Dale Yu: Interview with Tom Werneck, Spiel des Jahres jury member - Part 2 of 3

[This is the second installment of a three-part interview. The first installment discussed the composition and mission of the Spiel des Jahres jury. If you read that article, you can skip this week’s intro and jump to what’s new.]

Well, it’s about that time of year, the time for all of us to think about this year’s Spiel des Jahres (SdJ) possibilities! As you likely know, the Spiel des Jahres is an annual award given out in Germany to recognize the “Game of the Year.” The award is given out annually in early summer – but the time to start talking about the possible candidates starts about now as the last set of major releases eligible for the award have just come out at Nuremburg.

Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to speak with a few of the SdJ jury members and learned a lot about the award and how things work behind the scenes. I have continued one of these conversations over e-mail and compiled those conversations and email threads into a question-and-answer format. The majority of my information has come from an extended email conversation with Tom Werneck, a jury member for the Spiel des Jahres since the initial award in 1979.

I thought that having an extended conversation with Herr Werneck would be valuable as there are many questions and misconceptions about the award here in the United States. I think that a lot of that stems from the fact that there is a language barrier, and until recently, there hasn’t been an easy way to translate what little German information is available to English. I’m hoping that my conversation here will shed some light on the award and the process of giving the award to the “Game of the Year.”

“Spiel des Jahres” translates directly as “Game of the Year.” The initial Spiel des Jahres award was given in 1979 to Hase und Igel, the classic race game by Ravensburger and David Parlett. For an interesting look at the history of the award, I would recommend taking a look at the SdJ homepage. Admittedly, most of the site is in German, but there are a few pages which have been translated into English, including a bit of information about the award itself. I think some of the reason why people have had misconceptions about the award is because there really hasn’t been any other information available on the award other than this webpage.

Additionally, the list of winners can be found on the SdJ website. As you click on each year’s results, you will see the winner at the top of the list followed by the Nominated games (Nominiert für das Spiel des Jahres); these four or five games are the other finalists for the award. If there is a special award for the year (Sonderpreis), these special awards will be listed after the nominated games. Further down, you will see the list of recommended games (Empfehlungsliste Spiel des Jahres). Finally, the remainder of the list are the awards for the Children’s Game of the Year (Kinderspiel des Jahres).

The subject of this interview is Tom Werneck. He is one of the original Spiel des Jahres jury members, serving on the committee since the original award was given in 1979. He is also a well-known and well-respected game critic in Germany. In addition to serving on the SdJ jury, he is also the Chairman of the Bavarian Game Archive (Bayerische Spiele-Archiv), a group founded in 1996 to promote the playing of board games. One of the great features on the Spiele-Archiv site is the photo gallery, which is an area that has portraits (taken by Herr Werneck himself) of important personalities within the gaming world. It is a great resource to check out to get a chance to see what some notable people look like. There are areas for journalists, game designers, SdJ jury members, game company bigwigs and others within the photo gallery. I’d highly recommend page 58 in the Game Authors section L-Z by the way… – not too bad to be listed directly after the guy who designed that Carcassonne game!

I will publish my conversation with Herr Werneck in three parts:

• The first installment will talk about the origins of the award and the jury members responsible for deciding which game gets the award.
• The second piece will focus more on the games themselves – how the games are selected for consideration.
• Finally, the third part will discuss the actual voting process for the Spiel des Jahres.

A side note: I have made minor spelling changes, punctuation edits, and other changes (such as sentence structure and verb tenses) to Herr Werneck’s responses. Though his English is very good, it is not his first language – and I have done my best to bring his message to you as clearly as possible. All of the changes were reviewed by Herr Werneck prior to publication here.

As a final note, please note that this conversation pertains only to the Spiel des Jahres. The Kinderspiel des Jahres is a separate award with its own jury. While the topic of the interview was only on the main SdJ award, much of this also applies to the Kinderspiel des Jahres. Per Herr Werneck, “As far as the procedure goes, Kinderspiel des Jahres is an exact replica of Spiel des Jahres with one little difference: There are only three jury members, supported by an advisory council of three persons qualifying through special knowledge and/or experience with games for children. These members do not have to be game critics but they must be as independent from trade and industry as any member of the jury.” I’m hoping to get a chance to meet some of the jury members for the KSdJ in the coming year and have a similar interview in the future.

Now, let’s return to the interview – last week Tom and I talked about the award and the jury behind it. This week I will focus on the games. After all, the award is all about games!

DY: How are the games chosen for consideration?

TW: We consider all board games available on the German market – if they come with rules in German. “Available” means that a game should be obtainable in a toy shop or the toy department of a department store. If the only outlet is by mail order, a game is not “available.”

DY: I know that there are guidelines as far as when the game is released, but other than that are there any other criteria about how a game is eligible for the award?

TW: Some manufacturers thought they might have a slight advantage if they would send their product at the last minute in order to raise our awareness for this specific game. But we communicate a certain time span, normally ending in April, so if games arrive later than that, we do not have sufficient time to play and evaluate them thoroughly. Such products will be postponed and included in the next year’s crop.

Generally speaking: We consider games that appear in the actual year. However, for various reasons – such as it making no sense to put the “big expensive box” planned as a gift for X-mas on the market in early spring – many games are not yet available when we should have them for consideration. Furthermore, some games are not presented at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg but only at Essen. In order not to miss all of these games, we look at all games from the actual and the preceding year, unless we have awarded them already.

DY: Must the game be made by a German publisher or by a “major” publisher in order to be seriously considered?

TW: Have a look on the list of awarded games. Is Days of Wonder a German publisher? Was it a major publisher? Or take for instance… No – please go through the list yourself.

DY: Must there be a certain number of copies made available?

TW: Since the members of the jury do not share a common apartment but live somewhere between the Northern Sea and the Alps, and since every member has to experience each game, every member has to order a copy. Eleven members equals eleven copies per title…

DY: How do you get the games? Do you go to the store and buy them yourself?

TW: It’s not a secret: The manufacturers or distributors send them (via UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc.) as review copies. Some members of the jury feel that they should buy a game if it is produced in a small, limited edition by a do-it-yourself-company. But as a general rule, such games are not designated for the award.

DY: There are certainly more games produced each year than you have the chance to play! How do you choose which games to actually play?

TW: Counter question: How do YOU choose games to play? I assume that you will start on the one which at first sight seems to be most attractive, the one which lures you in. Well, that’s the same way we start a game evening. However, as far as I’m concerned, I’m normally well prepared because I have “investigated” the game and have studied the rules before I sit down with friends to play. Sometimes, there is no need to play a game. I do not have to play every city version of Monopoly if the only change is different names for properties. Such cases reduce the amount of games by some percent – which is not much compared to the roughly 300 to 500 games I get on my desk each year…

DY: What gets a game onto the table for you?

TW: Pure curiosity. I’m eager to see what wonderful idea came to an inventor’s mind and to find out whether I feel the desire to play the game again and again.

DY: Do reviews get you interested in a game?

TW: Not at the beginning. I avoid reading reviews before I have made up my mind. Later I’m willing and open to hearing other opinions. If there are good arguments, it can lead me to revise my own judgment.

DY: When you hear other opinions, is it word of mouth from other gamers or other jury members?

TW: Both, of course. Very often judgment from “other gamers” is as clear and distinct as the opinion of a member of the jury.

DY: Once you’ve decided you’re interested in a game, how many times would you typically play it to be able to judge it for Spiel des Jahres?

TW: There is no general rule. It depends on the complexity of the game.

DY: How many different games do you actually play each year as you consider them for the Spiel des Jahres?

TW: As mentioned earlier, I have to consider between 300 and 500 games per year.

So, now we’ve learned a lot about the award, the jury members, and the games – all that’s left is the voting process! Come back next week for the conclusion of this interview to learn how the award is decided.

Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor

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