Spiel des Jahres Nominees - Additional Notes
Here are some additional notes on the recent announcement of the Spiel des Jahres nominees.
Stefan Ducksch, the spokesman for the Spiel des Jahres jury, has posted a commentary about the nominees on the Spiel des Jahres website. Here is the commentary, translated by Patrick Korner:
| The first decisions have been made: The jury, comprised of 10 critics from Germany and Switzerland has nominated five exciting family games for the 2006 Spiel des Jahres award. Many of the jurors found their decisions difficult, as choosing the nominees from among well over one hundred high-quality games was not easy. The breadth of style that the nominees for the most important gaming prize encompass will guarantee that consumers will find something to their liking among the choices.
This year, the jury also singled out two excellent new releases whose complexities lay far above that of typical family games. Since both games were out of the question for the main prize, special prizes were awarded. The five nominated games are a good snapshot of this year’s extensive list of new games. Included are abstract and thematic games, tile-laying games and more involved building games. They offer plenty of gaming fun for both families with children 8 and up as well as groups of adults only. That also goes for the games selected for the Recommended List, which this year features nine additional games with, in some cases, very original gaming ideas. This fall, the “Games of Distinction” brochure will once again be available at various gaming functions. The winner of the 2006 Spiel des Jahres will be announced on 17 July. The selection will be made public during a press conference in Berlin. Until then the speculation will continue: Who will succeed the 2005 winner, Niagara (Zoch)?
Stefan Ducksch
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The jury did note their complexity ratings for the games. Here are their complexity ratings:
Nominees -
Seeräuber: +
Aqua Romana: ++
Just 4 Fun: +
Thurn und Taxis: ++
Blue Moon City: +++
Recommended -
Fettnapf ... in Sicht: +
Hart an der Grenze: ++
Packeis am Pol: +
Ausgerechnet Buxtehude: ++
Fischmarkt: ++
Revolte in Rom: ++
Mesopotamien: +++
Timbuktu: +++
Was n das?: +
Special Prizes:
Shadows over Camelot: ++++
Caylus: ++++
+ = easy to learn, ++ = typical difficulty, +++ = complex, ++++ = especially complex
The jury also noted when they disagreed with the number of players or playing times of the games. For both Hart an der Grenze and Shadows Over Camelot they felt that a minimum of 4 players is required. For Ausgerechnet Buxtehude they noted a playing time of 30 minutes and for Caylus they noted a minimum playing time of 90 minutes.
Source: Spiel des Jahres, Translated by Patrick Korner
Posted by Rick Thornquist on May 30, 2006 at 08:20 PM in Game News, Boardgame News / 1828
Comments:
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They offer plenty of gaming fun for...families with children 8 and up.... I wonder what the eight-year-olds will think about the bare-breasted Mimix? The pictures on the Blue Moon City cards are blow-ups of the heads and shoulders of the characters from the Blue Moon cards, and so you would think that it would have been trivially easy to omit some of the more infamously provocative anatomical details of the Mimix...and yet some knockers remain. I wonder if this will be a factor in the jury’s decision.... Posted by Joe Gola on Jun 1, 2006 at 07:25 AM | #
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I doubt it will be a big deal, Joe. They’re a lot more casual about nudity in Europe. The same with profanity--for example, the rules to Seerauber begin, “All hell is loose near the port”. Now violence is a different matter, which is why Ava thought the Jury might pass over Blue Moon City, given the combative nature of its predecessor’s back story. It remains to be seen if this becomes an issue in the final selection (probably not, since the races are all acting nice and building stuff in BMC). Posted by Larry Levy on Jun 1, 2006 at 10:02 AM | #
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Peoples, Larry. Races is not a word with good connotations for the Germans. Posted by Christopher Dearlove on Jun 1, 2006 at 03:33 PM | #
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Perhaps a new award is needed: the “Busenspiel des Jahres”? Posted by Mike Pennisi on Jun 2, 2006 at 07:37 AM | #
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