Winners of the 2007 Board Game Internet Awards

After much delay due to urgent non-game related matters, I’m pleased to present the winners of the 2007 Board Game Internet Awards. Without further ado, here are the BGIA winners for 2007:

Best Game Resource Site - Bruno Faidutti

In addition to being a talented game designer, Faidutti maintains an excellent website that features an extensive Ideal Game Library with well-written recommendations and cross-links, background into the development of his creations, and articles about the game industry—all of which makes his website ideal for newbies and aficionados alike.

Best Publisher Site - Rio Grande Games

In a nearly unanimous vote, the overhaul of the Rio Grande Games website was noticed and appreciated. The site is now easier to use, more quickly updated, less error prone, and more attractive. To top it all off, rules are available for download, which is what many gamers have requested for years.

Best Game Club Site - Tricky Light

Home of the Shrewbury Boardgames Club, Tricky Light offers the expected session reports found at many club websites to include quizzes, pick lists, a Hall of Fame (based on the players’ win-loss records), reviews, and more.

Westpark Gamers was a strong second choice. This site for gamers in Munich features downloadable version of Yspahan and Saint Petersburg and a Hazienda map generator in addition to reviews and sessions reports that date back to early 2005.

Best Online Gaming Site - BrettspielWelt

With SpielByWeb now retired in the BGIA Hall of Fame, BSW becomes the obvious standout among the list of sites where you can play games online. No matter what time of day you log on, hundreds of games are in progress and you can almost always find a ready opponent. (Personally my Mac won’t log on anymore, but others clearly don’t have that problem.)

Best Blog - The Tao of Gaming

Perhaps this is also a vote for Race for the Galaxy since Tao author Brian Bankler spends much of his time writing about and analyzing this new release from Tom Lehmann, but his non-RftG writings are also interesting.

Jim Cote with Gamer’s Mind and Yehuda Berlinger with his self-titled blog. (I’ll note that Yehuda abstained from voting in this category.)

Best Podcast/Videocast - Boardgame Babylon

Eric Burgess runs a well-rounded podcast in BGB, with interviews with industry figures such as Reiner Knizia and Jay Tummelson, features on the ins-and-outs of online and brick-and-mortar gamestores, and more. Me, I like to listen to his soothing voice. Plus his name is Eric—what’s not to like about that?

Best New Site (2007) - Hiew’s Boardgame Blog

Hiew Chok Sien, writing from Malaysia, posts extremely long blog entries and session reports, mostly about a variety of Eurogames. He noted in early January that he writes more than he plays, and the evidence is out there for all to see…

Best Strategy Article (2007) - Agricola: The two-player game and a look under the hood

Malk Hennebach eschews and a rules recap and delivers just what the title promises: a detailed examination of different elements of Agricola for two.

Best Review Article (2007) - Agricola: The Family Game, Full Game & Solo Game

Dale Yu (who abstained from voting in this category) presents what must be the longest game review ever written, yet amazingly enough he seems to have received more kudos for it than almost any other post he’s had on BoardGameGeek or his regular column here at Boardgame News. If you have any questions about Agricola, Dale surely answered them in this article.

Best Session Report (2007) - Tigris & Euphrates: The Annotated Game, Part 1 & Part 2

Marshall P., along with two others, present a play-by-play look at an online game of Tigris & Euphrates, with screenshots after every move, in-game (and color-coded) commentary from the players, visuals showing each person’s holdings, and analysis of the game. If you have any interest in learning or improving at T&E, check out these reports.

Best Analysis Article (2007) - What I Love (and Hate) About the Board Game Experience

Nathaniel Todd reminds us what it’s all about. There’s nothing earth-shaking in this column, but it’s clear that the writing and opinions are all deeply felt.

Best Industry Article (2007) - Illustrated coverage of Nuremberg 2007

A unanimous winner, this report from the 2007 Nuremberg game convention provides a thorough overview of the titles that gamers could expect to see in the following 12 months, and if you want to get a feel for what the industry is doing, you could do worse than survey the field of game releases. After all, that’s the end product that will be delivered to our hands and possibly spread to others.

Congrats to all the winners!

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Comments:

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Waowwww! Many thanks to all. I’ll post this on my website when coming back home. Posted by Bruno Faidutti on Jan 18, 2008 at 06:06 AM | #

Congrats to the winners, and nice roundup BGN! Yehuda Posted by Yehuda Berlinger on Jan 18, 2008 at 06:24 AM | #

Like Bruno says, with one or two fewer “w’s” - Wow! I am amazed and honoured by this. Many thanks to the judging panel and commiserations to the other nominated game club sites, all of which deserve recognition in the way they support and enrich the game playing experience of their respective clubs. Also, congratulations to the other winners. Garry http://www.trickylight.co.uk Posted by Garry Lloyd on Jan 18, 2008 at 06:54 AM | #

I forgot to mention in the post that the 2007 BGIA logo was designed by the ever able Ted Alspach, and I’ll send personalized logos to each of the winners in the next few days. Eric Posted by W. Eric Martin on Jan 18, 2008 at 10:01 AM | #

Hey, that’s pretty cool, especially considering the excellent shows included in this category. Thanks so much for the honor! I guess I should be thankful none of the other podcaster’s moms liked the name Eric. ;) Posted by E.R. Burgess on Jan 18, 2008 at 09:19 PM | #

Congrats on the awards everyone.  I’ve had many of your blogs in my feedreader for months, most of which I found at Yehuda’s blog. And now I’ve had the chance to drive myself even more mad and add even more blogs to my reader with many of the nominated and winning blogs. As “they” say, it’s an honor to be nominated, thanks Yehuda. I shared some great gaming blog company.  Especially since my blog is aimed more at casual games and gamers, but I will never lose my rpg and strategy game heart :) I look forward to another year of great gaming blogs and hopefully more new and interesting game blogs for me to add to my growing feedreader. -Tim Buffalo GameBuffs blog Posted by Tim Shea on Jan 19, 2008 at 07:17 AM | #

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