Lost Cities kept it’s appeal, as did Carcassonne and Battle Line. Lots of newcomers in the 10’s list, which is nice. Ricochet Robot improved most of the old games (from 3 to 9).
There was more games available for me to play, as some of my friends started to buy games too. I had approximately same amount of time to play games, so that explains the recycling effect. And of course, some of the new games (Puerto Rico!) were so good I played them many, many times.
Then, some newer measurements. I did better stats this year (I really enjoy it, it’s almost as much fun as playing games), making these possible.
Happiness product (games x rating x length):
1. Puerto Rico* (100)
2. Majiang* (60)
3. Die Macher* (40)
4. Web of Power* (36)
5. Africa* (32)
5. Carcassonne (32)
5. Go* (32)
8. Mexica* (30)
8. Princes of Florence (30)
10. Ricochet Robot (18)
10. El Grande (18)
Puerto Rico is the definite winner here. Longish (I used 40 minutes, as many BSW games go real fast), many games, rating 10. Most notable is the appearance of Die Macher, which I only played two times. But it should be on the top of the list, as I enjoyed those two games very much.
Matthew Gray’s month metric (unique months):
1. Carcassonne (10)
2. Puerto Rico* (8)
3. Web of Power* (6)
3. Africa* (6)
3. Lost Cities (6)
3. 6 Nimmt (6)
3. Battle Line (6)
8. Majiang* (4)
8. Go* (4)
8. Princes of Florence (4)
8. Ricochet Robot (4)
8. Zèrtz* (4)
8. Trivial Pursuit (4)
Carcassonne seems to be the winner, but in the other hand, I had it two months more than I had Puerto Rico. I think this is a fairly good measurement, it gives some idea how often the games hit the table without favouring shorter games too much. Unfortunately I don’t have the numbers from the last year, as my statistics were less complete then.
2 players:
1. Lost Cities (34)
2. Zèrtz* (22)
3. Go* (17)
4. Battle Line (14)
5. Carcassonne (9)
3 players:
1. Puerto Rico* (17)
2. Carcassonne, Web of Power* (10)
4. Ricochet Robot (7)
5. Vom Kap bis Kairo*, TransAmerica* (3)
4 players:
1. Africa* (10)
2. Puerto Rico*, Villa Paletti* (9)
4. Majiang* (8)
5. Carcassonne, Web of Power*, Bluff* (3)
5 players:
1. 6 Nimmt (6)
2. Web of Power*, Princes of Florence (5)
4. Puerto Rico* (4)
5. El Grande (3)