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2024 Spiel Des Jahres Official Nominations - Commentary & Predictions
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- čas přidán 16. 08. 2024
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In this video I discuss the games officially nominated for the 2024 Spiel Des Jahres which is the German Board Game of the Year. I announced the nominations as well as the Kennerspiel Des Jahres which is the connoisseurs game.
0:00 Intro
1:04 - Spiel Des Jahres Nominees and commentary
11:26 - Kennerspiel Nominees and Commentary
20:17 - Final Thoughts
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Different perspective from someone living in Germany:
BGG weight is no indication for anything. You have to look at the SDJ and KSDJ through the lens of promoting the hobby to other people. The Spiel des Jahres Winners are sold everywhere in Germany, even in smaller supermarkets that don´t even have boardgames or toys in their range of products. So, the rules have to be very clear and understandable and the game has to be playable by people who usually don´t play boardgames. When Dominion won the SDJ, everyone bought it and there was a huge backlash because a lot of people didn´t understand the rules or knew what to do in the game. That´s why they introduced the Kennerspiel des Jahres a year later. Dominion was not a good fit for SDJ, because some of the concepts were to obtuse for nongamers. I personally would have thought that Sky Team should be a Kennerspiel, but it also makes sense to put it in the SDJ category, because the rules are very well written and everyone can understand what to do. As you play together, you can talk about what´s happening and every single action is very simple and immediate. People without experience in gaming might not win the game, but it´s easy to understand from the beginning. The thematic connection helps a lot, too. I play Skay Team with my six year old and he understands the game.
I can not play Challengers with my six year old. The concept of having an own deck seperate from the other players is weird for a lot of people and you are handed five cards with different abilities before the game starts. That is just too much for people who have not played games. If you give Challengers to people without gaming experience and they have to learn the rules on their own, they will not know what to to before the round starts and by the second round they will be frustrated. That´s why it´s a very clear Kennerspiel.
The Jury does not look at weight, age recommendations or how heavy a game is. The jury members play these games more than anyone else with countless groups of different ages and experience levels. When they put a game in a category, it´s based on a lot of experience with the game. They also watch groups learn and play the games on their own. There is just a lot more expertise in this decisions than in any other award in the boardgame hobby.
It´s also very predictable. All jury members are boardgame reviewers, youtubers, Podcasters or journalists at magazines. If you follow them over the year, you´ll pretty much know what games will be nominated. In the german boardgame bubble, there have been dozens of hobby content creators making their predictions about the nominations and there are no really big surprises in this years nominations. So, which game get nominated in which category might just be unpredictable outside of Germany.
Ticket to ride is not a safe bet. In fact, I think it has the lowest winning chance. I´ve talked to some Jury members and know for a fact that some of them would rate Ticket to Ride Legacy as their best game of the year. But again, that´s not what the award is about. For the next three months every Jury member will play all nominated games to death with as many different groups as possible and will see how the games work for the people. And in that regards, Daybreak has the most compelling theme and Merchant explorers is just a instant delight for a lot of people. Ticket to Ride Legacy is more of a slow burn that reveals it´s greatness over time, but for most people it will be not an immediate hit. The idea of a game that will change all the time and introduce new rules every game is great for boardgame veterans, but there are many people who would think that´s just a huge turnoff. The Jury doesn´t do random stuff. If Ticket to Ride wins, it will be, because in their experience it works best for all people. If something else wins, it will be because in their experience it works best for all people. The award is about promoting the hobby and showing how good games can be. And a legacy game is a liitle bit niche. So I think Ticket to Ride will not win. Personally I wouldn´t even like if it won, because it´s also a very expensive game and I don´t like the idea of telling everyone to buy into expensive stuff. The game costs about 120$ over here in Germany. There will be people who just buy it, because they buy every SDJ and KSDJ. The game is a bigger commitment than any other KSDJ and if they don´t like it, they have spend more money than they ever put in a boardgame and can´t even sell it because of the legacy stuff. That would leave a very sour taste for future award winners. I have personal opinions of the games and what should have been nominated or put in another category, but that doesn´t matter. in the end I really trust in the experience of the jury, because I know how they work.
Very nice outline at how the panel will look at awarding the titles.
Thanks for your perspective! Although my existence with Sky Team was very different from yours. I can’t imagine 2 non gamers picking that game up, learning it from the rules additionally as you can’t communicate during the action phase. Maybe the rules were more clear in German, but in the English version I had to have the tiles open for the first could games to understand IT and I play hundreds of games per year. It has too many conditions that need to align perfectly to win. I’ve had much more luck playing challengers with new players than Sky Team. Good point about Ticket to Ride being nice 2, and expansive. I think Pandemic Legacy was nominated before as we’ll and didn’t win. I understand that the jurors are experts, but so are reviewers that have played over 1800 games over 12 Years and we don’t have any group think or politics to deal with as any award would (especially ones that make money for allowing publishers to put their seal on the box).
@@TheGameBoyGeeks your experience with sky team is one single, personal experience. They are ten people playing the same games with their own different groups. If each of them plays a game with five different groups, that’s fifty single experiences put together. I know most of them have way more than five groups to play with. Did you explain challengers or did you take five groups of strictly non gamers, gave them the game and let them figure it out on their own? And then talked to nine other people who did the same.
You make a distinction between “the jurors” and “reviewers” like you. But there is none. All jury members are reviewers. They have their own boardgame channels, podcasts etc. They are reviewers like you. There is literally no difference. In addition to being content creators and reviewers exactly like you are, they also do the voluntary, unpaid work as a juror for the whole year. They play about 350-400 games per year, which is far more than 1800 in 12 years. Jurors are expected to play that many games.
So they are just like evry youtuber you know, just with more ressources, better connections to the boardgame industry and wider testing groups.
There is no group think. They have ten individual opinions and everything is descided through majority votes.
Of course there is politics involved. They are a nonprofit charity association who support projects that bring people together via gaming. Alone in the past six months, they provided over 75.000$ to 166 projects. From supporting children hospitals with gaming packages to supporting projects that help mitigating differences between several social classes. They habe their own project called “Gaming for tolerance”. The goal is to spread the gaming hobby to new groups and establish gaming as a bigger part of culture. That’s why they have to raise money. Your comment about the money sounded a little bit dissmissive. They don’t get rich by this. There is a very transparent communication about where they put that money to work.
That’s what this is all about.
To say “this game should win, because i think it’s the best game for me” is totally missing the point.
I have no doubt you are an expert on boardgames, but that award is just a different scale and has a very clear agenda.
With all respect to the work that is put in other awards, stuff like dice tower awards or bgg awards just don’t do anything besides showing what people liked this year and honoring the publishers. But that’s just for the boardgame bubble.
We have stuff lime this in germany, too. It’s called Deutscher Spielepreis and also a big thing. Has its award ceremony at Essen.
Btw, Imho the wish to leave politics out of gaming is one of the most politically driven missteps the boardgame hobby keeps on doing.
@@hesy8049 Thanks for your thoughts. I typically state which game I like the best and Would like to win, but I always also say which one that I think will actually win and many times they are different. I think that’s a fair assessment that the general audience wants to hear based on experience. And speaking of that experience the 1800 over 12 years are only the featured reviews. I play 2-3x that many that never get a featured review so I probably play a similar amount of different games as the jurors. I’m sure it’s a thankless job they have especially because they are all under a lot of scrutiny, but I think all the public asks is for some consistency especially with drawing a line between the two different main Categories.
This is a nice analysis of the SDJ and KSDJ. Thank you for that. I agree about Sky Team. I can convince myself about it going either way, and then I recognize that the rulebook is excellent and the Control Board is well laid-out and the initial scenario eases players into gameplay. The game system creates some wonderful opportunities for non-verbal communication. There are nice opportunities for discussion between rounds - a wonderful opportunity to improve communication. As for the indirect communication, my daughter mentioned a similarity to Hanabi.
I don't think the panel is looking at BGG to determine the weight of a game. Why should they use an aggregate from BGG users when they're a panel of experts? I think that's going to lead you astray. While Challengers is definitely not the meatiest game around, there is definitely more to it than meets the eye. Lots of people can play the draft mode of Magic the Gathering but the majority don't understand the concepts of how to draft and deckbuild well. The same is applied here though on a lighter scale. You mentioned Dominion and I think it is similar in the sense that mechanically the game is pretty simple (more so in the base game) and it was the deckbuilding that added nuance.
I agree that the BGG weight is one of the most varied statistics on the site, but it does give some indication. But there is no way Challengers is heavier than Sky Team! The Jury needs to be more consistent with which games get into which award and not shoehorning ones into a category when it fits better in the other one
Sky Team is far and above more complex than Challengers. Try to teach a non gamer both and they will pick up Challengers much quicker than Sky Team.
So in summary, the more you have to teach up-front the more a game deserves to be noted as more difficult? That's like saying 2p abstract games such as Go are the easiest, lightest games on Earth when realistically there is a ton of depth that is not included in simply learning the rules of a game. I think that is the misleading evaluation of Challengers.
I would say to treat the Sky Team nomination the same as the My City nomination. A game with a baseline difficulty that is easy to introduce and can scale in difficulty if the players choose to. Dan even mentioned that the introductory level of Sky Team was easy and it was with the following scenarios that gave it more bite.
@@TheGameBoyGeeks regarding complexity, the culture and the who/when/where you play is a lot more impacting than some may think. In challengers, you need to project yourself in the stats and next round to enjoy it (as in MtG or Warhammer), in Skyteam, even if the rules and decisions are more intricate, the consequences are immediate, which is a lot easier to apprehend for a French or German standard family. Explaining it by writing is a lot more difficult than what I thought!!! I hope it makes a bit of sense
Sky Team, fantastic choice ! Love it
Dang I haven't played any of those yet. Thanks for breaking them down with your opinions, I can't wait to check them out!
I have Footsteps of Darwin here you can play, as well as Trekking Through History, and Forest Shuffle.
Completely agree with the inconsistencies of the Spiel the last couple of years! When I got into the hobby 8 years ago, the games in the categories made so much more sense!
Spiel Des Jahres: 2016 Codenames, 2017 Kingdomino, 2018 Azul, 2019 Just One.
I think Trio and Skyteam both in the same category is a problem. They definitely blurred the lines. The recommendations and nominations usually make a lot more sense and fit into the same category. Last year made a little more sense. The main spiel award was all lighter games at least, except Dorf and Challengers seemed to need to be in the same category.
I agree with you, Trekking Through History should have been nominated for Spiel, not just recommended.
I agree with both you and Dan - this is the type of game perfect for Spiel and for people coming new into gaming. The rules are straightforward, the presentation is excellent and unusally for typical board games the components (including the inlay) are superb. As an overall package for a family game it is just right.
Be shocked that Daybreak will win, im super sure, though I do not like it overmuch ( and think it would not have made the list with a different theme), the jury loves this game and that they can prove that boardgames can incorporate political themes…
Thanks!
Forest Shuffle: In Germany they seem to have a problem with the duration of point counting and that there is a winning strategy, which the expansion fixes.
I think for Kennerspiel there are not that many games without problems (rules, themes...). So not so many options...
For the Spiel des Jahres there are many games this year, which could be at least on the longlist (10+ games) and could be changed with the ones on the actual longlist.
I think Daybreak is fantastic and disagree some with your thoughts on the randomness.
As far as tableau-builders, I think it is one of the most tactical, and thus less luck-dependent of the games.
Plus the co-op aspect takes away luck - if I can’t handle my crisis icons perhaps my teammate can help me, etc. with more plays and more cooperation I think luck is mitigated quite well.
it actually skyrocketed into our top 10.
The weight on BGG has no indication of the correct list. Sky Team is way easier to learn and to play, contrary to Challengers, where you have to understand several cards and how they interact.
The weight on BGG is a good starting place even though it’s one of the more varied stats on the site. But there is no way Challengers is heavier than Sky Team especially given the zero communication during the placement phase of Sky Team and The ramping mechanisms after the intro game.
Sky Team is far and above more complex than Challengers. Try to teach a non gamer both and they will pick up Challengers much quicker than Sky Team.
Ive been tending to gravitate more towards "family" games in recent years while also being less interested in the SDJ winners in recent years.
Already! You're on fire :)
It's one of my favorite days of the year! Wake up, see the announcement, 3 hours of research, 3 hours of production, bam!
I feel your frustrations, lol. I think it’s time to stop looking at the SDJ as the “gold standard” of the boardgame industry. Maybe once upon a time, but not anymore. No, I’m not being “elitist”, and yes I know there are so many different games and tastes out there, but objectively a lot of their choices are head-scratchers as you said. I kind of feel like as if the Oscars turned into the MTV movie awards or something (I don’t even know if they still have the MTV movie awards, I am dating myself a bit here, haha), but you know what I mean.
I appreciate you echoing the way I feel since many commenters (especially those from Germany) feel differently.
Hi, I understand the confusion about levels and BGG-ratings. BGG-ratings are made from gamers for gamers. SdJ and KdJ are awards for gateway games. For people, who are used to play deckbuilding games, it's easy to learn for example Challengers! For beginners, sitting home "alone" with the rule book and no one to ask - it's hard, because they have to read and understand every card`s text and effect. This learning process can be very frustrating. Complexity and barrier to enter are different perspectives to look at a game. Sky Team ist more complex - but easier to enter. I hear often "In former times,/when I started gaming this award was so relevant to me, but not longer now." Hey, that's the whole Idea of this award! It tries to show people good places to jump in and some opportunities, where to move next. If you played hundreds of games and leveled up your skills, you are able to walk on your own and don't need that type of advice anymore. :-)
I have to disagree about Sky Team. Having a non gamer read those Rules and teach another non gamer especially with the limited (or no) communication as you place dice would be very difficult for them. At least as difficult if not more than just picking some cards, shuffling your deck, flipping a card, and possibly doing what the card says in Challengers.
@@TheGameBoyGeeks No ;-) Not in my experience. I explained both games several times to beginner groups/couples. Usually I leave a Sky Team table in 20-25% of the time I have to stay at a Challengers table. Often there are still questions coming up with deck C - that means I have to return to a table again. In Sky Team - if you find out someome didn't get the rules in the middle of the game - you just put the dice aside and start again. If you find out, someone played a card wrong after 3-4 matches of Challengers, it's nearly impossible to fix it in a good way. These soft criteria are totally irrelevant for the BGG rating, but make a huge difference if beginners have to get into a game on their own. I don't say, the jury make always the correct decision - but usually their decisions have a reasonable explanation.
I was incredibly surprised to see Guild of Merchant Explorers on the Kennerspiel with Skyteam into the Spiel. If anything, those should have been swapped because the limited communication makes assisting Skyteam harder even while it is cooperative.
Good point!
Definitely mixed up In the Footsteps of Darwim with Darwin's Journey andnwas so confised why you referred to it as a light family game. Had no idea there are two (at least) Darwin games...
Encyclopedia is another “Darwin” game. In The Footsteps reminded me of that and Darwin’s Journey. I’m surprised a light clone of existing games can get nominated for SdJ. This is exactly why I just ignore SdJ. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be the most prestigious board game award the media is making it to be.
Should be footsteps of Darwin and merchant explorers
Disappointed by the games. Where is MLEM?
Ever since Tom Felber left the jury, the usefulness of this award has declined rapidly
What year did he leave?
2018 was his last year
It used to be that between the rec list and nominees all but 1-2 were great games. Now we're lucky if 1-2 of all of those are great games. We find ourselves scratching our head every year now for at least one of the three nominees.
I've been after The Guild of Merchant Explorers for age but never seems available (in the UK anyways), it bugs me when they select games you can't get hold of.
Skellig (Germany) is already working on a reprint. (And now they will do everything they can to speed it up ;-) ) Perhaps the normination has some influence on AEG's motivation to do the same....
@@cig3798 AEG still don't have a fulfilment partner for the UK because of stupid Brexit.
@@Flip5ide oh no. :-( Is it possible to order from Germany? There is few language on some cards - but most cards are explained in the rule book. The others like "Explore 3 villages will not kill the game with a little help from Google translator. ;-)