From the Editor: The Essen 2007 Preview and a New Look

So this is what Rick meant.

It’s only July 1, and the BGN Essen 2007 Preview already includes more than 90 items. Sure, a number of them are duplicates—such as Chicago Poker, which appears under both Mayfair and Phalanx—but that’s still a huge number of titles considering that Spiel doesn’t take place for another three-and-a-half months. The Essen 2006 Preview topped out at just under 400 listings including dupes, so it’s safe to say this year might have 450-500 listings by the opening of the Messe doors on October 18th.

As I mentioned in May, the Essen Preview is now a benefit for BGN members. (Learn how to sign up!) Previews for Essen releases will still run on the front page—as has been the case with Key Harvest, Amyitis, Kingsburg, King of Siam, and the Lamont Brothers’ newly announced Antler Island—and I’ll post news items of special interest that relate to the Essen game fair, but the comprehensive list (which is split in two with publishers starting with the letters A-M in one half, and publishers from N-Z in the other half) has already taken hundreds of hours of work with far more to come in the months ahead. The work is enjoyable, but it’s still work nonetheless.

More obvious than the launching of the Essen Preview might be the redesign of the entire Boardgame News site. With the previous design, the top third of the screen was dominated by a huge spread of white space and lists of categories. I’ve smooshed that same material in half the space, which gives me room to promote all the game previews I’ve recently published and will publish in the months ahead. I’ve also created a new subset of Gone Cardboard that lists only the most recent games to have shipped and appeared in stores. Rather than posting news items that gave this info in eight lines, I’ll now say the same thing in one.

Please post here or in a private email if something is screwy in the new design or if you have comments on the Essen Preview. I’ll add comment sections to each Preview half shortly, but now it’s time to get some sleep before the next wave of Essen-related game info hits my in-box!

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Comments:

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It looks very nice, Eric.  I think the new top listing will be friendlier and more usable to newbies who stop by the site.  Good work.  But for now, sweet dreams. Posted by Larry Levy on Jul 1, 2007 at 09:43 AM | #

Larry, I’ve already been up for two hours doing more work. There are a hundred little pieces you don’t see until everyone else sees them… Posted by W. Eric Martin on Jul 1, 2007 at 09:50 AM | #

Looks great. Posted by Matt J. Carlson on Jul 1, 2007 at 02:09 PM | #

I really like it! good work Eric. The Preview/Review section on the is great. It is also great the Essen Preview! You are putting big effort in every game entry: it will be huge in october, so i’ll start to read it now! Really good games this month in the giveaway! I hope to win something! good play Liga Posted by Andrea Liga Ligabue on Jul 1, 2007 at 03:56 PM | #

Great collection of informations and still a lot of month to go until Essen. Go on with this great work. Posted by Burkhard Hannig on Jul 1, 2007 at 05:24 PM | #

Hmm, I tend to check the headlines first to see what’s up so having to scroll down to them to see them is more “work” than I’m used to....  (ie. I check out the columns and features more often than game previews and reviews...) I guess I need to get off my behind and simply start checking the site with an RSS reader instead. I do like having the most recent releases somewhere on the front page, taking up only 1 line each… Posted by Matt J. Carlson on Jul 2, 2007 at 11:27 AM | #

Hameln had some good ideas but was essentially an unfinished prototype which is a shame, cause I really wanted to enjoy it, and I spent alot more $$ for it off ebay! Posted by Phil Schwarzmann on Jul 2, 2007 at 04:13 PM | #

Excellent upgrade, and the new Gone Cardboard subsection is exactly what I’ve been looking for! Posted by Geoff Speare on Jul 3, 2007 at 12:02 PM | #

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